Black Friday

Arthur Lubin

70 Minutes

USA

1940

Starring: Boris Karloff, Stanley Ridges, Bela Lugosi, Anne Nagel, Anne Gwynne, Virginia Brissac

***1/2/*****

Attempting to monopolize over the success of the marvelous Son of Frankenstein, Universal quickly paired together Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi yet again for the science fiction/crime blend Black Friday. Karloff plays the scientist Ernest Sovac who, moments before being put to death, hands a spectator a book of handwritten notes telling of the events that led him to the noose. After his professor friend George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges) is accidentally killed in a wreck involving a group of gangsters putting out a hit on partner Red Cannon, Sovac transplants the brain of the injured Cannon into the head of his pal. And when he discovers that the gangster had five hundred thousand dollars hidden, Sovac decides to try and use the brain inside of his friend to locate it. Naturally, the gangsters (including Lugosi) are also eager to find the hidden loot. 

Once removing the expectations that Universal placed on the marketing, splashing Karloff and Lugosi all over the advertisements as if it was another pairing of the two in the horror realm of The Black Cat, The Raven, or the third Frankenstein film, Black Friday is an entertaining and enjoyable picture on its own terms. In its production history, Lugosi was originally meant to play Sovac with Karloff as Kingsley, but Karloff’s Interpretation of the gangster persona was not working out and the roles shifted. But it ends up being quite the thankful move as Ridges is quite good as the tormented and brain damaged university professor, forced to give a wider spectrum of emotions and range as he shifts from the intelligent and meek Kingsley to the suave and fast talking Cannon, than Lugosi was probably able to give at this stage (though it must be mentioned that he was fresh off easily the best performance of his screen career as Igor in the Frankenstein sequel. And the two do not even ultimately share any scenes together. 

But the film has an engaging little narrative, simply presented with very little frills or fat, introducing just the right amount of rules as necessary to keep the mechanics churning. Karloff is his usual charismatic self, though it would have been nice for Lugosi to continue the thread of depth that he started in the previous film. And journeyman director Arthur Lubin, who ebbs and flows in reliability, is certainly more in his element here, and presents much of the material simply with a few nice Expressionist visual moments scattered throughout. The science fiction, horror, and crime genres are decently blended in ways that will tickle fans of each and, for a quickie project to capitalize on the Frankenstein flick, Black Friday is an enjoyable Universal thriller, well-performed, well-shot, and enjoyable throughout.

October 19th, 2019