Black Friday

Black Friday (1940)

A Reign Of HORROR... a man-made monster on the loose!

University professor George Kingsley is struck by gangsters while crossing the street, leaving him with brain damage and one of the gangsters, Cannon, paralyzed. Kingsley's friend Dr. Sovac attends to both men, and when Cannon offers him a reward for aiding his recovery, Kovac transplants part of Cannon's brain into the dying Kingsley's skull, creating a dual personality.

Date of release
1940-02-29
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (63)
Runtime
1h 10m
Genres
Science Fiction, Crime, Horror, Mystery, Drama
Director
Arthur Lubin

Casting

Interesting facts

Black Friday is a 1940 American science fiction horror gangster film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

Production

The original story treatment was titled Friday the Thirteenth before being changed to Black Friday. In January 1939, Universal announced that Willis Cooper was working on the script, with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff probably to star. In August, Curt Siodmak and Eric Taylor were assigned to write the script.

Universal cast Lugosi as the doctor and Karloff as the professor. For unknown reasons, Karloff insisted on playing the doctor. Rather than a straight switch though, Lugosi was given the minor role of another gangster, while character actor Stanley Ridges was brought in to play the professor.

The film provided a rare opportunity for Ridges.

By December, the title had changed to Black Friday. Arthur Lubin reportedly got the job of directing on the strength of his work on The Big Guy. Filming started 27 December 1939.

During filming, Manley Hall reportedly hypnotised Lugosi on set.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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