Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Black Friday
Friday the 13th

USA 1940
produced by
Burt Kelly for Universal
directed by Arthur Lubin
starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Stanley Ridges, Anne Nagel, Anne Gwynne, Virginia Brissac, Edmund MacDonald, Paul Fix, Murray Alper, Jack Mulhall, Joe King, John Kelly, Raymond Bailey
written by Curt Siodmak, Eric Taylor, music by Hans J. Salter, Frank Skinner

Universal horror cycle

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

When his friend George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges), a well-meaning professor of English literature, gets into a carchase between gangsters through no fault of his own, & ultimatley gets run over, his best friend, the brilliant brainsurgeon doctor Sovac (Boris Karloff), tries everything to help him ... but it is not until Red Cannon - the gangster who ran Kingsley over & is now dieing - with his dieing breath promises Sovac a share of the loot of his last heist if he saves his life, that Sovac has one of these typical B-movie ideas ... why not transplant the brain of the gangster into the body of Kingsley (not instead of Kingsley's brain but additional to it), which would save Kingsley's life ... & the Red Cannon brain could tell Sovac where the money is.

Slowly, Kingsley seems to be recovering, & for the most part the Red Cannon brain seems dormant, so Sovac tries a drastic measure, take Kingsley to New York, to exactly the hotel where Red Cannon hid out & try to confront him with a few of Cannon's favourite spots, & his moll, nightclub singer Sunny (Anne Nagel), & bring the Red Cannon persona to the fore .... & wouldn't you know it, it works.

It works to well though, because, Kingsley, as Cannon, falls into the gangster's old habits of being a brute & avenging himself & the like, & soon, two of the men (Paul Fix, Raymond Bailey) who chased him & caused his accident (& death - his old body's death anyways) are dead, murdered by him.

Then he visits Sunny, to pick the romance up where he left it off 2 months ago, when he died. Sunny, need I say it, is mighty confused. However, soon she decides to throw in with Marnay (Bela Lugosi) & Miller (Edmond MacDonald) - the two gangsters who have caused Cannon's death & are still alive, & while he promises her to get his loot (half a million, no less) & then take off with her to South America, she sells him off to them.

So when Kingsley/Cannon is off to fetch the dough, Marnay & Miler are right behind him & try to kill him ... with little success, Cannon kills Miller instead. Marnay though takes off with the loot, but unfortunately hides at Sunny's, the first place Cannon coes looking for him, & in a fit of rage, he kills both Marnay & sunny, then takes off with the money ... & on the way to the airport in a taxi to make good his getaway, he turns back to mild professor Kingsley & suddenly asks to be taken to his hotel, where Doc Sovac, eager to get his hands on the money, awaits him, calms him down, puts him to sleep & somehow alleviates Kingsley of his money (about which he can't remember anything anymore anyhow).& even on the next day, when the police comes snooping abouut, nobody would even try to suspect mild-mannered Kingsley ... & Doc Sovac of course does his best to let Kingsley's Cannon-persona lie dormant ...

Everything seems to work fine for a few months, & Kingsley resumes his job as professor for English literature as if nothing has happened, until one day in class, he hears a siren ... until one day he hears a siren that reawakens his Cannon-persona, & it doesn't take long before he remembers that Doc Sovac has tried to doublecross him, & for that, he has to die ... or so Cannon thinks, but Sovac pulls his gun first & shoots Cannon, & with him his best friend Kingsley - for which Sovac is soon convicted to the chair. & on the way to his death, he hands his diary which details his advancments in brain surgery, to a young reporter, in the hopes that it may some day used for good, too ...

 

This blend of science fiction, horror (especially Jekyll & Hyde springs into mind), & hard boiled gangster story is enjoyably silly but features a well-structured plot that keeps things going at a steady pace & keeps the audience entertained throughout.

By the way, Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi do not appear in a single scene together, second-billed Lugosi is merely a supporting character, but he delivers a fine character performance.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Black Friday
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Black Friday here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Black Friday at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!