The Man Who Could Cheat Death – 1959

A Hammer production released by Paramount Pictures
Copyright MCMLIX by Cadogan Films Ltd.
MPAA Approved Certificate No. 19176
RCA Sound Recording
Produced at Bray Studio
Colour by Technicolor 83 mins
Storyline
Georges Bonner has a terrible secret. Although he has the appearance of someone in his thirties, he is in fact over a hundred years old! But his eternal youth comes at a price – every ten years he must undergo a pituitary gland transplant carried out by his scientific partner, Ludwig, and, in the period leading up to the operation, take a potion distilled from glands to stay alive.
Bonner is horrified when Ludwig, now an old man, arrives for the operation, but is unable to perform it because of a stroke he has just suffered. Desperate, and driven nearly insane by the fear of old age and death, he resorts to kidnapping, blackmail and murder in a last-ditch effort to force another surgeon, Pierre Gerard, to take Ludwig’s place.
Watch the original trailer on YouTube
Crew
Function | Credited | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits |
Assistant Director | John Peverall | 28 | 1931 | 3 Oct 2009 | 78 | 21 |
Associate Producer | Anthony Nelson-Keys | 47 | 13 Nov 1911 | 19 Mar 1985 | 73 | 41 |
Camera Operator | Len Harris | 42 | 19 May 1916 | 21 Feb 1995 | 78 | 52 |
Continuity | Shirley Barnes | 2 | ||||
Directed by | Terence Fisher | 54 | 23 Feb 1904 | 18 Jun 1980 | 76 | 31 |
Director of Photography | Jack Asher, BSc | 42 | 29 Mar 1916 | 1 Apr 1991 | 75 | 14 |
Editor | John Dunsford | 32 | 11 Oct 1926 | 1995 | 68 | 5 |
From a play by | Barre Lyndon | 62 | 12 Aug 1896 | 23 Oct 1972 | 76 | 1 |
Hair Stylist | Henry Montsash | 53 | 17 Sep 1905 | 29 Sep 1974 | 69 | 16 |
Make-up Artist | Roy Ashton | 49 | 16 Apr 1909 | 10 Jan 1995 | 85 | 36 |
Music Composed by | Richard Bennett | 22 | 29 Mar 1936 | 24 Dec 2012 | 76 | 3 |
Musical Supervisor | John Hollingsworth | 42 | 20 Mar 1916 | 29 Dec 1963 | 47 | 36 |
Produced by | Michael Carreras | 31 | 21 Dec 1927 | 19 Apr 1994 | 66 | 82 |
Production Designer | Bernard Robinson | 46 | 28 Jul 1912 | 2 Mar 1970 | 57 | 46 |
Production Manager | Don Weeks | 54 | 15 Nov 1904 | 1 Mar 1988 | 83 | 30 |
Screenplay by | Jimmy Sangster | 31 | 2 Dec 1927 | 19 Aug 2011 | 83 | 65 |
Sound Recordist | Jock May | 54 | 1905 | 8 Jan 1991 | 86 | 30 |
Supervising Editor | James Needs | 39 | 17 Oct 1919 | 2003 | 83 | 110 |
Wardrobe | Molly Arbuthnot | 50 | 19 Dec 1908 | 31 Oct 2001 | 92 | 48 |
Cast
Character | Actor | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Appearances |
Art Lover | Charles Lloyd-Pack | 56 | 10 Oct 1902 | 22 Dec 1983 | 81 | 8 |
Georges Bonner | Anton Diffring | 42 | 20 Oct 1916 | 19 May 1989 | 72 | 3 |
Inspector Legris | Francis De Wolff | 45 | 7 Jan 1913 | 18 Apr 1984 | 71 | 3 |
Janine Dubois | Hazel Court | 32 | 10 Feb 1926 | 15 Apr 2008 | 82 | 2 |
Ludwig | Arnold Marle | 71 | 15 Sep 1887 | 21 Feb 1970 | 82 | 4 |
Margo | Delphi Lawrence | 26 | 23 Mar 1932 | 11 Apr 2002 | 70 | 3 |
Pierre Gerard | Christopher Lee | 36 | 27 May 1922 | 7 Jun 2015 | 93 | 22 |
Street Girl | Gerda Larsen | 1 |
Production
FILMING BEGAN | 17 November 1958 | |
UK RELEASE | 30 November 1959 | |
STUDIO | Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England |
Footnotes
The film was based on the play “The Man in Half Moon Street”, which had already been filmed by Paramount in 1944, with Nils Asther and Helen Walker and directed by Ralph Murphy.
Anton Diffring became a familiar face, usually playing Nazis in war films such as “The Heroes of Telemark” (1965) and “Where Eagles Dare” (1968). He also appeared in the occasional horror film, e.g. “Circus of Horrors” (1960) and Amicus’s “The Beast Must Die” (1974, with Peter Cushing). His last film for Hammer was the Hong Kong based martial arts movie “Shatter” (1974); he also had the misfortune of starring in their doomed fiasco, the TV pilot “Tales of Frankenstein” (1958).
Details were complied viewing the actual film.
Source of viewing copy – The Hammer Graveyard Collection