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 | 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