Black Friday (1940) **

For a companion to this, I will include a review from October 2017: Black Friday 

Although part of the Bela Lugosi collection, I never felt this was on par with the other films included. He's essentially a low level gangster eventually trapped in a closet by a refrigerator, screaming to be free. Before that he was dumped in the drink while going after a metal box of stolen loot. Not a flattering role coming out of the decade that featured him as a major star. It was quite clear Lugosi's star would dim as the parts provided him were less and less rewarding. Ridges is great as a kindly, very soft-spoken Professor of English Literature, injured and nearly dead, Karloff performing a difficult brain transplant using "brain cells" from a murdered gangster named Red Cannon. The personality of Red can be triggered, emerging strongly, capable of violence and cold-blooded murder. Ridges sort of goes through a Jekyll/Hyde transformation; his hair slicks rather unrealistically and when Red arrives he seems to emerge younger in presence and spirit. And he can fight much younger gangsters, strangling them with ease, which is preposterous. Nonetheless, Ridges impressively alternates between the personalities effortlessly. Karloff is the doctor who bargains away some integrity in favor of encouraging Red to emerge understanding that is puts his friend in harm's way, hoping the loot is found. Lugosi and his gangster crew responsible for Red's death are marked for death. It's basically a gangster film with sci-fi touches, with Red surfacing unexpectedly as Karloff and daughter were planning to leave for better position, the misdeeds of the brain experiments coming back to haunt the doctor responsible for them. 2.5/5