Black Friday (1940)

‘A man-made monster is on the loose!’

Black Friday is a 1940 American science fiction-crime-horror Universal Pictures film starring Boris Karloff. Although second-billed, Bela Lugosi, has only a small part in the film and does not appear in any scenes with Karloff. Curt Siodmak, the co-writer – with Eric Taylor (Son of Dracula; The Ghost of Frankenstein) – would revisit this theme again in Donovan’s Brain and Hauser’s Memory. It was directed by Arthur Lubin (Hold That Ghost; Phantom of the Opera).

The original script cast Lugosi as the doctor and Karloff as the professor. For unknown reasons, Karloff insisted on playing the doctor. Rather than a straight switch though, Lugosi was given the minor role of a rival gangster, while character actor Stanley Ridges was brought in to play the professor.

Plot teaser:

The famous Dr. Ernest Sovac’s best friend, English Literature professor George Kingsley, is run down in a police/crime incident. In order to save his friend’s life, Sovac implants part of another man’s brain into the professor’s. Unfortunately, the other man was a gangster who was involved in the accident. The professor recovers but at times behaves like the gangster, and his whole personality changes. Sovac is horrified but also intrigued, because the gangster has hidden $500,000 somewhere in the city. The doctor continues to treat his friend and, when the professor is under the influence of the gangster’s brain, Sovac attempts to have the man lead him to the fortune. Bela Lugosi plays a gangster also trying to get his hands on the cash…

Reviews:

“Black Friday‘s odd combination of gangster revenge picture and mad scientist is reminiscent of 1940s radio thrillers, where such combination of crime and weird science were common. Ridges plays his dual role well, and, if the science doesn’t make any sense, the film delivers plenty of action, murders, and exciting moments…” T.A. Gerolami, The League of Dead Films

“It has its moments, with most of them belonging to Ridges’s fine double performance as both the kind (and also grandfatherly) English professor and the Cagney-inspired crook. You won’t often find a film where both Karloff and Lugosi are overshadowed, but it happens here; in fact, Ridges melts so completely into both roles that I didn’t even realize he was playing both characters until about midway through. Red Cannon is the more interesting of the two personas, as he’s so unbridled, brash, and comes complete with a pretty dame (Anne Neal) and everything. If not for the “science gone haywire” slant, Black Friday would really just be a crime drama, what with all of the betrayals and plot twists.” Oh, the Horror!

“Black Friday is slightly better directed than most other B movie mad scientist efforts of the era, with director Arthur Lubin, who also made the Claude Rains Phantom of the Opera (1943), making occasionally effective use of shadow contrast. There is one particularly good shot where we see the transformation between professor and gangster, where Stanley Ridges puts his head in his hands as the mousy professor and then suddenly brings his face up as a tough guy. (It is rather amusing to note that the transformation of personalities between professor and gangster also manages to somehow correct the professor’s eyesight, with he no longer needing glasses, and causes his hair to become slicked back every time). Moria