Black Friday
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Arthur Lubin
Boris Karloff
Bela Lugosi
Stanley Ridges
Anne Nagel
Anne Gwynne
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As Dr. Ernest Sovac is ushered to the electric chair to die for the murder of his friend, Professor George Kingsley, he passes his diary to a waiting reporter, who reads the story of his crime: On Friday the 13th, Kingsley is run over by a car driven by hardened criminal Red Cannon. The professor suffers a severe concussion, and to save his life, Sovac transplants brain cells from the dying Cannon into Kingsley's skull. As Kingsley recovers, his wife Margaret discovers that her formerly timid husband now flies into murderous rages. Reading that Cannon hid half a million dollars in stolen money, Sovac decides to take his old friend to the gangster's haunts in New York, in hopes of jarring Cannon's memory and recovering the money so that he can build a hospital. Sovac's plan works as Cannon's brain and personality take over Kingsley's body and he undertakes a vendetta against former gang members Louis Devore, William Kane, Frank Miller and Eric Marnay. On the night after murdering Devore, Kingsley switches back and forth between his own and Cannon's persona but although Sovac realizes that he can no longer control his patient, he continues his experiment. After Canon influences him to murder Kane, Kingsley is wounded by the police and returns to the hotel to find his wife and Sovac's daughter Jean awaiting him. Discovering the truth about her father's experiment, Jean demands that they all return home to Newcastle together. That night, Kingsley retrieves Canon's money and, after killing Miller and Marnay, murders Sunny Rogers, Canon's old girl friend. The Kingsleys and the Sovacs return to Newcastle, where Kingsley peaceably resumes his teaching chores until the sound of a siren changes him back to Cannon. Going to the Sovac house, he attacks Jean, forcing Sovac to kill his friend to save his daughter. As the reporter finishes reading Sovac's diary, the doctor meets his death in the electric chair.
Director
Arthur Lubin
Cast
Boris Karloff
Bela Lugosi
Stanley Ridges
Anne Nagel
Anne Gwynne
Virginia Brissac
Edmund Mcdonald
Paul Fix
Murray Alper
Jack Mulhall
Joe King
John Kelly
James Craig
Jerry Marlowe
Edward Mcwade
Eddie Dunn
Emmett Vogan
Edward Earle
Kernan Cripps
Edwin Stanley
Frank Sheridan
David Oliver
Harry Tenbrook
Ray Bailey
Ellen Lowe
Franco Corsaro
Frank Jaquet
Dave Willock
Wallace Reid Jr.
Tommy Conlon
Victor Zimmerman
Doris Borodin
Jessie Arnold
William Ruhl
Crew
Elwood Bredell
Bernard B. Brown
Philip Cahn
Charles Carroll
Fred Frank
R. A. Gausman
Edmund L. Hartmann
Burt Kelly
Harold Macarthur
Jack Otterson
H. J. Salter
Kurt Siodmak
Eric Taylor
Vera West
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this picture was Friday the 13th.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1940
Released in United States on Video August 6, 1996
Released in United States 1940
Released in United States on Video August 6, 1996
