Story of movie Black Friday 1940 Film : Black Friday is a 1940 American science fiction film starring Boris Karloff. Béla Lugosi, although second-billed, has only a small part in the film and does not appear with Karloff. Writer Curt Siodmak would revisit this theme again in Donovan's Brain (1953) and Hauser's Memory (1970).
| Black Friday | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Arthur Lubin |
| Screenplay by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Elwood Bredell |
| Edited by | Philip Cahn |
Production company | Universal Pictures |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $125,750 |
Screenplay
The famous Dr. Ernest Sovac's best friend, bookish college professor George Kingsley, 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 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. Béla Lugosi plays a gangster also trying to get his hands on the cash.
- Boris Karloff as Dr. Ernest Sovac
- Béla 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
- Murray Alper as Bellhop
- Gonzalo Meroño as Richard Steward
The original story treatment was titled Friday the Thirteenth before being changed to Black Friday. It 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.
The film provided a rare opportunity for Ridges.
Black Friday had its world premiere in Chicago on February 29, 1940.Black Friday was released theatrically April 12, 1940 where it was distributed by Universal Pictures. Black Friday was released on a DVD as part of The Bela Lugosi Collection on September 6, 2005. Dave Kehr of The New York Times noted that the compilation compiled The Black Cat, The Raven, The Invisible Ray and Black Friday on a single disc, stating that the video quality is acceptable but contained "a lot of video compression"
- List of American films of 1940
- Boris Karloff filmography
- Béla Lugosi filmography
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