I will never tire of these films

One thing I've been remiss is complimenting with the Hammer Horror Frankenstein films is Peter Cushing's performance in the lead role. His Frankenstein is driven, singularly amoral in his scientific quest, witty, callous, ruthless, dangerous, and physically active. In most of the films, it's made him a kind of anti-hero. In Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!, he goes full villain... and I don't like it. There are two moments specifically that go beyond his usual amorality and slip into evil for evil's sake - when he smiles at his unwilling assistant's corruption, and when he rapes said assistant's fiancée - both an unforgivable rewriting of the character. I get it thematically, he's a violator of the flesh, but it's gratuitous in the film. After that, there's no pretense of it being fun. Director Terence Fisher, early on, cuts for the joke, as he did in Frankenstein Created Woman, but this quickly turns into a more dour affair, with a less interesting plot despite Cushing's blazing performance. If only he wasn't betrayed by the script.