FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969)

DIRECTED by Terrence Fisher

SCREENPLAY by Bert Batt from a story by Bert Batt and Anthony Nelson Keys.

STARRING  - Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein,  Freddie Jones as Professor Richter/The Creature,  Simon Ward as Dr. Karl Holst,  Veronica Carlson as Anna Spengler,  George Pravda as Dr.Frederick Brandt,  Maxine Audley as Ella Brandt,  Thorley Walters as Inspector Frisch,  Geoffrey Bayldon as Police Doctor,  Windsor Davies as Police Sergeant.

PLOT - Baron Frankenstein is back. This time he's looking to bust an old colleague of his - Dr Brandt - out of the mental asylum in which he's being held. It turns out that several years ago Brandt worked alongside Frankenstein and unlocked the secret of preserving and transplanting a human brain into another body. The experience and knowledge that he gained drove Brandt utterly insane - the once brilliant scientist is now a drooling hopeless mental patient.

Frankenstein needs Brandt's knowledge so he can continue his own experiments. Blackmailing a young doctor - Dr Karl Holst - (who works at the asylum) and his fiance - Anna - into being his unwilling accomplices, Frankenstein manages to steal Brandt away from the mental asylum.

Once back at his laboratory the experiments begin. Frankenstein transplants Brandt's brain into another man's body. The experiment is a success but in his arrogance Frankenstein hasn't taken into account the bitterness that has been festering inside the newly revived Brandt since his operation. Brandt wants revenge and Baron Frankenstein had better be on his guard...

DIALOUGE  - Frankenstein  - "Had Man not been given to invention and experiment, then tonight, Sir, you would have eaten your dinner in a cave. You would have strewn the bones about the floor then wiped your fingers on a coat of animal skin. In fact, your lapels do look a bit greasy. Good night." - One of the best retorts and put downs ever.

PERFORMANCES  - In this, the fifth entry in Hammer's Frankenstein series, Peter Cushing once more plays the amoral Baron Frankenstein.

In previous entries in the series we have seen many sides to Frankenstein's character (Cushing's Baron is definitely one of the most well defined and three-dimensional villians in cinema history), he's always been morally questionable but somehow you've always felt he's been at least fifty percent justified in his actions. This time however he crosses the line into one hundred percent brutal and sadistic evil.

Outwardly he's just as gentlemanly, suave and charming as ever - whether he's gaining his soon to be pawn's trust, issuing pithy put-downs to detractors or reassuring a grieving widow - but this time any charm he may project is on the surface only. His sophistication and manners are just another tool to be used to achieve his aims in the same way that a bonesaw would be a tool in his hands. This version of Frankenstein is a man who has totally lost sight of any greater good that may result from his work and has become consumed by his own arrogance. His work is ALL that matters to him now...all that has EVER mattered.

As we see, this time round, Frankenstein will do literally ANYTHING to further his goals. He's not above blackmail, extortion and murder. When we first see him he's skulking around dark alleyways dressed in a bizzare rubber mask - he brutally decapitates a man like a slasher movie villian. This is how far our "cultured man of science" has fallen - behaving like a common cutthroat. Frankenstein is clearly now completely unhinged.

It doesn't stop there however. In one scene Frankenstein actually rapes a woman. Never before has Baron Frankenstein been a sexual predator (OK, so he has an affair with a maid in "Curse Of Frankenstein" but she was a willing participant for his affections). This previously out of character outburst of sexual violence and abuse further shows just how far into the abyss the Baron has fallen.

His evil acts in previous films have always been tempered with a sense of cold scientific rationale - the ends justifying the means - but what scientific agenda does raping a terrified woman young enough to be his own daughter fullfill ? The answer is, of course, none whatsoever. Frankenstein has become a bigger monster than any that he has ever created in the past or ever will do in the future and this is why he must be destroyed. Cushing is brilliant in this, his most chilling performance as Frankenstein.

The other characters are, perhaps unsurprisingly, less interesting than Cushing's Baron. Although they are still decently acted. Simon Ward as Karl makes for a slightly incompetent hero. He's drawn into the Baron's service when Frankenstein gets wind of him stealing drugs to help Anna's ill mother. Frankenstein uses this knowledge to blackmail Karl and Anna into helping him. This action sets Karl down a particularly dark path - at one point he kills a man to help Frankenstein and although he claims it was an accident, it doesn't take a genius to realise that ramming a knife into a man's spinal collum isn't going to do him a whole lot of good. Considering Karl is supposed to be a doctor of medicine this does seem a bit of a thoughtless oversight on his part.

Karl's ineptitude continues later into the film when he tries to fight Frankenstein. Considering that Karl is about 30 years younger than Frankenstein and that the Baron could hardly be described as a physically large man you'd think that Karl would easily be able to take him in a fight, but no, Frankenstein just bitch-slaps him into submission. Karl later comes a cropper again when he tries to attack Frankenstein in the film's end scenes, this time he gets the crap kicked out of him by the Brandt creature. To say Karl is a bit wet and useless is perhaps a bit of an understatement.

Veronica Carlson as Karl's fiance Anna is underused. She's a decent actress but the character of Anna is ultimately just there to provide the "Hammer glamour" and ends up just being a victim. Firstly when Frankenstein rapes her and secondly when he eventually murders her for defying him.

More interesting is Freddie Jones playing the creature, although he doesn't get to do much until the film's final act. Jones initially plays Professor Richter (the mental asylum's head practitioner). He's only playing this character for a couple of scenes and we dont really get a chance to know him before he's bumped off and his body is used to house the brain of Dr. Brandt. 

For the next two quarters of the film's runtime Brandt is largely unconscious or doped up on painkillers as he recovers from his operation. However in the film's last quarter Jones really gets the chance to come into his own. 

Brandt is bitter and twisted by his treatment at Frankenstein's hands. He resents being used as a lab rat in Frankenstein's twisted experiments and is disgusted to find himself inhabiting a stranger's body. There's a great scene where Brandt seeks out his wife and she reacts with horror at his new appearance. Its this rejection which ultimately pushes him over the edge and from thereon in he's out for Frankenstein's blood. Jones is great in these scenes, he completely wrings out as much pathos for Brandt's plight as possible. This is a man who has been severely wronged and you find yourself rooting for him to take Frankenstein down once and for all.

SFX - Not much in the way of effects really. There are a couple of quite realistic looking human brains in the operation scenes. 

As Frankenstein monsters go Brandt isn't the most bizzare or frightening looking one we've ever seen, but in the context of the story the ghastly looking scar he has around his head works well enough.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - We get the infamous rape scene which was added by producers at the last minute to "add some sex appeal" to the movie. Quite how and why the producers would think a rape scene is "sexy" is another matter entirely. Apparently both Cushing and Carlson where massively uncomfortable and unhappy with the scene. Its not difficult to see why.

Moving quickly on to the violence then. We get Frankenstein in full on slasher villain mode at the film's opening. He decapitates a man (presumably to use his brain), as a result of this we get some bright emulsion red "Kensington gore" blood and a (slightly rubbery looking) severed head...

There are three stabbings in this film. First when Karl stabs the night watchman at the Asylum. Then Anna stabs Brandt/the creature in the stomach (for no apparent reason at all, he's just told her that he means her no harm, she just panics I guess). Finally Frankenstein stabs Anna to death in revenge for stabbing Brandt. Seeing as how Brandt has sworn to kill Frankenstein, he should have really been thanking her. I suppose Anna had just outlived her usefulness by this point.

Finally, we get the dual to the death where Brandt traps Frankenstein inside a burning building. Frankenstein momentarily escapes only to be overpowered and carried back into the flames by Brandt. The film ends. We never see Brandt again but Frankenstein returns for the sequal "Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell" albeit with burnt hands, so presumably he found some way to escape.

RATING  - Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is one of the best entries in the Hammer Frankenstein cycle. It makes a few missteps (the unessescary and out of character rape scene for one) but overall its a great addition to the series and its possibly Cushing's best performance as the character.

4 and a half brain transplants out of 5.

POSTER/VHS/DVD ART -

Theres a whole load of absolutely stunning (and VERY 60's looking) poster art for this film...