Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed – 1969

A Seven Arts-Hammer Film production released through Warner-Pathe Distributors Limited (UK) and Warner-Seven Arts (USA) Copyright MCMLXIX Hammer Film Productions ltd. – All rights reserved
MPAAApproved Certificate No. 22109
The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the name, character, or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional
RCA Sound System
Produced at Associated British Studios, Elstree, London, England
Technicolor 97 mins
Storyline
Posing as Dr Fenner, Frankenstein moves into a boarding house run by Anna Spengler. She and her boyfriend, Karl, are involved in illegal drug dealing, using supplies which Karl gets from the asylum where he works. One of the patients there is Dr Barndt, an old associate of the Baron’s, who was driven hopelessly insane by their experiments and, when Frankenstein discovers Anna and Karl’s illicit activities, he blackmails them into helping him smuggle Brandt out of the asylum. For Brandt’s brain holds a secret which the Baron desperately needs and, in order to get it, he intends to operate on him and cure his insanity. But things go badly wrong during the escape when Brandt suffers a massive heart attack and now Frankenstein needs a healthy body into which he can transplant Brandt’s brain…..
Watch the trailer on YouTube
Crew
Function | Credited | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | |
Assistant Director | Bert Batt | 38 | 25 Apr 1930 | 6 Nov 2011 | 81 | 13 | |
Camera Operator | Neil Binney | 37 | 1 Jun 1931 | 90 | 17 | ||
Casting Director | Irene Lamb | 9 | |||||
Construction Manager | Arthur Banks | 18 | |||||
Continuity | Doreen Dearnaley | 40 | 20 Nov 1928 | 3 Feb 1992 | 63 | 13 | |
Directed by | Terence Fisher | 64 | 23 Feb 1904 | 18 Jun 1980 | 76 | 31 | |
Director of Photography | Arthur Grant, BSc | 54 | 1915 | 1972 | 57 | 30 | |
Editor | Gordon Hales | 53 | 1916 | 1994 | 78 | 1 | |
From an original story by | Anthony Nelson-Keys | 57 | 13 Nov 1911 | 19 Mar 1985 | 73 | 41 | |
From an original story by | Bert Batt | 38 | 25 Apr 1930 | 2011 | 80 | 13 | |
Hair Stylist | Pat McDermott | 39 | 1930 | 2015 | 85 | 5 | |
Make-up | Eddie Knight | 43 | 14 Mar 1925 | 27 Aug 1996 | 71 | 31 | |
Music Composed by | James Bernard | 43 | 20 Sep 1925 | 12 Jul 2001 | 75 | 24 | |
Musical Director | Philip Martell | 61 | 6 Oct 1907 | 11 Aug 1993 | 85 | 103 | |
Produced by | Anthony Nelson-Keys | 57 | 13 Nov 1911 | 19 Mar 1985 | 73 | 41 | |
Production Manager | Christopher Neame | 26 | 24 Dec 1942 | 12 Jun 2011 | 68 | 15 | |
Screenplay by | Bert Batt | 38 | 25 Apr 1930 | 2011 | 80 | 13 | |
Sound Editor | Don Ranasinghe | 40 | 21 Jun 1928 | 5 Aug 1978 | 50 | 1 | |
Sound Recordist | Ken Rawkins | 51 | 1918 | 1971 | 53 | 18 | |
Sound Supervisor | A.W. Lumkin | 55 | 2 Feb 1913 | 25 Oct 1985 | 72 | 30 | |
Special Effects | Studio Locations Limited | 1 | |||||
Supervising Art Director | Bernard Robinson | 56 | 28 Jul 1912 | 2 Mar 1970 | 57 | 46 | |
Wardrobe Mistress | Lottie Slattery | 1 | |||||
Wardrobe Supervisor | Rosemary Burrows | 36 |
Cast
Character | Actor | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Appearances |
Anna | Veronica Carlson | 24 | 18 Sep 1944 | 27 Feb 2022 | 77 | 3 |
Baron Frankenstein | Peter Cushing | 55 | 26 May 1913 | 11 Aug 1994 | 81 | 24 |
Dr Brandt | George Pravda | 50 | 19 Jun 1918 | 30 Apr 1985 | 66 | 1 |
Dr Heidecke | Jim Collier | 1 | ||||
Ella Brandt | Maxine Audley | 45 | 29 Apr 1923 | 23 Jul 1992 | 69 | 2 |
Guest | Frank Middlemass | 49 | 28 May 1919 | 8 Sep 2006 | 87 | 1 |
Guest | George Belbin | 48 | 16 Feb 1920 | 25 Jan 2008 | 87 | 2 |
Guest | Michael Gover | 55 | 31 Aug 1913 | 2 May 1987 | 73 | 1 |
Guest | Norman Shelley | 65 | 16 Feb 1903 | 22 Aug 1980 | 77 | 1 |
Inspector Frisch | Thorley Walters | 55 | 12 May 1913 | 6 Jul 1991 | 78 | 6 |
Karl | Simon Ward | 27 | 16 Oct 1941 | 20 Jul 2012 | 70 | 1 |
Mad Woman | Colette O'Neil | 34 | 18 Nov 1935 | 11 Jul 2021 | 85 | 1 |
Police Doctor | Geoffrey Bayldon | 44 | 7 Jan 1924 | 10 May 2017 | 93 | 3 |
Police Sergeant | Alan Surtees | 44 | 31 Dec 1924 | 1 Nov 2000 | 75 | 1 |
Police Sergeant | Windsor Davies | 38 | 28 Aug 1930 | 17 Jan 2019 | 88 | 1 |
Principal | Peter Copley | 53 | 20 May 1915 | 7 Oct 2008 | 93 | 3 |
Professor Richter | Freddie Jones | 41 | 12 Sep 1927 | 9 Jul 2019 | 91 | 2 |
Production
FILMING BEGAN | 13 January 1969 | |
UK RELEASE | 22 May 1969 | |
STUDIO | EMI-MGM Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England | Town street scenes |
LOCATION | Stanmore Hall, Wood Lane, Stanmore, Middlesex, England | Baron Frankenstein's hiding place house |
Tykes Water Lake & Bridge, Aldenham Country Park, Hertfordshire, England | Countryside horse and carriage riding scenes |
Footnotes
This was the last production to be designed by Bernard Robinson, whose death in 1970 represented an irreplaceable loss to Hammer.
This was also the last film to be produced for Hammer by Anthony Nelson Keys. In 1972, he produced “Nothing but the Night”, an unsuccessful occult thriller starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, the only film to come out of Lee’s own production company, Charlemagne. After that, Keys retired until his death in 1985.
The notorious rape scene was added to spice the proceedings up at the insistence of Hammer supremo James Carreras. It was kept to the absolute minimum by Terence Fisher, who, along with Peter Cushing and Veronica Carlson, felt the whole thing tasteless and unnecessary and detested making it. To make matters worse, the scene was written in after subsequent scenes had already been shot, so Veronica Carlson’s character shows absolutely no reaction at all to Frankenstein’s attack!
Details were complied viewing the actual film.
Source of viewing copy – The Hammer Graveyard Collection