EDITOR’S NOTE: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed was on the CBS Late Movie on March 10 and July 19, 1972 and November 23, 1973.

There’s a moment in this movie where Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) assaults Anna Spiegler (Veronica Carlson) that was filmed over the objections of Cushing, Carlson and director Terence Fisher, who finally ended shooting when he felt enough was enough. This moment isn’t even in the original script but was added at the demand of Hammer executive James Carreras, who was under pressure to keep the American distributors happy. The fact that a rape scene is what it took is pretty upsetting,

The film starts in a lab where a thief has broken in. By the time he starts his crime, a masked man has broken in as well and decapitated a doctor. The thief reports the crime to the police as the masked man reveals himself to be Dr. Frankenstein, now known as Mr. Fenner. He’s renting a room from Anna, whose fiancee, Karl Holst (Simon Ward), is one of the doctors overseeing the care of Frankenstein’s assistant, Dr. Frederick Brandt (George Pravda).

Karl has a secret. He’s been stealing narcotics to treat Anna’s mother, a fact that Frankenstein uses against him. They work together to free Brandt, and Karl even kills a man in the middle of a robbery, further giving the doctor power over him.

After Brandt has a heart attack, they take his brain and place it into the body of Professor Richter (Freddie Jones). When his wife refuses to accept him because of his horrifying appearance, he goes wild. By the end, he’s poured liquid paraffin all over his house and lures the doctor there, planning to burn him alive or put him out of commission long enough until the next movie in the series, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell. Yes, I realize there’s also The Horror of Frankenstein, but that movie is a remake of Curse of Frankenstein and has Ralph Bates in the lead role.