Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is directed by Terence Fisher and written by Bert Batt. It stars Peter Cushing, Veronica Carlson, Simon Ward and Freddie Jones. Music is by James Bernard and cinematography by Arthur Grant.The fifth entry in Hammer Film's Frankenstein series is one of the best. Playing as a variant on the original Frankenstein sources, story finds Cushing's Baron Victor Frankenstein as an utterly repugnant individual who is prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve his medical goals. Morally and ethically bankrupt, Frankenstein blackmails young lovers Anna and Karl into helping him achieve his ultimate goal - with disastrously ghoulish results for all concerned.Steered strongly by the hands of the under valued Fisher, pic is not just hauntingly elegant as per being a Gothic mood piece, but it is filled out with macabre shocks, and even gallows humour. Some scenes are striking in their ability to gnaw away at your senses, including the infamous sexual predator scene that has divided opinions (personally I think it's great in showing how low Frankenstein has got). It builds to a terrific climax, where Freddie Jones (turning in a super emotionally driven turn as one of the better "creatures" in the series) and Frankenstein indulge in spider and fly bluster.Despair, degradation and disintegration unbound, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is high-end Hammer Horror. 8/10

One of Hammer's creative high points and their best Frankenstein film since the first two in the series. This one has Baron Frankenstein blackmailing a young couple into helping him with his experiments, namely transferring the brain of a mad scientist into a new body. The script is smart and dark. This movie is slightly closer to the original Mary Shelley novel than most other Frankenstein movies up to this point, Hammer or otherwise, because the "monster" Frankenstein creates here is intelligent and capable of speech. This allows for a very human monster and a dynamite final showdown between Frankenstein and his creation. The real monster of the story, however, is Frankenstein himself. Throughout the series he was never particularly good but the degree to which he was what we would call evil varied from film to film. Here there's no mistaking what a deplorable person he is. At one point he even commits rape, which is probably the most shocking scene Peter Cushing did for any Hammer film (Cushing objected to doing the scene but was overruled and did his job like the professional he was). Despite how evil he is you can't help but be invested in his story, thanks in no small part to Cushing's riveting performance. Terence Fisher was far and away Hammer's finest director and this is among his best, most creative work. The sets, costumes, and effects are all very good-looking. James Bernard's score is excellent. A great cast, of course, led by the inimitable Peter Cushing. Special mention goes to Freddie Jones, who plays the 'monster' and holds his own with Cushing quite well. Some of the film's darker moments won't sit well with some viewers, particularly the rape scene that was really unnecessary and added nothing to the story except to make Frankenstein even more irredeemable. Despite this, I think it's an exceptional effort from Hammer and one of their better later films.

FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED is one of the later entries in the long running Hammer Horror Series, which sees Peter Cushing reprising his famous role of the ruthless mad doctor. This is undoubtedly one of the highlights in what remains a very strong series, because the emphasis isn't on scientific apparatus or Universal stylings (as in the slightly disappointing previous two entries, THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN and FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN). Here, the villain of the piece is Frankenstein himself, and he's never been so ruthless.The gory, blood-drenched murder scene which opens the film reveals just what a monster the doctor has become, but somehow Cushing still holds it all together and makes his Frankenstein a fresh and spellbinding creation. Watching him upset the local gentry is just as enjoyable as watching him performance his brain experiments. Director Terence Fisher is at his best here, creating a lush and colourful masterpiece loaded with ghoulish delights - the set-piece involving the burst water main is straight out of a Hitchcock film.The supporting cast are strong indeed, with Simon Ward taking on the apprentice role, and Veronica Carlson a fitting damsel in distress. Freddie Jones gives the best performance as the Creature in any of Hammer's Frankenstein movies, a truly sympathetic portrayal of a man who has quite literally lost his mind. There are a couple of minor problems with this film, namely the tacked-on rape scene (unnecessary) and the sub-plot involving detective Thorley Walters and his sidekick Geoffrey Bayldon, which goes nowhere and seems to have been added in to pad out the running time. Nevertheless this remains a Hammer Horror highlight and a delightfully dark slice of English Gothic.

Now that's more like it! After the two preceding rather lacklustre films, this is a magnificent return to form for the Hammer "Frankenstein" series. After being a fairly decent man in "The Evil of Frankenstein" and "Frankenstein Created Woman", Baron Frankenstein, played by Peter Cushing for the fifth of six times, is once again the amoral, abusive and downright evil bastard of the first two films. For that reason, I see it as being a return to the series' first (and better) continuity. Cushing delivers one of the best performances in this film as the lead of an extremely strong cast including Simon Ward, Veronica Carlson, Freddie Jones, George Pravda, Thorley Walters, Geoffrey Bayldon, Peter Copley, Maxine Audley, Windsor Davies and Frank Middlemass. This is the best cast of any Hammer film that I've seen and, if not for the absence of Christopher Lee, I'd call it the perfect cast. Outside of its stellar cast, the script is wonderful. This is one of the most frightening Hammer films that I've seen.The only major problem that I had with the film was the rape scene. Rape scenes are always disturbing to watch or read but at least most of the time, they are actually necessary to the plot. That certainly wasn't the case here as it wasn't included in the script and was included at the insistence of the executives in order to increase the film's appeal to American distributors by adding more sexual content. They certainly could have found a better way to do this than with an incongruous rape scene. It really is the epitome of tastelessness. The scene was filmed over the objections of Cushing, Carlson and the director Terence Fisher. Always a perfect gentleman, Cushing actually apologised to Veronica Carlson for the scene. As it wasn't in the script, the rape isn't mentioned later in the film by either Frankenstein or Anna.My only other criticism of the film is that its Monster doesn't pose a threat until 80 minutes into its 100 minute runtime (though after that he is second only to the original as the most effective). The longest of the Hammer films that I've seen, it suffered from a little padding after the hour mark. Several scenes could have been trimmed a bit without much difference being made to the plot. In spite of this, I'd still give it a perfect scene if not for the rape scene.