Frankenstein must be destroyed

[ravenus]

Frankenstein must be destroyed - Terence Fisher

The last in Hammer Studios' entries for their Frankenstein franchise makes for rather good viewing, although it stops a few paces behind classic status, mainly because of Hammer's insistence on cheap shock value.

Here, Baron Viktor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing in another assured performance), on the run after his grotesque experiments are detected by the law (as depicted in a fairly explosive opening sequence), takes up room in a boarding house under an alias. Catching his landlady and her doctor beau in the act of pilfering cocaine for her ailing mother, Frankenstein blackmails them into doing his bidding. Besides robbing warehouses for surgical equipment (and in the process murdering a watchman), the young lover is forced to help Frankenstein make off with asylum inmate Brant. Brant, once a brilliant scientist himself, doing work that parallels the Baron's, is now insane and recalls nothing of his life.

Frankenstein, who needs information from Brant on preservation of the human brain, transplants Brant's brain to another body after the fatigued Brant suffers a life-threatening heart atttack. He then sets out to cure Brant's insanity by vivisection. These scenes are really gripping, even if not particularly gory, because of Cushing's commanding air and some very convincing sound effects used to denote the grotesque surgical procedures.

Frankenstein's experiment succeeds and Brant's brain is successfully transplanted to another body. But after some macabre incdents, when Brant goes to his wife, she is too repulsed by his grotesque aspect, and he vows revenge upon Frankenstein, setting the stage for a literally fiery climax in which he consigns his godless creator to flames.

This one is unique in being one of the few Frankenstein films that do not depict his creation as a murderous shambling zombie. The transplanted Brant, played by Freddie Jones, delivers an eloquent and emotional performance.

Technically, this is the best shot of all the Hammer films I've seen to date, with stunning use of colors and shadow (kudos also to Warner for a beautiful DVD transfer that shows almost no signs of wear).

The film stumbles a bit with pointless depictions of Frankenstein's cruelty and a disgusting rape scene supposedly added because 'Hammer studio head Sir James Carreras thought the film lacked sex'. Also alomst all performances other than that of Cushing and Jones are very ho-hum. But these two performances aided by Fisher's energetic direction are sufficient to take this film a good many notches above the norm.