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Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
[1969]
Country
of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1969
Running Times: 97 mins
Format: Technicolor 35mm
Ratio:
Sound: mono
CREDITS
PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Hammer
Films / Seven
Arts
Producer: Anthony Nelson Keys
Production Manager: Christopher Neame
SCRIPT
Script: Bert Batt
Story: Anthony Nelson Keys, Bert Batt
DIRECTION
Director: Terence Fisher
Assistant Director: Bert Batt
PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Arthur Grant
Camera Operator: Neil Binney
EDITING AND POST
PRODUCTION
Editor: Gordon Hales
MUSIC
Music: James Bernard
Musical Director: Philip Martell
SOUND
Sound Supervisor: Tony Lumkin
Sound Recording: Ken Rawkins
Sound Editor: Don Ranasinghe
Sound System: RCA Sound System
MAKE UP AND
COSTUMES
Make Up: Eddie Knight
Hair: Pat McDermott
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rosemary Burrows
Wardrobe Mistress: Lottie Slattery
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Studio Locations Limited
DESIGN AND SET
CONSTRUCTION
Supervising Art Director: Bernard Robinson
Construction Manager: Arthur Banks
MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Doreen Dearnaley
LOCATIONS
Locations: Associated British Studios, Elstree, London,
England, UK
CASTING
Casting Director: Irene Lamb
CAST
Peter Cushing [Baron Frankenstein]
Veronica Carlson [Anna]
Freddie Jones [Professor Richter]
Simon Ward [Karl]
Thorley Walters [Inspector Frisch]
Maxine Audley [Ella Brandt]
George Pravda [Dr Brandt]
Geoffrey Bayldon [police doctor]
Colette O'neil [Mad Woman]
Frank Middlemass, George Belbin, Norman Shelley, Michael
Gover [guests]
Peter Copley [principal]
Jim Collier [Dr Otto Heidecke]
Alan Surtees, Windsor Davies [police sergeants]
Harold Goodwin [burgler]
Daphne Oxenford [lady in garden]
Meadows White [nightwatchman]
Timothy Davies [policeman - uncredited]
Robert Davis [official - uncredited]
Caron Gardner [passer-by - uncredited]
Robert Gillespie [mortuary attendant - uncredited]
Michael Goldie [warder - uncredited]
Edward Higgins [workman - uncredited]
Elizabeth Morgan [Christina - uncredited]
Dorothy Smith [neighbour - uncredited]
SUMMARY
Frankenstein hides from
the law in a boarding house run by Anna Spengler whose
sick mother's nursing fees are paid for by a young doctor
at a nearby asylum, Karl, who steals drugs and sells them
on. Frankenstein blackmails Karl into releasing the
ailing Dr Brandt from the asylum so that he can learn the
secret of the brain freezing technique he developed
shortly before going insane. Frankenstein transplants
Brandt's brain into the body of a surgeon, with
disastrous results...
CAPSULE REVIEW
Hammer's Frankenstein
series took a turn for the extremely nasty in this dark
and despairing film that features one of Cushing's most
disturbing performances. This Frankenstein is a cynical
sexual sadist so monstrous that he now seems far less
human than his creations. Freddie Jones is quite
magnificent as the tortured Brandt / Richter and Fisher's
direction is some of his best work. A brutal and
disturbing film, it's also very moving and is one of the
highlights of Hammer's late-60s output.
AVAILABILITY
UK
Theatrical Release: Warner-Pathe Distributors Limited
USA
Theatrical Release: Warner-Seven Arts
CENSORSHIP HISTORY
Australia
Rating: M
Finland
Rating: banned in 1969
Sweden
Rating: 15
UK
Rating: X; 18
USA
Rating: unrated
TIMELINE
1969
May
22: UK - theatrical release
October
20: Sweden - theatrical release
February
11: USA - theatrical release
1991
August
14: Finland - television broadcast
POSTER TAGS
More monsterous than the monsters he
created!
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
El cerebro de Frankenstein - Spanish
title
Distruggete Frankenstein! - Italian title
Frankenstein död eller levande - Swedish title
Frankenstein muß sterben! - German title
Frankenstein on tuhottava - Finnish title
LINKS
SEQUEL TO
The Curse of
Frankenstein [1957]
The Revenge of
Frankenstein [1958]
The Evil of
Frankenstein [1964]
Frankenstein
Created Woman [1967]
SEQUELS
The Horror of
Frankenstein [1970]
Frankenstein and
the Monster from Hell [1974]
REFERENCES
BOOKS
English Gothic [2nd
edition] pp.156, 157-158
illustrated credits, review [by Jonathan Rigby]
The Hammer Story pp.126-127
illustrated article, review [by Marcus Hearn and Alan
Barnes], credits KEYWORDS
frankenstein; brains;
transplants; doctors; psychiatric hospitals; blackmail;
drugs; revenge; human experiments; scientists; corpses;
police; rape; sequels; boarding houses; brain surgery;
decapitation; insanity
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