Black Friday (1940 film)

Black Friday is a 1940 American science fiction gangster psychological thriller starring Boris Karloff.[4]

Black Friday
Directed byArthur Lubin
Screenplay by
Starring
CinematographyElwood Bredell
Edited byPhilip Cahn
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • February 29, 1940 (1940-02-29) (Chicago)
  • April 12, 1940 (1940-04-12) (United States)
Running time
70 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$125,750[2][3]

Writer Curt Siodmak would revisit this theme again in Donovan's Brain (1953) and Hauser's Memory (1970).[5]

Plot

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, including plotting revenge against his rivals. 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.

Cast

Production

The original story treatment was titled Friday the Thirteenth before being changed to Black Friday.[6] In January 1939 Universal announced that Willis Cooper was working on the script, with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff probably to star.[7] In August, Kurt Siodmak and Eric Taylor were assigned to write the script.[8]

Universal 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.[9] In later years writer Curt Siodmak claimed Karloff felt he wasn't a good enough actor to play the dual role of the kindly professor-turned-murderous gangster, but it is more likely that his distinctive looks and voice could not be changed completely enough to make the switch convincing. (Karloff played a dual role in the 1935 film The Black Room but the two characters were identical twins.)

The film provided a rare opportunity for Ridges.[9][10]

By December the title had changed to Black Friday. Arthur Lubin reportedly got the job of directing on the strength of his work on The Big Guy. Filming started 27 December 1939.[11]

During filming, Manley Hall hypnotised Lugosi on set.[12]

Release

Black Friday had its world premiere in Chicago on February 29, 1940.[1] It was released theatrically April 12, 1940 where it was distributed by Universal Pictures.[2][1]

Criticism

The New York Times wrote "Lugosi's terrifying talents are wasted... but Karloff is in exquisite artistic form... good holiday fun."[13]

Diabolique magazine called it "Lubin's first film to have any kind of lasting legacy... because it features both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, though neither share a scene together. It's a sort of gangster-horror film that involves a brain transplant (Curt Siodmak, who worked on the script, loved brain transplants). Stanley Ridges plays a part clearly meant for Karloff with Karloff playing a role that should have been played by Lugosi and Lugosi being wasted in a part that could have been played by anyone. The film is no classic but it is crisp and no-nonsense, taking advantage of Universal's studio resources, with excellent tempo; Joe Dante later commented it was more like a Warner Bros film in that respect than a Universal one, a judgement that could be made of many Lubin movies from this period."[14]

Home media

Black Friday was released on a DVD as part of The Bela Lugosi Collection on September 6, 2005.[15] 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 was acceptable but contained "a lot of video compression".[16]

See also

References

Footnotes
  1. "Black Friday". American Film Institute. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
  2. Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 214.
  3. Dick, Bernard K. (2015). City of Dreams: The Making and Remaking of Universal Pictures. University Press of Kentucky. p. 117.
  4. Erickson, Hal. "Black Friday (1940)". allmovie. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  5. Stephen Jacobs, Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster, Tomahawk Press 2011 p 256-257
  6. Wilt, David (1991). Hardboiled in Hollywood. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-879-72525-9.
  7. Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. (Jan 26, 1939). "NEWS OF THE SCREEN: Cedillo, Mexican Revolutionist, to Provide Story for Beery Film--'Gunga Din' Here Today Of Local Origin". p. 24.
  8. "SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD". The New York Times. Aug 29, 1939. p. 29.
  9. DVD Savant review
  10. MSN Movies
  11. "DRAMA: Orson Welles to Star in 'Smiler With Knife'". Los Angeles Times. Dec 14, 1939. p. 13.
  12. DOUGLAS W. CHURCHILL (Jan 28, 1940). "HERE WE GO, FOLKS!: Hollywood Discovers the Miraculous Powers of Hypnotism--Other News". The New York Times. p. X5.
  13. "At the Rialto". The New York Times. Mar 22, 1940. p. 26.
  14. Vagg, Stephen (14 September 2019). "The Cinema of Arthur Lubin". Diabolique Magazine.
  15. Mank 2011, p. 618.
  16. Kehr, David (September 2, 2005). "Classic DVD Sets Star Lugosi and Garbo". The New York Times. Retrieved December 7, 2017.

Sources
  • Mank, Gregory William (2011). Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. McFarland. ISBN 0786454725.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Weaver, Tom; Brunas, Michael; Brunas, John (2007). Universal Horrors (2 ed.). McFarland. ISBN 0786491507.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.