Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Cinema: Down the Tubes, Up the Ladder
TRADING PLACES Directed by John Landis
Screenplay by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod
On the winter street outside the Heritage Club, dedicated to liberty and justice for all, but open only to Wasp males of elevated social and financial status, Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) is working his latest scam. Black, and a street hustler not quite as shrewd as he thinks he is, Billy Ray is dressed in rags and crouched on a rolling platform. He is pretending to be a blind and legless Viet Nam veteran, begging and trying to make...
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