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	Name	Age at Release	Birth		Death	Age	Hammer Productions
	Click a link for more info						Credited	Uncredited	Total
Associate Producer	Anthony Nelson-Keys	48	13 Nov 1911		19 Mar 1985	73	41		41
Ast. Director	John Peverall	28	1 Jan 1931		3 Oct 2009	78	21		21
Camera Operator	Len Harris	43	19 May 1916		21 Feb 1995	78	52	1	53
Continuity	Shirley Barnes						2		2
Director	Terence Fisher	55	23 Feb 1904		18 Jun 1980	76	31		31
Director of Photog.	Jack Asher BSc	43	29 Mar 1916		Apr 1991	75	14		14
Editor	John Dunsford	33	11 Oct 1926		1995	68	5		5
From a play by	Barre Lyndon	63	12 Aug 1896		23 Oct 1972	76	1		1
Hair Stylist	Henry Montsash	54	17 Sep 1905		29 Sep 1974	69	16		16
Make-up Artist	Roy Ashton	50	16 Apr 1909		10 Jan 1995	85	36	4	40
Music Composer	Richard Bennett	23	29 Mar 1936		24 Dec 2012	76	3	1	4
Musical Supervisor	John Hollingsworth	43	20 Mar 1916		29 Dec 1963	47	36	2	38
Producer	Michael Carreras	31	21 Dec 1927		19 Apr 1994	66	82	3	85
Production Designer	Bernard Robinson	47	28 Jul 1912		2 Mar 1970	57	46	3	49
Production Manager	Don Weeks	55	15 Nov 1904		Mar 1988	83	30		30
Screenplay	Jimmy Sangster	31	2 Dec 1927		19 Aug 2011	83	65	2	67
Sound Recordist	Jock May	54	1 Jan 1905		8 Jan 1991	86	30	1	31
Supervising Editor	James Needs	40	17 Oct 1919		4 Feb 2003	83	110	1	111
Wardrobe	Molly Arbuthnot	50	19 Dec 1908		31 Oct 2001	92	48	4	52
Uncredited
Focus Puller	Harry Oakes	38	16 Jan 1921		11 Dec 2012	91		53	53
Footman	Frederick Rawlings	44	19 Aug 1915		2003	87	1	3	4
Master Plasterer	Arthur Banks						18	29	47
Second Doctor	Ronald Adam	62	31 Dec 1896		26 Mar 1979	82		1	1
Third Ast. Director	Hugh Harlow	20	17 Jun 1939	17.06.1939		83	3	28	31

Cast


Character	Actor	Age at Release	Birth	Death	Age	Hammer Productions
	Click a link for more info					Credited	Uncredited	Total
Art Lover	Charles Lloyd-Pack	57	10 Oct 1902	22 Dec 1983	81	8		8
Georges Bonner	Anton Diffring	43	20 Oct 1916	19 May 1989	72	3		3
Inspector Legris	Francis De Wolff	46	7 Jan 1913	18 Apr 1984	71	3	1	4
Janine Dubois	Hazel Court	33	10 Feb 1926	15 Apr 2008	82	2		2
Ludwig	Arnold Marle	72	15 Sep 1887	21 Feb 1970	82	4		4
Margo	Delphi Lawrence	27	23 Mar 1932	11 Apr 2002	70	3		3
Pierre Gerard	Christopher Lee	37	27 May 1922	7 Jun 2015	93	22		22
Street Girl	Gerda Larsen					1		1
Uncredited
First Doctor	Lockwood West	54	28 Jul 1905	28 Mar 1989	83	2	1	3
Guest at Private Viewing	Fred Stroud						3	3
Little Man	Middleton Woods	73	20 Sep 1886	1974	87	2	2	4
Morgue Attendant	Michael Ripper	46	27 Jan 1913	28 Jun 2000	87	34	2	36
Roget	Ian Hewiston						2	2
Servant	John Harrison						2	2
Tavern Customer	Louis Matto	49	16 Aug 1910	16 Apr 1989	78		4	4
Tavern Customer	Denis Shaw	38	7 Apr 1921	28 Feb 1971	49	4	3	7
Tavern Customer	John Timberlake	54	5 Dec 1904	8 Nov 1993	88		3	3
Tavern Customer	Renee Cunliffe						1	1
Third Doctor	Barry Shawzin	30	21 Jun 1929	28 Mar 1968	38		2	2
Woman at Private View	Marie Burke	65	18 Oct 1894	21 Mar 1988	93	3	1	4

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