With a plot lifted from The Three Stooges Hoi Polloi, the film initially was intended to be a vehicle for Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor (with G. Gordon Liddy as Clarence Beaks) before Pryor dropped out. Eddie Murphy championed for Wilder's recasting to avoid Pryor comparisons.
The movie is one of my favorites and cements director Landis as one of the most influential filmmaker's of the Eighties (most directors are lucky to have two or three memorable movies in their filmography. Landis, in my opinion has eight, with An American Werewolf in London, Animal House, The Blues Brothers, The Kentucky Fried Movie, Trading Places, Into the Night, ¡Three Amigos!, and Spies Like Us.)
And, he redefined the potential of the music video with Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Trading Places is a funny movie mixed with social commentary on class (reminiscent of My Man Godfrey) and deserves to be considered a modern treasure.
Oh, and if you are already a fan, check out this neat link which explains how Winthorpe and Valentine pulled it off. See you next Wednesday.
Produced by George Folsey Jr., Aaron Russo,
Irwin Russo, Sam Williams
Written by Timothy Harris, Herschel Weingrod
Directed by John Landis
Starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche,
Denholm Elliott, Kristin Holby, Paul Gleason and Jamie Lee Curtis
with Alfred Drake, Bo Diddley, Frank Oz, James Belushi, Al Franken
and Tom Davis
0 comments:
Post a Comment