Review: Black Friday

Brain surgeon Boris Karloff is so dedicated to scientific/medical breakthrough that he accepts a large sum of money from dying mobster Stanley Ridges to save him. Save him how, you ask? By transplanting the mobster’s brain into the body of a dead professor friend of Karloff’s (also played by Ridges), that’s how. In order to get his promised money, Karloff tries to jog the mobster’s memory to find out where the money is. This proves to be a pickle. Somehow both men’s personalities and memories are existing inside the same body (?!), so we get scenes of the two very different personas fighting for dominance over the same head and body. Unfortunately for Karloff, the dangerous gangster’s personality proves far too fixated on taking out revenge on the mobster rivals who wronged him in the first place. Bela Lugosi plays one such rival gangster (and sadly doesn’t share any scenes with Karloff).

 

Despite once again pairing Bela Lugosi up with Boris Karloff, this 1940 gangster fantasy from director Arthur Lubin (“South Sea Woman”, “Escapade in Japan”) is more indicative of Lugosi’s drug-addled pics for Edward D. Wood Jr (“Glen or Glenda?”, “Bride of the Monster”) than any of his films alongside Karloff. It’s pretty shoddy stuff far beneath Karloff’s worth, and Lugosi barely has enough screen time to even register much, either. The lesser known Stanley Ridges plays the main villain here, and he’s saddled with some pretty silly material, especially the physical transformation he goes through). However, he still manages to impress more than the two bigger stars, if merely because I had zero expectations of him.

 

One or two bits of the horror stuff offers some minor interest, but for the most part I think I would’ve liked the gangster plot on its own, and with different actors. The quasi-horror brain transplant bullshit is just too silly for words and the majority of the film is rather boring and awkward. Boris Karloff’s half-hearted turn seems to suggest he probably agreed with me. It’s not one of his more memorable performances I’m afraid, and I rather think the world of 30s and 40s gangsters is best left to the Cagneys and Robertsons of cinema (Yes I know Karloff appeared in several gangster pics too, but c’mon…) Apparently Karloff was originally cast in Ridges’ role and Lugosi in Karloff’s role, but Karloff proved unconvincing in the part so they swapped things around. The whole damn film is unconvincing though, so it wouldn’t really matter who the actors were in each part. The film never gets around the idea that this is a brain transplant and therefore it should only be one person/identity living inside that body – the person whose brain is being used. Yes, it’s a bullshit concept to begin with, but even bullshit needs to have its own internal logic and I found this one’s sorely lacking. The other guy’s brain isn’t in there anymore so how is he suddenly remembering the other guy’s thoughts and memories? It’s nonsense, even for 1940. Speaking of its vintage, despite being made about 5 years after “The Black Cat”, this feels older, stiffer, and stuffier.

 

More of a cheapjack enterprise for the two horror stars. Who honestly thought this was the kind of thing we wanted to see Karloff and Lugosi in? An extremely awkward mix of gangster pic and dopey brain transplant horror nonsense. Not very high quality stuff and the two big name stars aren’t given a good showing. The idiotic screenplay is by Eric Taylor (“Son of Dracula”, “Phantom of the Opera”, “Big Jim McLain”) and the normally much more reliable Curt Siodmak (the classic Lon Chaney Jr. film “The Wolf Man”). It’s a touch embarrassing, to be honest.

 

Rating: C-