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Frankenstein
Must Be
Destroyed
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10
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
Baron
Frankenstein (Peter Cushing), under an assumed name, blackmails
a young couple (Simon Ward and Veronica Carlson) into assisting
him in his nefarious experiments in brain transplantation...
Frankenstein
Must Be Destroyed
was often cited by its director, Terence Fisher, as his favorite
among his films and it is easy to see why. Though panned and
ignored on its original release, it has since gone on to become
one of Hammer's most respected horror offerings; Martin Scorsese
even introduced a special screening of it at a Hammer retrospective
at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1980s.
Brutal, nihilistic
and expertly paced, the film tries its audience by making the
Baron (heretofore, overall, a sympathetic figure) into a cold-blooded
sadist who will stop at nothing (be it rape or murder) to accomplish
his goals. The young couple played by Simon Ward (in his film
debut) and Veronica Carlson are blackmailed because of their
involvement in illegal drugs. The police, represented by brash
Thorley Walters (a long way from his cuddly role in Frankenstein
Created Woman), are thickheaded and arrogant. Only the "monster"
(a brain transplant victim played by Freddie Jones) comes across
as pure in this sordid milieu. Fisher is at the top of his game
here, employing his usual simple but effective directorial style
and coaxing fine performances from the entire cast. Individual
sequences (notably an extended stalking scene at the beginning)
rival the best of Hitchcock and show Fisher's flair for suspense
had not diminished with old age (this was his next to last film,
before being more or less forced to retire after 1973's Frankenstein
and the Monster from Hell).
As the Baron, Peter
Cushing could have easily walked through the role by this point,
but he invests all his talent to deliver what is possibly his
finest performance. Normally a likable grandfatherly figure
on screen, here he is cold, callous and ruthless. The contrast
between his charming demeanor ("Anna, get me some coffee,
please") and his callous attitude makes for a fascinating
characterization, best illustrated, perhaps, when he calms the
fears of a frightened woman (the wife of the man whose brain
he's used for his latest experiment), sending her off into the
night, only to close the door and turn to the camera and order,
"Pack! We're leaving!" Nonetheless, it's hard not to
admire the good Baron's tenacity or to cheer him on when he
tears apart a group of stuffed shirts. ("I'm afraid that
stupidity always brings out the worst in me.")
The remainder of the
cast is also first class, with Freddie Jones being perhaps the
most pitiable "monster" since Karloff's. Fisher was
always proud of pointing out that Jones was one of the few actors
he ever personally cast, and the normally eccentric character
actor (The Satanic Rites of Dracula,
The Man Who Haunted Himself) justifies
that pride in a performance that can truly be called heartbreaking;
witness the scene in which he confronts his wife (appalled by
the situation, as it's her husband's brain in a different, scarred
body), pathetically hiding himself behind a screen so as not
to frighten her.
On the technical front,
the film benefits from excellent production values: Bernard
Robinson's sets are believably "lived in" but never look cramped
or at all cheap, while Arthur Grant provides some lovely lighting
that even piles on a bit of colored gels from time to time (dig
that skeleton bathed in green in the Baron's lab). James Bernard's
score is one of his most underrated accomplishments, ranging
from dynamic fury to tender cues that underline the tragedy
of the scenario. A bit more downbeat than the average Hammer
horror film, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
is possibly their best exercise in Gothic horror.
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Warner
Bros' DVD release is a mixed bag. The 1.78 framing looks about
right, and colors are superb; a previous widescreen laser disc
release was pastel pale and much too soft, and this transfer corrects
that problem. Print quality is very good overall, with only some
speckling and minor damage around some reel changes. The infamous
rape scene between Cushing and Carlson is included in this uncut
presentation, though it has been included in all US video releases.
The film is enhanced for widescreen TVs.
Audio quality is where the disc loses some points — on the whole,
the 2.0 English track is much too soft and sections are offensively
muddled; in the final scenes, Bernard's frenzied music is drowned
out by sound effects, which is not the way I'm accustomed to this
film. Dialogue is also quite muffled during the scene in which
the police search Carlson's home. The alternate French track actually
sounds better in comparison.
Extras
are limited to a theatrical trailer, though it is sans the booming,
melodramatic narration heard in other editions. 5/05/04 |
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