Eddie Murphy is Billy Ray Valentine, a conman on the streets - who will tell any lie for a dollar.

Winthorpe (Aykroyd) is a rich commodity broker who thinks he's the greatest thing to ever hit Wall Street.

His life is perfect, an expensive house, a beautiful fiancee, a fantastic job, and enough money to buy all the material luxuries he could want.

His two bosses, played by Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, make a one-dollar bet that they can put Winthorpe out on the streets and make a success of Billy.

Disagreeing over the importance of 'environment over breeding' in business, they decide to set up this experiment.

Their lifestyles are reversed, and the innocent victims of the bet attempt to make it in their new foreign environments, with hysterical results.

Winthorpe finds himself with no friends, no money, and no home.

All these riches are now given to the homeless but resourceful Eddie Murphy, along with carte blanche to invest in the financial markets.

Bellamy and Ameche both reckon that Winthorpe will react to his sudden ostracism by turning to crime.

This he duly does, only he's not very good at it as hooker Jamie Lee Curtis is only too happy to point out.

Once they discover the switch played on them, Winthorpe and Valentine set out to exact their comic revenge.

Both actors revel in their respective parts and veterans Bellamy and Ameche delight as the two scheming brothers whose simple bet results in the most extraordinary chain of events.

Murphy is hysterical, and Jamie Lee Curtis is excellent in her supporting role as the 'tart with a heart' who befriends Winthorpe.