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Storyline
Louis Winthorpe is a businessman who works for commodities brokerage firm of Duke and Duke owned by the brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke. Now they bicker over the most trivial of matters and what they are bickering about is whether it's a person's environment or heredity that determines how well they will do in life. When Winthorpe bumps into Billy Ray Valentine, a street hustler and assumes he is trying to rob him, he has him arrested. Upon seeing how different the two men are, the brothers decide to make a wager as to what would happen if Winthorpe loses his job, his home and is shunned by everyone he knows and if Valentine was given Winthorpe's job. So they proceed to have Winthorpe arrested and to be placed in a compromising position in front of his girlfriend. So all he has to rely on is the hooker who was hired to ruin him. Written by
rcs0411@yahoo.com
Plot Summary
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Plot Synopsis
Taglines:
Some very funny business.
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Did You Know?
Trivia
The original title: "Black and White".
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Goofs
In the park after the 2 cops expose Billy Ray, the cop on the right is standing with his legs slightly apart facing the camera. The shot from behind shows him standing with his hips to the right, one leg behind the other.
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Quotes
[
first lines]
Coleman:
[
holding a breakfast tray while Louis is still asleep]
Your breakfast, sir.
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Crazy Credits
The names of the major actors/actresses are shown superimposed on short clips from the film. The clips showing Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy and Jamie-Lee Curtis respectively are obvious outtakes as they all crack up and burst into smiles and/or laughter.
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Connections
Referenced in
iCarly: iPromote Techfoots (2008)
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Soundtracks
"JINGLE BELL ROCK"
By
Joseph Beal &
James Boothe (as Jim Boothe)
Performed by
Brenda Lee
Courtesy MCA Records, Inc.
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This is probably one of the funniest films of the 1980's. It not only is a play on the classic nature vs. nurture theme, but it is also a somewhat comedic commentary on the "greed is good" decade of the 80's. However, it is also a nice bridging of the generations as it features two of the biggest stars to come from "Saturday Night Live" Eddie Murphy does a fine job as con man Billy Ray and Dan Ackroyd is great as Louis. Jamie Lee Curtis is also wonderful as Ophelia. In fact, it was good to see her do something other than the "scream queen" roles which she became famous for during the early part of her career. She definitely shows the comedic timing that she would display later in her career and would make her one of the finest comedic actresses in film today. However, the one that really steals it for me is Denholm Elliot as Coleman. He delivers a very low key performance that is befitting for that role. This is a real gem.