Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
by Terence Fisher
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DVD details
Actor: Freddie Jones, Peter Cushing, Simon Ward, Thorley Walters, Veronica CarlsonDirector: Terence Fisher
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Arthur Grant
Editor: Gordon Hales
Producer: Anthony Nelson Keys
Writer: Anthony Nelson Keys
Writer: Bert Batt
Writer: Mary Shelley
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-04-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
DVD Review: VILE Abomination!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Hammer's 5th Baron Frankenstein film is, by far, their nastiest-- and in some ways, I must admit, perhaps their cleverest. Gone is any pretense of sympathy in the character-- in this, he's devolved into irredeemably evil. What kind of a "hero" (protagonist at best) DECAPITATES an innocent passer-by to aid in an experiment? Long way from digging up dead corpses, isn't it! What horrible fate brought dear, sweet, gentle Peter Cushing (Van Helsing in HORROR OF DRACULA and others, Sherlock Holmes in HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, a 60's tv series & MASKS OF DEATH) to such an utterly dispicable (and frighteningly convincing) portayal??? With such an outrageous title, you kinda know what you're in for. The film really lives up to (or is down to?) its name.
Focused on brain transplants, the Baron blackmails a young couple to help him. What follows involves theft, murder, 2 kidnappings, another murder, deceit, rape (how'd THAT get in there?) and, finally, arson. (It's a horror film-- how ELSE would it end??) You feel sympathy for Simon Ward and Veronica Carlson, whose only original crime involved trying to get money to pay for her hospitalized relative. You feel NO sympathy whatsoever for the Baron, as he cold-bloodedly violates every law he can (among other things) on the road to "scientific knowledge".
Among the supporting cast are George Pravda as the Baron's insane collegue. Pravda was clever if wimpy as the atomic scientist in THUNDERBALL, and brilliant as the police chief in the DOCTOR WHO story, "The Deadly Assasin". Here he's merely a pathetic victim. Also on hand are Freddie Jones (the scientist who sent Clint Eastwood on a spy mission in FIREFOX), who brings true sympathy to his role as the Baron's "creation". I watched the film several times without even noticing the parallel with the Mary Shelly story, as the "monster" seeks revenge for the man who thoughtlessly "created" him. (With Hammer films, sometimes it's hard to recognize the original source materials!) Peter Copley, a veteran of several DOCTOR WHO stories, has a small role as the head of the asylum. Blink and you might miss (I did) Frank Middlemass-- "Rocky Hardcastle" from AS TIME GOES BY, as one of the 4 ejected houseguests. Also hard to spot is Windsor Davies ("Sergeant-Major Zero", my favorite character on Gerry Anderson's TERRAHAWKS series), one of the policemen who search Carlson's house. More of a standout is Geoffrey Bayldon, one of my favorite character actors (HORROR OF DRACULA, TO SIR WITH LOVE, CASINO ROYALE, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD, and "The Creature From The Pit" on DOCTOR WHO) as the "Police Doctor". He's harrassed by the boisterous, loud-mouthed police inspector played by Thorley Walters. Here's an actor who's really gotten around-- over the years he's played Dr. Watson opposite 3 different Sherlock Holmes (Chris Lee, Douglas Wilmer & Christopher Plummer), was a psuedo-Renfield type (in DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS), played the Baron's assistant (FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMEN) and here, a well-meaning cop who's so abbrassive you almost HOPE he doesn't get his man (and sadly he disappears about halfway thru the film). I swear, watching this film again, I found myself thinking-- I used to WORK for that man!!! (The character reminds me EXACTLY of a software writer I know in Cherry Hill who shall, of course, remain nameless.)
Legend has it director Terrence Fisher thought the film was getting a little dull in one spot, thought about it for awhile, then suggested, "HOW ABOUT A RAPE SCENE?" Said scene was quickly written & shot, at the objection of Peter Cushing, who felt it not only offensive, but not properly built up to, plot-wise. Someone agreed, as it was cut from all original release prints. But its noteriety was such, apparently, that it's been restored to the latest prints (just as 5 different offending scenes were eventually restored to the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN).
The plot is one of those "rat-maze" affairs, as characters are trapped in a bad siaution that just keeps getting worse, and the audience is forced to suffer thru one horror after another for an hour and 40 minutes... before the climax, which almost makes it worthwhile! In a sequence that only now reminds me of the climax of HALLOWEEN 5, the overweight, balding character (the creature) lures his intended victim to a large house. But where Dr. Loomis wanted only to capture Michael Myers, here, nothing less than the DEATH of the Baron will suffice. In true Roger Coman tradition (which also goes back to the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN!), before you know it, the house is ablaze. Somehow, the Baron escapes... only to be stopped by a vengeful (if completely inept) Simon Ward, who's kicked aside by the creature. Then, hefting the Baron over his shoulder, he walks, straight back INTO THE FIRE, the Baron screaming "No! NOOOOO!!!!" the whole way. The first time I saw this, I stood up and CHEERED as the end credits rolled! The whole time, I was thinking, it was TOO GOOD for him!
Love it or hate it, this is one not to be missed.
Description of Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
BARON FRANKENSTEIN IS ONCE AGAIN WORKING WITH ILLEGAL MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS. TOGETHER WITH A YOUNG DOCTOR, KARL AND HIS FIANCéE ANNA THEY KIDNAP THE MENTALLY SICK DR. BRANDT, TO PERFORM THE FIRST BRAIN TRANSPLANTATION EVER.Peter Cushing delivers his most cold-blooded portrayal of the mad Baron in his fifth turn as Dr. Frankenstein. Abandoning his latest experiment after a drunk stumbles into his secret lab (upsetting a severed head) he hurriedly finds new lodgings with a sweet young thing (Hammer glamour babe Veronica Carlson) whose boyfriend (Simon Ward, in his film debut) works in the local sanitarium. Frankenstein blackmails the lovers into complicity with his latest experiment, resorts to kidnapping and murder for his subjects, turns accomplice Ward into a killer, and even rapes Carlson in a coldly brutal scene. The goriest film of the series kicks off with a flamboyant beheading with a scythe (seen only as a spray of blood across a window) and is full of bloody brain surgery, conveniently offscreen but vividly suggested in the slurping sound effects of surgical saws and drills and the gallons of blood left in their wake. Freddie Jones is heartbreaking as Frankenstein's latest creature, a once-insane scientist who awakens to find himself cured but trapped in a grotesque, alien body. When he attempts to communicate with his wife, half hiding in a dark corner while she peers around and sees only a monster, director Terence Fisher offers the most affecting moment of pathos in the entire series. Cushing and Fisher reunited for one more film together, the seventh and final film in the series, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell. --Sean Axmaker
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