PETER CUSHING IN HAMMER'S 'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED'

Title: FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED Year: 1969 Rating: **

Penultimate FRANKENSTEIN film for Hammer's most prolific director Terence Fisher, who made THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN that got the ball rolling a year before their more famous, HORROR OF DRACULA, which he also directed and where Peter Cushing plays intense good guy Van Helsing...

As Baron Frankenstein, he began a kind of misunderstood idealist more than the mad, mad scientist he'd turn into... but the title of FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED suits a film in which... for Peter Cushing and blonde DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE bombshell Veronica Carlson... was a catastrophe because of one quick scene...

Peter Cushing in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED

Ironically, when Frankenstein enters Carlson's room for the infamous rape... which is hardly shown but not left entirely to the imagination... it's actually one of the more memorable scenes in what otherwise attempts director Fisher's dressed-up and classy Hammer origins he helped create that, to gain younger audiences while also saving money, had been getting less spectacular and more like violent body-count proto-slashers than the kind of scientific thriller attempted again here...

Sadly, the plot's too basic and complicated at the same time as Frankenstein uses a young couple in which his inevitable rape victim is the girlfriend of Simon Ward, a blackmailed psych-ward worker that Frankenstein controls...

Hammer's FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED with Veronica Carlson

The ruse is too repetitive and ultimately seems futile since Frankenstein's intended creation/monster (using a brain transplant) doesn't seem worth all the trouble... while the ward patients are loud and annoying, and not very creepily effective...

Ironically, five-years later, Fisher and Cushing's last FRANKENSTEIN titled THE MONSTER FROM HELL would return to an asylum setting, only it's a far more creative and interesting call-back to the classic antique horror that's only worth resurrecting with a decent storyline since DESTROYED, while using several potentially-intriguing locations, feels all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Hammer's FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED

Hammer's FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED with Veronica Carlson

Hammer's FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED with Veronica Carlson and Simon Ward

Hammer's FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED with Veronica Carlson

Peter Cushing in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED

Peter Cushing in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED

Peter Cushing in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED with Veronica Carlson

Peter Cushing in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED

Peter Cushing in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED with Veronica Carlson