Black Friday
Universal Pictures Apr 12, 1940
Dr. Sovac transplants the brain of a gangster into his professor friend's body to save his life, but there is a side effect that causes a dangerous split personality.
Release Details
Original Release | Apr 12, 1940
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- Tue Aug 25
- Wed Aug 26
- Thu Aug 27
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- Sat Aug 29
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Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Summaries
Plot Summary
- BLACK FRIDAY-synopsis Dr. Ernest Sovac (Boris Karloff) is being led to his execution in prison. Entering the viewing room, he gives his notes to a newspaper reporter (James Craig), telling him that his newspaper was the only one who treated him fairly. The reporter opens it and begins reading. From here we go back to flashback until the end.Prof. George Kingsley is teaching at Newcastle University. As class concludes, he announces that he may be taking a job at a major university next year. Jean Sovac (Anne Gwynne) talks to him and escorts him outside to a car driven by her father, Ernst, who is talking to Georges wife Margaret (Virginia Brissac) about her husbands interview with the university. They all go downtown where Kingsley asks to stop off for something forgotten. As he crosses the street, he is run down by two cars driven by gangsters Red Cannon (Stanley Ridges), Marnay (Bela Lugosi), Kane (Paul Fix), Devore (Raymond Bailey) and Miller (Edmund MacDonald) who are chasing each other. They crash into the building where George was going and he is knocked unconscious along with Cannon.At the hospital Dr. Sovac attends to both men. Kingsley has sustained brain damage while Cannon is paralyzed from the waist down. Sovac talks to Cannon, who promises to reward him if he helps him recover. Knowing that $500,000 is hidden somewhere by the gangster, Sovac agrees to help him. That night he performs a brain transplant: Cannons brain into Kingsleys body. When the police view the body of Cannon, now covered with a sheet, Dr. Sovac tells them the head wound along with a severed spine was the cause of death. Kingsley recovers.Sovac talks Kingsley into going to New York for a change of pace (Sovac is hoping to find out where the money is hidden so he can build his own clinic). They go to New York and check into the Midtown Hotel in the same suite Red Cannon used to hide out in. Kingsley seems to remember it but doesnt know why. Checking into the rooms, the bellhop remarks how the gangster formerly occupied this room and had a special knock which he used to wait on him. When Kingsley demonstrates this knock, the bellhop is surprised.They go to a nightclub where Cannons girlfriend, Sunny Rogers (Anne Nagel) is singing. When Kingsley gets a headache, they return to their rooms. Exhausted, Kingsley falls asleep. Sovac calls him Red Cannon until finally he responds. As Cannon, he takes on a different look and voice, remembering Sovac as the doctor who helped him. The doctor tells him he is now in the body of an English professor. Cannon looks himself over in a mirror, realizing that he will not be recognized. After strong-arming the bellhop, he escapes before Sovac realizes it. Next he is seen (in silhouette) strangling Devore. Later he returns to the hotel room by the fire escape and falls asleep on the bed. Sovac notices his bloody hands.Next morning the bellhop brings the freshly-laundered suit back to Sovac along with the morning paper, which states that Devore was killed. When Kingsley wakes up, Sovac mentions the killing to see his reaction. Later, as Kingsley is dressing, he hears a police siren and reverts to Cannon. He leaves by the fire escape. When there is no answer on the adjoining door, Sovac finds the door locked. He goes out in the hall to find Kingsleys door also locked. Getting in with the help of a maid, he finds the room empty.Sovac goes back to the nightclub and asks if Kingsley has been there. He is told that he was seen earlier but has left. At a table, Marnay, Kane and Miller discuss the murder. Marnay tells Kane to take care of Sunny as Red would. He enters her dressing room and presents her with a diamond-studded watch, promising it to her if she will meet them tonight at her apartment. Before Kane can do anything he is killed in his car by Cannon.That night, Sunny hears the familiar knock of Cannon and opens to find Kingsley who acts like Red and knows the secret bar and stash of weapons. He gives her the diamond watch which makes her nervous. The newspaper headline tells of the killing of Kane and the police discuss the case. They go to Marnays apartment where they find Cannon sitting at the desk. They are invited to wait for Marnay and ask who he is. He tells them he is Prof. Kingsley, whom they remember as the victim of the car crash involving Cannon. When they tell him to come down with them to the station, he shoots them both and escapes over the balcony. He is chased by more police over the rooftops and shot in the shoulder.Marnay and Miller enter Sunnys apartment, having given her the Cannon knock. She tries to convince them that someone came claiming to be Red Cannon. She tells them he knew things only Red would know. They promise to cut her in once the money is found.Dr. Sovac returns to the hotel, asking if Kingsley has been seen. When he goes to his room, he finds Margaret and Jean waiting (having already sent a telegram saying they were coming). He convinces them that Kingsley needed this trip and that Margaret was only spoiling him by waiting on him hand and foot. He tells them to return to Newcastle, saying they will come back when he is ready.When Cannon returns to his room, wounded, Sovac questions him and finds that he shot two cops after identifying himself as Kingsley. Sovac tells him he will be caught before the money is recovered. Suddenly Cannon knows Sovac knows about the money and threatens him. The doctor is able to convince him that he needs Sovac because otherwise he will revert to Kingsley permanently. He begins to dress the wound.Jean and Margaret discuss their suspicions and Jean says she will question her dad. Entering the room, she sees Cannon and calls out. Sovac takes her in the next room and confesses to the brain transplant. She tells him he has ruined his career and that they should return to Newcastle with them. He agrees and she leaves to tell Margaret.At the bar Cannon tells Sunny to pack so they can go to South America with the money. He is to return with it later and gets her car keys. In her dressing room she tells Marnay and Miller the plan. They agree to split the money three ways. She points him out as he is leaving the bar. They follow in their car. Cannon goes to a water reservoir and enters a door into a maintenance area that leads downstairs. Emerging from the door, Cannon carries a small metal box. He is confronted by Marnay and Miller who tell him to give up the box. When he tells them to come get it, Marnay approaches and a struggle ensues with Marnay thrown into the water. As he comes back up the stairs from the water, Marnay sneaks off with the box while Cannon struggles with Miller, killing him and dumping his body in the water.Sunny hears the knock on her door and opens up to find a wet Marnay who tells her the money split will now be two-way. He goes into the kitchen where she produces a screw driver to open the box. When a second knock comes, she tells Marnay to hide in the closet. He puts the box in the oven. Cannon enters and asks for Marnay. She tells him she hasnt seen him, but the wet tracks on the floor reveal that he is hiding in the closet. Locking the closet door, Marnay cries out to be released, telling Cannon where the money is. He gets the money and kills them both.Cannon hails a cab and tells the driver to take him to the airport. On the way he falls asleep and when they arrive, he wakes up as Kingsley, telling the driver to take him to the Midtown hotel. Paying the driver with a thousand dollar bill, he returns to the hotel with the box. Sovac gives him a sleeping powder, telling him they will talk to his wife in the morning.The next morning as they are checking out, the police arrest Kingsley and take him to the station. Sovac comes along, explaining that he has been recovering from a serious illness. At the police station it is revealed that the cab driver presented a thousand dollar bill which raised suspicion. When the cab driver is brought in to make an identification, he doesnt recognize Kingsley and they are released.Back in Newcastle, Kingsley is seen teaching class and announces that it will end early because his friend Dr. Sovac is leaving town. Suddenly a siren is heard and Cannon becomes upset, reverting to his gangster image. From the class he sees the vague images of Sunny and the gang members he killed all coming for him. The students crowd around but are upset as Cannon emerges and leaves.Sovac and his daughter are packing to leave when Cannon walks in, asking for him. He grabs Jean, demanding to see the doctor. She screams and calls for her dad. When Sovac comes in, he sees Cannon strangling his daughter. Forced to shoot, he kills Cannon, who falls and reverts back to Kingsley. Now the flashback returns to the present. Sovac is electrocuted but his journal will tell the story and what was learned so that mankind may benefit.
Storyline
- When his friend Professor Kingsley is at deaths door, brain surgeon Dr. Sovac saves his life by means of an illegal operation that transplants part of injured gangster Red Cannon's brain. Unfortunately, the operation has a disastrous Jeckll and Hyde side effect and under certain conditions the persona of Cannon emerges. Sovac soon learns of the duel personality and of half a million dollars the gangster has hidden away. He attempts to find the money through the manipulation of his friend, an attempt that brings Kingsley closer to madness as he alternates between a meek professor of English and a brutal gangster out for murderous revenge on those who tried to kill him. — Carlos Valverde
