Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Directed by Terence Fisher.
Screenplay by Bert Batt based on a story by Anthony Nelson Keys.
Cast: Peter Cushing (Baron Frankenstein), Veronica Carlson (Anna Spengler), Freddie Jones (Professor Richter), Simon Ward (Karl), Thorley Walters (Inspector Frisch), Maxine Audley (Ella Brandt), Geoffrey Bayldon (Police Doctor), George Pravda (Doctor Brandt), Colette O’Neil (Mad Woman), Harold Goodwin (Burglar).
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) is my favorite of the Hammer Frankenstein series; due largely to Peter Cushing’s performance and the dark humor that pervades the film from the opening scene with the burglar who inadvertently breaks into the Baron’s laboratory heading off further experimentation at that location. He is cornered there by the Baron who has returned to the lab with a head in a box. How the head got into the box is detailed in the opening title sequence.
Trapped, the burglar tries to make a run for it and gets into a tangle with the Baron. He manages to break free and escape covered in blood from the Baron’s experiments and runs right into a bobby on the street. As the Baron throws the contents of his lab and his ‘experiment’ down a deep well, the burglar ends up at the police station being grilled by Inspector Frisch (Thorley Walters). Inspector Frisch and the Police Doctor (Geoffrey Bayldon) play off of each other expertly and the resulting humor makes this one of the most enjoyable in the series. The high caliber of the performances of all of the players makes the film a strong entry. Even the least experienced actor in the cast, Veronica Carlson contributes greatly to the film’s success.
The Baron’s cold heartedness is countered by Anna’s (Veronica Carlson) innocence. She is pulled into a horror only because she is trying to care for her mother, and Karl is stealing the cocaine for the same reason. The Baron uses her to control Karl (Simon Ward) getting him to assist in breaking the insane Doctor Brandt out of the asylum. He needs to cure Brandt’s insanity so that he can get the information he needs to prefect brain transplants.
The success of the series has been the focus on Baron Frankenstein rather than on the monster which is both truer to Shelley’s novel than the Universal films, yet takes the Baron’s obsession beyond anything that she had imagined. He was foremost a doctor that was trying to do good, but ventured too far into God’s realm and paid dearly. Here, instead of learning from his transgression, he arrogantly pursues his goal beyond all reason. Even after he restores Doctor Brandt’s (George Pravda) sanity and transplants Brandt’s brain to the body of Professor Richter (Freddie Jones), the Baron Frankenstein still persists.
Wanting no part in the madness, Brandt escapes (mortally wounding Anna in the process) and goes to his home and finds that his wife is terrified of him. The Baron finds his way to the Brandt home and the showdown does not end well.
The last of the Hammer Frankenstein series was Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1972). It is too bad that Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed was not the last film. That would have ended the series on a high note, but there was redemption for the monster just two years away with Mel Brook’s & Gene Wilder’s, Young Frankenstein (1974).
NEXT: Young Frankenstein (1974)
