***SPOILERS*** On his way to the electric chair to pay the ultimate price for the shooting death of Newcastle University's popular and beloved English Professor George Kingsley, Stanley Ridges, Newcastle brain surgeon. Dr. Ernest Sovac, Boris Karloff, hands over his personal diary to reporter James Craig. Craig is one of the 12 witnesses at his execution. This was done by Dr. Sovac's for the fair and honest reporting that Craig did on his sensational murder trial so that he can get the scoop on what really happened that led to the tragic death of Pro. Kingsley.
Craig had been very even-handed in his reporting and Dr. Sovac wanted him to have the real story that led to Prof. Kingsley's tragic death and to his, Dr. Sovac, upcoming execution. The whole story started some time back on a Friday, Friday the 13th, the last day of classes at Newcastle U. where Prof. Kingsley was to go on his way to New York for a interview to get a teaching job a at top Ivy League college. This bunch of hoodlums from New York City came speeding through town and shooting at each others and then ran down poor Prof. Kingsley leaving him brain dead and one of the hoods Red Cannon near death.
In an effort to save his good friend George Kingsley Dr. Sovac had the brain of the dying gangster Red Cannon transplanted into the skull of the comatose Prof. Kingsley in order to save his life. Dr. Sovac later started to get ideas when he heard that Cannon had hidden some $500,000.00 back in NYC and with that tried to have the recovering Prof. Kingsley take a trip with him to the Big Apple in order to recover the money. Dr. Sovac wanted to use stolen money in advancing the cause of brain-transportation that he needed to continue his research.
Taking Kingsley to Cannon's old hunts at the Midtown Hotel in NYC as well as at the Club Royal where Cannon's girlfriend singer Sunny Rogers, Anne Negel, is the top act there so that these familiar settings would reactivate the dead gangsters memory. Kingsley is induced to be Red Cannon by Dr. Sovac planting memories into his mind about Cannon's activities. this all leads Cannon's brain to take over Kingsley's body and use the fact that he's been dead and buried, as the notorious gangster Red Cannon, to go out as the meek and kind prof. Kingsley and murder those who double crossed and killed him.
Taking out in short order fellow gang-members Devore Kane & Miller, Raymond Bailey Paul Fix &Edmund MacDonald, the only one left for Cannon to finish off is Eric Marnay, Bela Lugosi, who took over his place as the head of the former Red Cannon Gang. Going to Marney's apartment at the Ritz Manor Cannon is confronted by two detectives who came to see him, Marney, and after faking that he's Prof. Kingsgley murders them.
Finding out that Marney grabbed the hidden $500,000.00 when he was too busy murdering both Miller Kingsley/Cannon later tracks down Marley at Sunny's pad where Marley together with Cannon's two-timing girlfriend, Sunny Rogers, planned to take-off with the loot and leave the city. Murdering Sunny and killing Marley, by locking him in a closet where he was hiding and have him suffocated to death, Cannon comes back to the Midtown Hotel with the cash. While he's asleep and out cold Dr. Sovac gets him to forget who he is and gets him to believe that he's now Prof. Kingsley; while at the same time he takes the $500,000.00 to later finance his brain-transplant research.
Back at Newcastle, as an English professor, the buried memories that are hidden in Prof. Kingsley's mind come to the surface when he hears a police siren. The mind-splitting siren activates Prof. Kingley's mind and turns him into the killer Red Cannon. Breaking into Dr. Sovac house to find the $500,000.00 that he took from him and then trying to murder his daughter Anne, Anne Gwynne, Sovac shoots Prof. Kingsley dead. Dr. Sovac kept this truth from the public while he was still alive about his killing of Prof. Kingsley to save his, Kingsley's, family any more suffering and paid for it with his life.
Even though Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are the two top stars in the movie it's really Stanley Ridge that's the star of the film "Black Friday". Ridge's double-performance as the meek collage professor Kingsley and at the same time the ruthless killer Red Cannon is one of the best acting jobs on film that I've ever seen. Karloff and Lugosi are never seen even in the same frame much less together in the entire movie.
Craig had been very even-handed in his reporting and Dr. Sovac wanted him to have the real story that led to Prof. Kingsley's tragic death and to his, Dr. Sovac, upcoming execution. The whole story started some time back on a Friday, Friday the 13th, the last day of classes at Newcastle U. where Prof. Kingsley was to go on his way to New York for a interview to get a teaching job a at top Ivy League college. This bunch of hoodlums from New York City came speeding through town and shooting at each others and then ran down poor Prof. Kingsley leaving him brain dead and one of the hoods Red Cannon near death.
In an effort to save his good friend George Kingsley Dr. Sovac had the brain of the dying gangster Red Cannon transplanted into the skull of the comatose Prof. Kingsley in order to save his life. Dr. Sovac later started to get ideas when he heard that Cannon had hidden some $500,000.00 back in NYC and with that tried to have the recovering Prof. Kingsley take a trip with him to the Big Apple in order to recover the money. Dr. Sovac wanted to use stolen money in advancing the cause of brain-transportation that he needed to continue his research.
Taking Kingsley to Cannon's old hunts at the Midtown Hotel in NYC as well as at the Club Royal where Cannon's girlfriend singer Sunny Rogers, Anne Negel, is the top act there so that these familiar settings would reactivate the dead gangsters memory. Kingsley is induced to be Red Cannon by Dr. Sovac planting memories into his mind about Cannon's activities. this all leads Cannon's brain to take over Kingsley's body and use the fact that he's been dead and buried, as the notorious gangster Red Cannon, to go out as the meek and kind prof. Kingsley and murder those who double crossed and killed him.
Taking out in short order fellow gang-members Devore Kane & Miller, Raymond Bailey Paul Fix &Edmund MacDonald, the only one left for Cannon to finish off is Eric Marnay, Bela Lugosi, who took over his place as the head of the former Red Cannon Gang. Going to Marney's apartment at the Ritz Manor Cannon is confronted by two detectives who came to see him, Marney, and after faking that he's Prof. Kingsgley murders them.
Finding out that Marney grabbed the hidden $500,000.00 when he was too busy murdering both Miller Kingsley/Cannon later tracks down Marley at Sunny's pad where Marley together with Cannon's two-timing girlfriend, Sunny Rogers, planned to take-off with the loot and leave the city. Murdering Sunny and killing Marley, by locking him in a closet where he was hiding and have him suffocated to death, Cannon comes back to the Midtown Hotel with the cash. While he's asleep and out cold Dr. Sovac gets him to forget who he is and gets him to believe that he's now Prof. Kingsley; while at the same time he takes the $500,000.00 to later finance his brain-transplant research.
Back at Newcastle, as an English professor, the buried memories that are hidden in Prof. Kingsley's mind come to the surface when he hears a police siren. The mind-splitting siren activates Prof. Kingley's mind and turns him into the killer Red Cannon. Breaking into Dr. Sovac house to find the $500,000.00 that he took from him and then trying to murder his daughter Anne, Anne Gwynne, Sovac shoots Prof. Kingsley dead. Dr. Sovac kept this truth from the public while he was still alive about his killing of Prof. Kingsley to save his, Kingsley's, family any more suffering and paid for it with his life.
Even though Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are the two top stars in the movie it's really Stanley Ridge that's the star of the film "Black Friday". Ridge's double-performance as the meek collage professor Kingsley and at the same time the ruthless killer Red Cannon is one of the best acting jobs on film that I've ever seen. Karloff and Lugosi are never seen even in the same frame much less together in the entire movie.