So today is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. The one day out of 365 when my wife Cindy gets up before I do! In honor of the day, I wanted to throw out a completely different take on the day by reviewing the 1940 Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi film, "Black Friday."
Right off the bat...this is the very defintion of a B-movie. Both Karloff and Lugosi are better known for other movies; indeed, Lugosi's high billing in this movie is very misleading, as he really only plays a bit part. But this was back in the pre-TV days when Hollywood churned out movies like this in rapid-fire fashion, and Lugosi's name was a heck of a lot more marketable than that of Stanley Ridges, who technically shared the lead with Karloff, at least in terms of actual screen time, amount of dialogue, and importance to storyline.
Storyline in a nutshell: Karloff and Ridges are professors at a university. Ridges gets into a car wreck with a man who turns out to be a gangster. To save Ridges' life (and to take out a gangster who presumably doesn't deserve to live), Karloff performs an illegal "brain transplant," putting the gangster's brain into Ridges' head. The only problem is, Ridges begins thinking and acting like the criminal whose brain he received....
Basically, you either like this kind of Hollywood cheese, or you don't. I enjoy it, and even though it's not the first movie you're going to think of when someone mentions Karloff or Lugosi, it can still be very enjoyable. Hey, if nothing else, the 1940 vintage guarantees a profound lack of objectionable content.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Philippians 4:13.--SMS
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