Black Friday (1940)




Anne Nagel, Stanley Ridges - Black Friday




During a street battle between gangsters, George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges), a college professor, is injured. He and a notorious gangster, Red Cannon, are taken to the hospital. In an attempt to save Kingsley's life, Dr. Sovac (Boris Karloff) transplants part of Cannon's brain into Kingsley's. The operation is successful, but Cannon dies. To learn the whereabouts of the $500,000 loot Cannon had hidden from his rival, Marnay (Bela Lugosi), Sovac convinces the recovering Kingsley to accompany him to New York. After Sovac hypnotizes him, Kingsley transforms into Red Cannon and goes on a killing spree, targeting Marnay's men. He also visits Sunny Rogers (Ann Nagel), Cannon's girlfriend, and scares her with knowledge of secrets that she had only shared with Cannon.

As Cannon retrieves his hidden loot, Marnay tries to steal it and split it with Sunny, but they fail. Cannon strangles Sunny and coldly suffocates Marnay to death. After the gangster changes back into Kingsley, Sovac returns home with the loot. However, Kingsley suddenly reverts back to Cannon again. Believing that Sovac's daughter had stolen his loot, Cannon attempts to murder her. Horrified, Sovac is forced to kill him. Before being executed in the electric chair, Sovac gives his diary to a reporter, believing that he made a contribution to science.



Books with substantial mentioning of Black Friday

Gary J. Svehla and Susan Svehla (editors)
Boris Karloff
Baltimore, 1996

Scott Allen Nollen
Boris Karloff, A Critical Account of His Screen, Stage, Radio, television and Recording Work
Jefferson, NC, 1991

John Brunas, Michael Brunas, Tom Weaver
Universal Horrors, The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946
1990

Richard Bojarski
The Films of Bela Lugosi
Secaucus, NJ, 1980

Richard Bojarski and Kenneth Beals
The Films of Boris Karloff
Secaucus, NJ, 1974