6 reviews for Black Friday

1. 

   David – November 1, 2024

   Like the mystery of the film and short or so of just over an hour.

2. 

   J. J. Mourgos – November 1, 2024

   Mad Scientist Boris Gets Greedy!
   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)

3. 

   MysteriousCryptids – November 1, 2024

   Passable, but Forgettable Old School Crime Drama with Light Thriller Elements
   Black Friday has a fun premise, with Boris Karloff engaged in a brain transplant that leads to a Jekyll & Hyde scenario and a crime thriller narrative is also woven in. So if you’re here for horror elements, this movie won’t do much in that regard, as it is more of a crime drama with some light horror touches, mostly tied into the persona switches. The story makes no sense of course, but the b movie cheese and plot holes are part of the appeal here, as Black Friday isn’t going to be taken as a serious thriller. The tone is serious, but has some melodrama at times and Stanley Ridges dials up his effort as a result. The persona issues are often humorous, but I wish the movie ran with the silliness a little more, as it never pushes across that b movie line into all out unintentional humor. The pace is part of the problem in that regard, as some stretches are on the slow side, despite a 70 minute duration. But I think there’s enough fun to be had to recommend this to fans of Karloff, Lugosi, and classic horror, as long as you keep your expectations reasonable. Visit my site for a full review!

4. 

   thesilverscream – November 1, 2024

   “Of all the newspapers, yours was the only one which was fair to me.”
   Dr. Ernest Sovac’s (Boris Karloff) best friend professor George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges) is run down by a gangster in a police chase. To save his friend’s live Sovac performs an operation and implants part of another man’s brain into his friend. The brain of a gangster and the man who caused the accident, Red Cannon (Stanley Ridges). The operation is a success, however, when his friend begins to heal, strange things begin to happen to Sovac’s personality.Sovac is a little freaked out by this, but he is also curious. The gangster had hidden a cache of $500,000 somewhere in the city. While Sovac continues to treat his friend he observes him. He begins to wonder about all the things he could do if he could find the money that the gangster hid. Sovac takes Kingsley to New York to see if he can trigger memories from Cannon. And boy does he.When Cannon’s brain takes over Kingsley’s body, a physical transformation happens as well. While Kingsley is a soft spoken, mild mannered, professor of literature, Cannon is a brutal gangster that will allow nothing to get in his way. Believing that his own gang set him up, he begins systematically killing each one.Eric Marnay (Bela Lugosi) is the gangster who was responsible for the accident that caused the death of Cannon and the accident that injured Kingsley. When Cannon surfaces he visits his old girlfriend Sunny Rogers (Anne Nagel). She tells Marnay about the guy who visited her. Marnay understands that the guy who saw Sunny knows everything that Cannon knew. Marnay believes that Kingsley can lead him to the money.“Black Friday” was released in 1940 and was directed by Arthur Lubin. Although the movie itself may not be the best, Ridges is absolutely dynamic. You would swear they were actually two different people. Lugosi’s part is minimal. Karloff’s is a little bigger. His character goes from kindly doctor to greedy mad scientist. His best friend becomes both an experiment and the means to an end. Neither of the two stars, Karloff and Lugosi, have any scenes together.According to Curt Siodmak, the original plan was for Karloff to play Kingsley/Cannon and Lugosi was to play Dr. Sovac. Karloff, however, refused to play Kingsley/Cannon as he believed the role was too complicated. The studio then hired Ridges to play Kinsgley/Cannon, thus allowing Kaloff to play Sovac. This resulted in Lugosi being stuck with the minor Marnay role. Whether the story is true or not, I can’t verify it.It’s a combination of mob movie and science fiction movie. It was totally preposterous but there was something about it that I liked. It reminds me a little of “Donovan’s Brain”.

5. 

   Hiram Gòmez Pardo Venezuela – November 1, 2024

   A classic horror film!
   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.

6. 

   CARL E. DE CRISTO – November 1, 2024

   Five Stars
   I saw this movie many years ago, but could not find it for years.