Brothers Mortimer (Don Ameche) and Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy) harbor opposing theories on whether heredity is more important than environment in shaping a man’s character. Which wouldn’t matter, except that the two brothers, who own a venerable commodities brokerage and are richer than God, can afford to play God and ruin the lives of innocents, just to test out their theories. When Randolph bets they can turn their star employee, well-bred WASP Louis Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd) into a petty thief while elevating street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) into a successful and respected commodities trader, we learn it’s not the first time they’ve destroyed lives over a wager whose stakes are so nominal (just one dollar).
Winthorpe and Valentine manage to turn the tables on the Dukes, but not before the pair reveal all their chilly disregard for humanity, including each other. (Of the two, it’s Ameche, in a role that revived his decades-dormant career, who proves the more viciously competitive.) At least Murphy threw the two brothers a bone; they show up again as homeless men in Murphy’s Coming to America, and when Murphy’s African prince casually tosses them a windfall, they can’t believe their good fortune. “We’re back,!” they cry.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjkdynBFHuQ]