Black Friday (1940 film)

Infobox Film
name = Black Friday


image_size =
caption = Reprint of "Black Friday" movie poster
director = Arthur Lubin
producer = Burt Kelly
writer = Curt Siodmak Eric Taylor
narrator =
starring = Boris Karloff Bela Lugosi Stanley Ridges Anne Nagel Anne Gwynne
music = Hans Salter
cinematography = Elwood Bredell
editing = Phil Cahn
distributor = Universal Pictures
released = April 12, 1940
runtime = 70 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:85192
imdb_id = 0032258

"Black Friday" is a 1940 science fiction film starring Boris Karloff. Bela Lugosi, although second-billed, has only a small part in the film and does not appear with Karloff.

Plot summary

Karloff plays a famous doctor, Dr. Ernest Sovac, whose best friend, a bookish college professor (played by Stanley Ridges), is run down while crossing a street. 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 USD somewhere in the city. The doctor continues to treat his friend and, when the professor is under the influence of the gangster's brain, Karloff attempts to have the man lead him to the fortune. Bela Lugosi plays a gangster also trying to get his hands on the cash.

Cast

*Boris Karloff as Dr. Ernest Sovac
*Bela Lugosi as Eric Marnay
*Stanley Ridges as Professor George Kingsley / Red Cannon
*Anne Nagel as Sunny Rogers
*Anne Gwynne as Jean Sovac
*Virginia Brissac as Mrs. Margaret Kingsley
*Edmund MacDonald as Frank Miller
*Paul Fix as William Kane

Production

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. [http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1728bela.html DVD Savant review] ]

The film provided a rare opportunity for the now forgotten Ridges to display his considerable acting ability, [ [http://movies.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?c=241218 MSN Movies] ] and gave him one of his finest screen roles (Ridges was nearly always one of many supporting cast members, and seldom was cast in roles where he could really make an impression. He is also remembered as Professor Siletsky in the original "To Be or Not to Be", and as the Scotland Yard inspector in the Charles Laughton thriller, "The Suspect").

ee also

* Boris Karloff filmography
* Béla Lugosi filmography

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0032258|title=Black Friday