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