Eddie Murphy, Cheryl Lee Ralph and Earth Day

In the end of the movie The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), Eddie Murphy, right, cons, exposes and humiliates a powerful and unscrupulous Congressman, Dick Dodge (Lane Smith), in an update on Claude Rains’ crooked senator from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Congressman Dick Dodge is corrupt and working for the interests of greedy businessmen. But there’s also an environmental issue added onto the list of offenses made by Dodge. As Chairman of the Power and Industry Committee, he helps to cover up a situation in which power lines near a school are giving children cancer.

This movie was based in the 1990's and today would probably pit unscrupulous environmentalists scheming to block the very high power electricity lines that they say they support to bring wind and solar electricity from the plains to cities.

Cheryl Lee Ralph, who costarred with Murphy in this movie, lobbies Congress on serious issues and appeared before a hearing sponsored by Dallas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson last year [videos].