Customer Reviews

Black Friday [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's hard not to get excited when you come across a film featuring both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, but 1940's Black Friday features a somewhat disappointing and certainly unusual pairing of the two legendary stars. Not once do the two men appear in the same scene, and Lugosi's character is actually a rather minor one. As for Karloff, you won't find him hidden behind a mummy's shroud or dressed up as Frankenstein in this one (and it's always nice to actually see Karloff's own true face). Rather than playing a monster, Karloff gets to try his hand at creating a monster this time around. As the film opens, we meet Dr. Ernst Sovac (Karloff) on his way to the electric chair, and the notes he gives to a reporter tell the story of his downfall. Sovac's best friend was George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges), a mild-mannered college professor of English literature, who was critically injured when a group of mobsters tried to kill their former partner Red Cannon. Kingsley had serious brain damage and could not survive; knowing that Red Cannon had a spinal injury and was nothing but a low-down dirty criminal to begin with, Dr. Sovac made the decision to transplant part of Red's brain into Kingsley's. He saved his friend's life, but Kingsley soon began to act strangely. About this time, the good doctor found out that Red had half a million dollars hidden somewhere, and he took Kingsley to Red's old stomping grounds in New York hoping that the vestiges of Red in his friend's brain would lead him to the money. Unfortunately, Red actually began taking full control of his new body at times and set about systematically killing his old partners. Kingsley had no consciousness of the things Cannon had done when his persona reemerged, but events soon began to catch up with the dishonorable Dr. Sovac, making his bid for the loot all the more desperate.

The real horror of this movie is Sovac's increasingly criminal ambitions and disregard for his best friend's life and sanity. Lugosi's role as a gangster is something of a bit part for him to be playing, and even Karloff is somewhat overshadowed by the performance of Stanley Ridges as Kingsley/Cannon. The casting of this movie does have an air of controversy around it which does much to explain Lugosi's throwaway role. Reportedly, Lugosi was originally to play Dr. Sovac, with Karloff taking the role of Kingsley. Some say Lugosi couldn't pull the part of Sovac off, which I don't buy for a second; the truth of the matter, it seems to me, is that Karloff wanted the part of Sovac for himself. Thus did Lugosi end up with a minor part in the movie, and there may have been some lasting resentment on his part as a result. There is one very interesting aspect to Lugosi's otherwise forgettable performance, however. The trailer to the film claims that Lugosi, in order to make the scene more realistic, was hypnotized to actually believe he was suffocating when his character is shut up inside a small room; I have not found any corroboration for this claim as of yet, but the scene itself lost some of its luster when Lugosi's character began suffocating after only a couple of minutes in what was basically just a closet.

The whole brain transplantation idea is left rather vague, but the main flaw of Black Friday is the fact that some striking physical changes are wrought in conjunction with the transformations of Kingsley to and from Cannon. I can run with the transplant idea, but the notion that Kingsley's gray hair and wrinkles disappear when Cannon takes over is just a little much. Other than that, I was actually quite impressed with this film. In its own way, it does feature something of a novel twist to the whole Jekyll and Hyde motif, the action is compelling, and the cast is especially good for what could be considered a B-movie.

The horror dream team of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff produced erratic efforts in their numerous on-screen parings. With The Black Cat (1934) and The Raven (1935), the two men actually created a new genre of horror film; one which, it could be said, has never been equaled. Unfortunately, these two films went too far for 30's audiences, as The Raven led to a British ban on horror movies.

Panicking, Universal began the sterilization of their future efforts. The first signs came with The Invisible Ray (1936). A rather polite and straight forward science fiction tale, it at least gave Lugosi and Karloff the opportunity to have a protagonist/antagonist relationship similar to that of the earlier films.

But with Black Friday (1940), the results are so watery and uninspired that all sense of mood or lurking danger have been completely eliminated. As a surgeon who transplants the brain of a dead gangster into an English professor, Karloff's character is no longer a villain, barely an antagonist even, while Lugosi's role as a rival gangster is definitively thankless.

With a strong first billing, Karloff phones it in here. Compare his performance in this to those in The Body Snatcher or The Black Cat to see how much better he is when he respects the material.

Bela Lugosi has a great death scene, and that's it. He can't be on camera more than 10 minutes, tops. At least he has more dialog than in The Body Snatcher.

In the dual role, Stanley Ridges has to be given an A for effort, but he's the victim of a bad script. The character of the professor is so flaky and whimsical that you have no reason to care about him, while the gangster is so unpleasant and ugly that you have no reason to root for him.

One is only frustrated more when thinking how much better this film would have all been had they stuck with the original casting of Lugosi as the surgeon and Karloff as the gangster/professor. (It is well known that Karloff insisted on this role switch, though it is left for question whether he did it due to insecurities over the part or perhaps to get back at Lugosi, who had bragged about stealing Son Of Frankenstien (1938) from him.)With Karloff's quiet menace and Lugosi's zeal, this could have been the topper to their screen parings.

But as it stands, Black Friday is not worthy of the talent in it, and, by the looks of it, they felt the same way.

Karloff plays Dr. Sovac, a doctor with high ambitions. Both his friend and a criminal gangster are hurt and lie in a hospital. As Dr. Sovac examines them he finds that the gangster has a half a mill hidden somewhere. Hey, I got an idea. Why not put part of the gangster's brain into my best friend's head. The friend no longer has brain damage and I have a half a mill "for research" *wink-wink*.

The movie is basically a gangster picture with some horror/sci-fi elements. Lugosi is disappointing in his gangster role, trying to snarl it up with his Hungarian accent.

Karloff tries to keep control over Kingsley. He takes him to the same hang-outs as the gangster in hopes the gangster part comes out and then Sovac can get the money. Unfortunately things get a little out of control.

The whole film is a flashback sequence. We start out with the Karloff character being led to the electric chair and the audience follows the diary left behind. The diary idea is pretty neat, reading the pages and watching the action.

The actor who plays Kingsley (Stanley Ridges) plays a dual role -- the kind professor and the evil gangster, complete with guns and dames. When Kingsley turns into "Red Cannon", his hair turns black and has a nice combed part, and his wrinkles disappear. Pretty weird how that happens, huh? Bit of a Jekyll/Hyde motif.

See this on DVD through the Bela Lugosi collection. Odd choice since Lugosi played a minor role.

The Bela Lugosi Collection (Murders in the Rue Morgue / The Black Cat / The Raven / The Invisible Ray / Black Friday)

A college professor is mortally wounded , when he is in the wrong place. To save his life the surgeon will transplant the brain of one the gangsters into professor's body. The chain of dramatic and suspenseful events aroused from this fact will hold att the edge of your seat in this classic of horror.

This is an old favorite of mine and it is why I look past some of it's flaws. This is yet another Karloff and Lugosi film but, this one is more of a Sci-fi/gangster picture. Surprisingly Stanley Ridges is the real star of this film and he gives a very convincing performance in a Jekyll and Hyde role. Lugosi has a small shining moment near the end of the picture. Karloff plays a mad doctor again but, he does do it so well. This film is available on DVD and the transfer looks very good. The set is called the Bela Lugosi franchise collection. This set includes four other good horror films.

Black Friday is included on DVD for the first time as a part of the Bela Lugosi collection and its inclusion is dubious at best. The fact is that Boris Karloff has far more screen time than Lugosi in this murder/crime thriller. In fact, the movie truly belongs to Stanley Ridges in his dual role as Professor Kingley and gangster Red Cannon. Karloff is Dr. Sovac who saves his friend Kingley's life by removing part of the Gangster Cannon's brain and putting into Kingsley's head. Cannon dies and Kingsley is saved. And don't go looking for any scientific viabilities to this procedure. Cannon's old gang, now led by Eric Marnay (Lugosi) attempted to kill Cannon and find the $500,000 that he had hidden away.

Once Kingsley has recovered he starts experiencing shifts in personality between the meek college professor of English literature and the tough talking gangster. Credit Ridges in a big way for pulling off the dual role by merely slicking back his hair, taking off his glasses, and changing his voice tone and body language to become Cannon. He's actually quite good and you almost think its two different actors. Sovac wants the $500,000 for himself to build a laboratory and takes Kingsley to New York and the gangster's old hideout at a hotel. Soon Cannon's personality becomes dominant and he begins tracking down the members of his old gang, killing them one by one. Sovac continues to follow Kingsley/Cannon, ignoring his murders and hoping that he will find the hidden money.

Anne Nagel plays Sunny Rogers, Cannon's old flame and night club singer. When Kingsley comes to call on her she barely bats an eye when he says he is Cannon. After all he knows where the bar and weapons are hidden in her apartment and only Cannon could possibly know that. Marnay suspects that the man is someone Cannon coached before he died to spook the gang and get revenge. Lugosi has very little to do in this film. He talks a tough gangster but when Cannon locks him in a closet, Marnay is screaming like a little kid. How embarrassing for one of our great horror icons. Karloff fares better as the slightly sinister Sovac who wants to do good for the world but is not above doing whatever it takes to get what he wants. Anne Gwynne plays Sovacs daughter. Gwynne was a scream queen during the 1940's. In addition to this film she was also in the 1941 version of The Black Cat, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx, Weird Woman with Lon Chaney, Murder in the Blue Room, and House of Frankenstein.

The plot is wholly ridiculous in every aspect and poor Bela just basically stands around and gets about 15 minutes of screen time. The one saving grace is Ridges' performance.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

A Jekyll-and-Hyde inspired movie, Stanley Ridges plays a professor who becomes the innocent victim of a gangland shootout, and in order to save his life, Boris Karloff, playing a surgeon, transplants the brain of one of the criminals into Ridges' skull (shades of Peter Lorre in MAD LOVE). Soon Ridges begins acting like the criminal (named Red Cannon), and when the greedy Karloff learns that Cannon has half-a-million bucks stashed away someplace in NYC, he and Ridges go after it. Ridges keeps changing back and forth between the professor and Cannon. Eventually Karloff gets the money but in a final Hyde-like change, Ridges as Cannon believes that Karloff's daughter has the money, he attacks her, and Karloff kills him. Karloff goes off to the electric chair. The crime elements of the movie are pretty routine and unexceptional (as is the case in Jekyll and Hyde), but the horror bits (the brain transplantation, Karloff's looks, the spooky musical score) are much better. Karloff originally was to play the two-part role of professor/Cannon, but he didn't work out in the part and Ridges was hired. It was a good move because Ridges out shines everyone here and steals the picture. Not a great crime or horror movie by any means, but it certainly is different than most.

"Black Friday" (1940) survives as a rarity in cinema history: the gangster-horror film. Unfortunately, the reteaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi was jettisoned during preproduction - leaving poor Bela with a minor supporting role and Boris playing second fiddle to Stanley Ridges (who delivers an excellent Jekyll and Hyde characterization originally intended for Karloff). Though "Black Friday" moves at a fairly good clip, it remains one of Universal's lesser thrillers.

Professor Kingsley is on his way across the street and gets run over by Red Cannon, a mobster who has other mobsters chasing him. Both are transported in the same ambulance with Prof Kingsley's friend, Dr. Sovac. Kingsley has some kind of concussion and will only live a few more hours, and Cannon is paralyzed. Sovac decides to do a brain transplant between the two (apparenly with no one in the hospital the wiser), and save Kingsley - his physical body anyway. Later Sovac says this was a "partial" brain transplant. Needless to say, Red's personality comes out in Kingsley - this is when he slicks his fluffy hair back on his head with his hands, and it automatically sticks and becomes very shiny. The only reason Sovac did the operation was to get Red's $500,000 he had hidden so that he could open up his own lab and do whatever he wants, perhaps more brain transplantations. In the end as they say, there are no winners in this film.

Basically, pretty silly.

The greats,known as Karloff and Lugosi,star in this tale of murder. With also a great plot and great acting. This movie contains a Jekkyll and Hyde monster, the kind Professor Kingsley and the evil Red Cannon who wants revenge on his friends,one of them is Lugosi. The movie is only 70 minutes and does go by fast but it does have alot of good parts. Stars BORIS KARLOFF,BELA LUGOSI,STANLEY RIDGES,ANNE NAGEL AND ANNE GWYNNE. Actors and actresses we all know and love.