| Black Friday |
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| When I sat down to watch this film for the first time it was with dread.All I had ever heard was how this wasn't a horror movie and it was a cheat because Lugosi & Karloff didn't have any scenes together. Guess what?It was a darn fine movie.Spoilers throughout! This falls more into a gangster/mad scientist type of genre but is a lot of fun just the same. Karloff plays Dr Ernest Sovac.When we first see Sovac he is being led to the electric chair.Just before he rides old sparky he gives his journal to a young reporter.The movie is then told in flashback. Sovac and his daughter Jean are giving their friends Professor Kingsley and his wife a ride to the train station.Kingsley is going to interview for a position at a large university.Absent minded he almost forgets to pick up his hat.So a stop has to be made in town. In the meantime Red Cannon, a gangster is being chased by Eric Marnay(Bela Lugosi) and his three henchmen.As they tear through town Marnay's gang opens fire on Cannon's car.Cannon is hit and he also drives right into Kingsley.Marnay and his gang flee, happy that Cannon is seemingly dead.Kingsley is dying and Sovac knows the only way to save his friend is through an illegal and dangerous brain transplant.Since Cannon is alive but paralyzed, Sovac uses his brain in the procedure.Scratch Red Cannon. It is revealed that Cannon had hidden half a million dollars in loot.Marnay wants it so he has Cannon's girlfriend Sunny watched.Sovac figures he can do a lot of research with that kind of cash and feels that maybe Kingsley has retained some of Cannon's knowledge.So he escorts the professor to New York and some of Red Cannon's old haunts. The wail of a siren triggers Kingsley's reversion into Red Cannon.He quickly wastes no time in killing one of Marnay's henchmen.Sovac figures out the angles and takes his friend to a nightclub where Cannon's girl Sunny works.Seeing her triggers another transformation into Cannon.The man nearly frightens Sunny to death with his knowledge of Cannon.He also takes the time to kill another of Marnay's henchmen. Sunny in turn informs Marnay that Cannon is alive and is ready to split the money with her.Marnay tells her to string him along.Sovac confronts Cannon and demands he split the cash with him or he will bury his Cannon identity forever.Cannon reluctantly agrees. Cannon takes Sunny's car to the area where he hid the loot.Sunny has alerted Marnay so he and the last remaining gangster tail him.They confront him as he tries to leave with the cash.Marnay absconds with the loot as Cannon kills the other man.Marnay returns to Sunny's with the strongbox.But Cannon shows up and kills them both. Cannon returns to Sovac with the cash but has seemingly reverted back permanently to Kingsley. Everyone returns home and all is well.But one day while the professor is lecturing he hears a police siren and reverts back to Cannon.Figuring he has been hosed he returns to Sovac's looking for his dough.Sovac finds him just as Cannon is about to kill Jean.Sovac sadly guns down Cannon.In the end Kingsley asks Sovac "Why?Why did you do this to me?".And Sovac pays the supreme price for his actions. Written by Curt Siodmak and directed by Arthur Lubin this is a fast paced flick.Maybe it isn't an out and out horror film but we have a mad scientist, a brain transplant and a Jekyll and Hyde character. Would the movie have been better with Karloff in the Kingsley/Cannon role and Lugosi in the Sovac role?Well all we can do is guess and play fanboy games.Ol skip kinda likes the flick just the way it is! Stanley Ridges actually steals the movie with his performance as the teacher/gangster.Karloff is his usual wonderful self.Lugosi does a great job in the allegedly thankless role of the gangster.A nice "b" picture that is quite entertaining. |
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