''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' is a 1959 British
horror film, directed by
Terence Fisher
Terence Fisher (23 February 1904 – 18 June 1980) was a British film director best known for his work for Hammer Films.
He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, ...
and starring
Anton Diffring
Anton Diffring (born Alfred Pollack, 20 October 1916 – 19 May 1989) was a German-born character actor who had an extensive career in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1980s, latterly appearing in international films. He appeared in ove ...
,
Hazel Court
Hazel Court (10 February 1926 – 15 April 2008) was an English actress. She is known for her roles in British and American horror films during the 1950s and early 1960s, including Terence Fisher's ''The Curse of Frankenstein'' (1957) and ...
, and
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...
.
Jimmy Sangster
James Henry Kinmel Sangster (2 December 1927 – 19 August 2011) was a British screenwriter and director, most famous for his work on the initial horror films made by the British company Hammer Film Productions, Hammer Films, including ''The Cur ...
adapted the screenplay from the play ''
The Man in Half Moon Street
''The Man in Half Moon Street'' is a 1945 science fiction romantic melodrama dealing with a man who retains his youth and cannot die, living throughout the ages. The plot is similar to Oscar Wilde's '' Picture of Dorian Gray'', except that t ...
'' by
Barré Lyndon
Barré Lyndon (pseudonym of Alfred Edgar) (12 August 1896 – 23 October 1972) was a British playwright and screenwriter. The pseudonym was presumably taken from the title character of Thackeray's 1844 novel.
Born in London, he may be best rem ...
, which had been
previously filmed in 1945. ''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' was produced by
Michael Carreras
Michael Henry Carreras (21 December 1927 – 19 April 1994) was a British film producer and director. He was known for his association with Hammer Films, being the son of founder James Carreras, and taking an executive role in the compan ...
and
Anthony Nelson Keys
Anthony Nelson Keys (13 November 1911 – 19 March 1985) was a British film producer, best known of his work with Hammer Film Productions. His father was Nelson Keys and his brother John Paddy Carstairs.Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve clas ...
. It was released in the US on 19 August 1959 and in the UK on 30 November 1959.
Plot
In
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in 1890, Dr. Georges Bonnet, a doctor and hobbyist sculptor, abruptly ends the fashionable party he is hosting. Georges harbours a secret; though he appears to be in his mid-30s, he is actually 104-years-old, and has kept his youth and vitality through
parathyroid
Parathyroid glands are small endocrine glands in the neck of humans and other tetrapods. Humans usually have four parathyroid glands, located on the back of the thyroid gland in variable locations. The parathyroid gland produces and secretes par ...
gland transplants every 10 years. Professor Ludwig Weiss of Vienna, co-discoverer of this anti-ageing process, is three weeks late in arriving at Georges's home to perform the latest transplant. As a result, Georges must drink a steaming green elixir every six hours to stay young, though the elixir only buys him four weeks without the transplant. When Georges latest model, Margo Philippe, comes across Georges drinking the fluid, he strikes her down. When the 89-year-old Ludwig finally arrives, he reveals he will be unable to operate on Georges because a stroke has incapacitated his right hand. Ludwig instructs Georges to find another surgeon.
Surété Inspector LeGris begins to investigate Margo's disappearance and arrives at a dinner party hosted by Georges for Janine Du Bois, a former lover, and Dr. Pierre Gerrard. Georges denies knowing Margo's whereabouts and, when LeGris asks to see the bust of Margo, tells him that he accidentally destroyed it that morning. LeGris leaves and Georges admits to his startled guests that he lied, as the police would probably damage the bust if he turned it over to them. Secretly, Ludwig convinces Pierre to perform the transplant surgery, claiming that Georges is deathly ill and in urgent need of treatment.
After Janine and Pierre have left, Ludwig tells Georges that Pierre will operate. However, Ludwig has grown suspicious of Georges and says it is strange that this is the third of George's models who has gone missing around the time of his transplants. Ludwig discovers that the newest parathyroid gland is from a living person, instead of being "revitalized" from a corpse. When Ludwig confronts Georges that his actions are unjustified, George retorts that he revitalized four glands from corpses but they all died because Ludwig was late, adding to Georges's hatred of being alone in this world. Ludwig destroys the elixir to prevent Georges from continuing; Georges
strangles Ludwig to death.
Pierre arrives the following morning to perform the operation, but Georges tells him that Ludwig was unexpectedly called back to Vienna. Pierre refuses to carry on and suggests that Georges find another surgeon. Georges visits other surgeons in Paris to no avail. Meanwhile, LeGris tells Pierre of the disappearances of three young women at 10 year intervals - in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
- and that each modeled for a sculptor who was also doctor but disappeared at the same time as the models. With Margo also missing, LeGris believes Georges is responsible for all the disappearances, but Pierre doubts him, since that would place the suspect in his 60s.
Georges takes Janine to a storeroom which holds his sculptures and proudly shows her the first figurine he made as a boy at the age of 12. The figurine is dated 1798. Janine laughingly says the date must be incorrect because if it weren't, Georges would be 104. Georges abruptly leaves, locking Janine in the storeroom. He then goes to Pierre and tells him that he and Ludwig discovered the secret of "perpetual life" decades earlier, but he cannot reveal the secret to the world because if everyone could live forever, paradoxically, everyone would eventually die without a fresh supply of new parathyroid glands. Pierre, again, refuses to perform the transplant but relents when Georges threatens Janine's life. Janine finds a
mentally insane Margo imprisoned in the storeroom.
That night, Pierre fakes the operation by making the incision at Georges's waist but not transplanting the gland. Georges rushes to the storeroom as Pierre and LeGris follow. Georges tells Janine that the same operation will allow her to live forever, always young and beautiful and in love alongside him. She refuses. Suddenly, Georges begins ageing rapidly and realizes that Pierre did not perform the operation. As he exclaims he's dying, Margo throws an oil lamp on him, setting the storeroom ablaze. Pierre and LeGris rescue Janine as Georges and Margo die in the consuming flames.
Cast
''Credited:''
*
Anton Diffring
Anton Diffring (born Alfred Pollack, 20 October 1916 – 19 May 1989) was a German-born character actor who had an extensive career in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1980s, latterly appearing in international films. He appeared in ove ...
as Dr. Georges Bonnet
*
Hazel Court
Hazel Court (10 February 1926 – 15 April 2008) was an English actress. She is known for her roles in British and American horror films during the 1950s and early 1960s, including Terence Fisher's ''The Curse of Frankenstein'' (1957) and ...
as Janine Dubois
*
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...
as Dr. Pierre Gerrard
*
Arnold Marlé
Arnold Marlé (15 September 1887 – 21 February 1970) was a German actor who appeared largely in British films and television programmes.
Stage work
His theatre work included appearances on the London stage, and a year-and-a-half-long run on Br ...
as Prof. Ludwig Weiss
*
Delphi Lawrence
Delphi Lawrence (23 March 1932 – 11 April 2002) was an English actress.
She was educated at Halidon House School in Slough, Berkshire, whilst living in Colnbrook.
Born to Barbara Yvonne ( Enever) and Louis Holzman, who wed in 1930, she wa ...
as Margo Phillipe
*
Francis de Wolff
Francis Marie de Wolff (7 January 191318 April 1984) was an English character actor. Large, bearded, and beetle-browed, he was often cast as villains in both film and television.
Life and career
Born in Essex, he made his film debut in ''Flame ...
as Insp. LeGris
''Uncredited:''
* Gerda Larsen as Street Girl
* Middleton Woods as Little Man
*
Denis Shaw
Denis Shaw (7 February 1921 – 28 February 1971) was a British character actor specialising in slimy villains. Born in Dulwich as Douglas Findlay Shaw, he was a rotund man, with dark, wavy hair and slanty eyes. This appearance meant he would ...
as Tavern Customer
* Ian Hewitson as Roger
* Frederick Rawlings as Footman
*
Marie Burke
Marie Burke (born Marie Rosa Altfuldisch, later Holt, 18 October 189421 March 1988) was an English actress of stage, cinema and television. She appeared in over 40 films between 1917 and 1971, and appeared in TV series between 1953 and 1969.
B ...
as Woman
*
Charles Lloyd-Park as Man
* John Harrison as Servant
*
Lockwood West
Harry Lockwood West (28 July 1905 – 28 March 1989) was a British actor. He was the father of actor Timothy West and the grandfather of actor Samuel West.
Life and career
West was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England in 1905, the son of Mildr ...
as 1st Doctor
*
Ronald Adam
General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, 2nd Baronet, (30 October 1885 – 26 December 1982) was a senior British Army officer. He had an important influence on the conduct of the British Army during the Second World War as a result of his long tenure ...
as 2nd Doctor
*
Barry Shawin as 3rd Doctor
Production
The lead role of Bonnet was originally offered to
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...
, who turned it down six days before shooting started. Cushing's reason was that he was completely exhausted 'following the shooting of ''
The Hound of the Baskervilles
''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set i ...
'' (1959), which had just wrapped up'. The loss of Cushing caused Hammer to threaten legal action against him. However, Cushing had not signed a final contract with Hammer, and nothing could be done,
although an angry
Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
, which was partly financing and distributing the film, 'relegated to picture to the lower half of double bills in the States'.
The lead went to Diffring, who had played it 18 months earlier in the British ABC-TV adaptation of ''The Man in Half Moon Street'', an episode of the programme ''Hour of Mystery''.
ABC was part of the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
commercial consortium and broadcast primarily in the Midlands and North of England.
Filming of ''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' took place between 17 November and 30 December 1958 at
Bray Studios
Bray Productions was a pioneering American animation studio that produced several popular cartoons during the years of World War I and the early interwar era, becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the ...
. Its working title was ''The Man in the Rue Noire''.
The European release of the film featured a scene in which Court appeared topless. She was paid 'an extra £2000 ($5,600 in 1959 dollars)' for the scene, in which she is posing for a sculpture made by Diffring's character. The stone bust of Janine that is shown repeatedly in the film is in fact 'a plaster cast made from Court's torso'.
The scene does not appear in the UK or US prints and the footage is 'unfortunately lost (...) although a photo exists'.
A scene in which
Michael Ripper
Michael George Ripper (27 January 1913 – 28 June 2000) was an English character actor.
He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown; he was seldom credited. Along with Michael Gough ...
portrayed a morgue attendant was cut from the film's release print.
''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' was granted an X-certificate by the
BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
on 8 April 1959. The X-cert meant that the film could only be exhibited to people age 16 or older. The film was cut in order to get the certificate, which allowed it to be shown in the UK, but the details of what or how much was cut are unknown.
Distribution
''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' was distributed in the UK and the US by Paramount.
The film was first screened at the London Trade Show on 5 June 1959. It went into general release in the UK on 30 November 1959 as the first film on a double bill with ''
The Evil That is Eve'' (1957). However, the movie was in general release earlier in the US, where it opened on 19 August 1959.
The film was still being shown in US movie theatres into the 1960s. For example, it was the second film in a triple feature - between ''
The Black Orchid'' (1958) and ''Maracaibo'' (1959) - at the Mt Lebanon Drive-In in Lebanon PA on 19 July 1963. Two years later, the movie continued to be at the bottom of a double bill. On 7 May 1965, it ran as the second film to ''
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
''Dr Terror's House of Horrors'' is a 1965 British anthology horror film from Amicus Productions, directed by veteran horror director Freddie Francis, written by Milton Subotsky, and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
It was the fi ...
'' (1965) at three theatres in San Francisco - the New Mission Theatre, the El Rancho Drive-In and the Esquire Theatre - as well as at theatres in the surrounding
East Bay
The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa countie ...
communities of Oakland, Fremont, Hayward and San Leandro.
For home viewing in the UK, the video was given a 12 certificate by the BBFC on 28 August 2015 for 'limited' but 'moderate injury detail', which includes scarred faces, rapid ageing, strangulation and death by fire.
The first US release of a video of the film was on 21 October 2008.
Reception
''The'' ''Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films'' calls the film an "odd mish-mash of mad scientist sci-fi flick and gothic flannel" that "suffers from an excess of dialogue and a lack of action."
This assessment is reflected in other contemporary reviews. Film scholar Chris Fellner quotes several: the 20 June 1959 issue of ''
Harrison's Reports
''Harrison's Reports'' was a New York City-based motion picture trade journal published weekly from 1919 to 1962. The typical issue was four letter-size pages sent to subscribers under a second-class mail permit. Its founder, editor and publisher ...
'' says that the movie's 'chief drawback' is 'that it is given more to talk than to movement'; ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
''
's issue of 24 June 1959 calls it 'well acted and intelligently conceived. But invention and embellishment in this field appear to have been exhausted', and the ''
Motion Picture Exhibitor'' issue of 1 July 1959 describes ''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' as suffering from 'relying mainly on talk'.
''
Motion Picture Daily
''Motion Picture Daily'' was an American daily magazine focusing on the film industry. It was published by Quigley Publishing Company, which also published the ''Motion Picture Herald''. The magazine was formed by the merging of three existing Qui ...
'' thought it was "a surprisingly effective, even literate treatment of the oft-used premise" and closed with, "One final word of praise for Hammer: (the picture) reflects top production values and acting is far from slipshod. The Technicolor print is something to behold." At the time of its release, reviewers consistently noted the effect of Technicolor and high production values. If there are problems with the film elements currently available, then we may not be getting the full visual impact that audiences in 1959 experienced.
The film is referred to by journalist Howard Maxford as a 'commercial and artistic disaster' and a 'bog standard surgical thriller' that is 'by no means a Hammer classic'. He calls Terence Fisher's direction 'curiously unambitious', characterised by 'many scenes filmed in lengthy, static takes, almost as if from the stalls of a theatre'. Maxford also dislikes the 'Bright, bland lighting' and 'garish Technicolor film stock' which together 'make for some visually tedious and unattractive images'.
On the other hand, film scholar Phil Hardy writes that visually the film 'looks like one of Hammer's more lavish productions', although it is a 'minor item' in Fisher's work. He describes the movie as having a 'perfunctory script', which makes it a 'rather awkward variation on the
Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian G ...
motif'.
In the 'Hazel Court' chapter of ''Scream Queens: Heroines of the Horrors'', author Calvin Thomas Beck praises the performances of the three main actors. He writes that Diffring shows 'unique and excellent villainy' and is a 'magnificent heavy who has been shamefully neglected by filmmakers'. Court, he writes, is a 'fine, striking actress at all times' who 'screams and cringes properly' during the movie. He calls ''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' one of her 'finest British thrillers'. Beck also notes that Lee 'unexpectedly reversed his monster-villain image' in the film.
Author 'Bobb' Carter agrees with Beck's view of Court's performance. Carter calls it 'on the whole (...) a solid, impassioned performance that makes it a shame that this was her last role for Hammer', even though her character, Janine, has the 'distressing trait of not being able to smell something fishy even if there was a whale in the room'.
Other critics disagree about the quality of the acting in the film. Maxford calls Diffring's performance 'cold-eyed' and suggests that 'audiences were more used to seeing
implaying ruthless Nazis',
while Hardy says that 'Lee simply walks through his part'.
Novelisation
The screenplay of ''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' was rewritten as an inexpensive paperback novel in 1959. It was published in the US by
Avon Books
Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reach ...
and sold for 35¢, with the authors named as 'Barre' Lyndon and Jimmy Sangster. In the UK, where the book sold for 2/6,
Ace Books
Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first scienc ...
listed the author as John Sansom, the pen name of Sangster.
References
Sources
*
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Man Who Could Cheat Death, The
1959 films
1959 horror films
1950s fantasy films
British science fiction films
1950s English-language films
Films directed by Terence Fisher
British films based on plays
Films scored by Richard Rodney Bennett
Films set in Paris
Films set in the 1890s
Films shot at Bray Studios
British remakes of American films
Hammer Film Productions horror films
Films with screenplays by Jimmy Sangster
1950s British films