Tonight's movie was "Black Friday" (1940), starring Boris Karloff as a Mad Scientist who performs an Emergency Brain Transplant on his friend, a college professor, when that man is hit by an automobile on Friday the 13th (hence the film's title). First of all, I have gotta ask : don't you just love Mad Scientist movies? I do, and I am willing to bet your answer is the same. The thing is, though, that it's gotta be Boris in the Mad Scientist role. With a few exceptions, like Peter Cushing, or Colin Clive, I think Karloff is the Kwintessential Mad Scientist, and has probably played that role in more movies than any other actor. The thing about Boris' Mad Scientists is that they always mean well, at least in their own minds, and so when they do things like Brain Transplants, it's all for the future good of humanity. :)
The other thing is : Doncha just love movies with Brain Transplants? I sure do, and nobody does a better transplant than Boris Karloff. If I was getting a Brain Transplant, I'd want him to perform the operation.
"Black Friday" is not quite a Karloff Klassic, like "The Devil Commands" or "The Man Who Changed His Mind" (get it?). It plays more like a crime caper than a true horror film and the real star of the film is an actor named Stanley Ridges, who plays the professor with the implanted brain. You see, he was hit by a car, and the car was driven by a gangster who was on the run from some fellow hoodlums. The gangster was in critical condition........but Boris fixed all of that, you see, so that he would have a Brain to Transplant into his friend the professor's head. I think you get my drift. You are a veteran of Mad Scientist movies and you know how they are.
Anyhow, the only problem is.....that his friend the college professor now wakes up with a criminal's brain in his head. Sound familiar? And now the guy also has a Jeckyl & Hyde personality, which Boris thinks he can control. And he wants to control it, because the gangster, before dying and "donating" his brain, had hidden a half-million bucks worth of Stolen Loot. Boris wants it....to further his research of course. So, to recap, we have his friend the college professor, who has a Brain Transplant from a criminal, and Boris is trying to get the information out of him as to where the money is hidden.
Girlfriends and other Dames figure into the schemes. There are always Dames in 1940s movies, so don't accuse me of sexism. :)
"Black Friday", while not a Top Notch thriller, is nevertheless a worthwhile film for fans of Boris Karloff, especially for completists like me.....and you! And as a bonus, you get a few minutes worth of Bela Lugosi in a minor role as the lead hoodlum. Throw in '40s beauties Anne Nagel and Anne Gwynne and you can't go wrong, I think.
"I Think.....with a Transplanted Brain.....Therefore I Am" - Rene Descartes.
Did he actually say that?
Well anyhow, I also finished the second half of the "Eyes Of The Mothman" documentary. The whole thing runs a little over two and a half hours, and is a serious look at the real life events and the history behind the events of the 1966-67 Mothman and UFO visitations on the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. For people who are curious to understand the supernatural, this is a very worthwhile documentary, and in this case it is a compliment to the very effective motion picture "The Mothman Prophecies".
I had a nice hike up at O'Melveney Park this afternoon, and I am also about halfway through Stephen and Owen King's page-turner "Sleeping Beauties". One of the best King books ever, and this time it's by two Kings!
The major news remains my CIA response letter, as first reported yesterday. This letter, though it did not disclose any information, still blew me away to the extent that I am almost afraid to re-read it, that the words I read will somehow disappear and I'll be back to treading water as I have been for almost a quarter century.
But in reality, I know what the letter says, and what it does not say but says in so many words.
And so I am going to have to get settled before I re-read it, wait til Halloween is over, and the World Series. Then I will sit down and re-read what the CIA has sent to me. First, I will do a meditation, to get myself centered.
Then I will re-read it the way a lawyer would, because I am going to have to appeal their decision not to release any documents to me.
I am entering into new territory here, and I want to have everything centered and right.
I have never given up, in 25 years since my memory came back, and now....
I finally am feeling a glimmer of hope for real.
See you in Church in the morning. :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment