Waste of Money.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Paris 1890: A doctor and sculptor called Georges Bonnet (Anton Diffring) has discovered the secret of immortality. Every ten years he commits murder and removes the victim's parathyroid gland to replace his own. However, after 104 years his surgeon, Ludwig (Arnold Marle), who knows his secret is too old to perform the necessary operation. Bonnet, in desperation to save his life, blackmails a young surgeon, Dr Pierre Gerard (Christopher Lee) into doing it for him by kidnapping and threatening the life of the girl both men love, Janine De Bois (Hazel Court)...Inevitably tame nowadays compared with contemporary horrors and, indeed, with some of the stuff Hammer were turning out even at that time. Nevertheless, this is still a rewarding early offering from that studio and its best known director Terence Fisher. The screenplay by Jimmy Sangster at times plods along like a tedious drawing room play - it was, after all, adapted from a stage play by Barre Lyndon - but it is rich in period detail thanks to impeccable costume design and Bernard Robinson (the production designer) was a master at turning out lavish looking sets giving the films the impression of being more expensive than was actually the case. Hammer's master cinematographer, Jack Asher, sees to it that the film has a dreamlike quality with its wash of warm yellows and the luminous greens of Diffring's laboratory. Fisher succeeds in generating maximum suspense where the opportunity affords like when Diffring abducts Court and reveals his intention to make her like him thus preserving her beauty and keeping his lover under his thumb forever. It is up to Christopher Lee and the police inspector, Francis De Wolfe, to save her. But can they? With three of Hammer's top talents involved, the general mood of the work is enough to carry it through despite its shortcomings in the script and shock department.

Anton Diffring is Dr. Georges Bonner, a physician with an eye for sculpting beautiful ladies, and when provoked by mysterious mood-swings (which require a smoking green potion to bring him down), literally loves them to death! What is causing his homicidal tendencies? Only one person seems to know the answer, and he is Dr. Ludwig Weiss (Arnold Marle'), a visiting doctor who at first seems to be Dr. Bonner's mentor until a shocking truth is revealed. The fact that he wants to involve the beautiful Hazel Court in his evil discovery brings the sinister past of this doomed soul to light, covering a series of murders of women strangled after having their busts sculpted.This is a fascinating study of a megalomaniac so consumed with his own immortality that he doesn't consider the people that he loves with desires so selfish and cunning. You know that his come-uppance is going to be delicious just like the fates of so many monstrous humans in horror films that utilized the talents God gave them for their own ends which resulted in a lavish destruction. Delphi Lawrence is pathetically memorable as one of Diffring's victims while Court is a combination of loveliness and charm who must suddenly turn to stupidity when Diffring locks her in a basement laboratory and simply sits there waiting to be left out. Christopher Lee gets to be a little bit more sedate and non-villainous as a doctor acquaintance of Diffring's who is shocked by what he learns. Marle' is the heart of the story, an elderly doctor filled with regret by what he did in his past in the name of scientific discovery and must now pay for his part in Diffring's devilish plot.

"The Man Who Could Cheat Death" is certainly entertaining, with the kind of period recreation and atmosphere that the Hammer studio always did so well. The acting is first rate and the story is a pretty good one. The problem is that one can tell this derived from a stage work, as it gets bogged down in talk without having too many really good horror moments.Previously filmed as "The Man in Half Moon Street", it tells the tale of an eminent doctor, Georges Bonnet (Anton Diffring, who stepped into the role after Peter Cushing backed out) who dabbles in sculpting. Bonnet is maintaining a pretty big secret: he's actually a LOT older than he looks, managing to stay healthy and youthful looking by a scientific process involving removing glands from unwilling donors. An old girlfriend of his, Janine Du Bois (the lovely scream queen Hazel Court) wants to come back into his life, despite being involved with a surgeon named Pierre Gerrard (Sir Christopher Lee). It's up to Gerrard and the intrepid Inspector Legris (Francis De Wolff) to do something to stop the mad doctor.The film has an impressive pedigree, with frequent Hammer director Terence Fisher doing a more than capable job, and Jimmy Sangster (Fisher, Lee, and Sangster, having previously done "The Curse of Frankenstein" and "Dracula" together) writing the script. The settings of late 19th century Paris are moodily photographed, and the music score composed by Richard Rodney Bennett is excellent. The cast has a field day with the material, with Diffring managing to be equal parts demented and sympathetic. It's nice to see Lee in a heroic role, and in support Arnold Marle and De Wolff do great work.Hammer completists will want to see this but due to the films' more-talk-than-action nature, it won't be for all horror fans. Still, with the amount of talent in front of and behind the camera, it does have a fair bit going for it.Six out of 10.

The Man Who Could Cheat Death is directed by Terence Fisher and adapted to screenplay by Jimmy Sangster from the Barré Lyndon play The Man in Half Moon Street. It stars Anton Diffring, Hazel Court, Christopher Lee, Arnold Marlé, Francis de Wolff and Delphi Lawrence. Out of Hammer Film Productions, music is by Richard Rodney Bennett and Technicolor photography by Jack Asher.Paris 1890 and sculptor Georges Bonnet (Diffring) has perfected a way to halt the aging process. Trouble is that it involves murdering young women so as to extract their parathyroid gland to formulate his eternal life elixir.Disappointingly weak Hammer Horror that would be near unwatchable were it not for the efforts of Asher, Fisher and Bernard Robinson (production design). The source story is made to measure for Hammer, where berserker science mixes with Gothic murder tones, all the ingredients are there for a lively fusion of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with The Picture of Dorian Gray. But the film is more concerned with much talking and posturing, thinking that sci-fi babble and moral quandaries are going to keep things interesting. We of course want some meat and reasoning for main characters to impact on the plotting, but using up an hour for it, in a film that only runs an hour and twenty minutes, leaves very little room for thrills and drama. It also demands that the finale be explosive, a whirlwind of horror revelations and biting comeuppance, sadly the ending we get is rather a damp squib.Things aren't helped by the casting of Diffring, who overacts far to often, or that Lee is underwritten and firmly disinterested in making the thin characterisation work. Court looks ravishing and gives the film its best performance, but she is also hindered by a bare bones script from the usually excellent Sangster. The story just plods to its inevitable conclusion, the screenplay never daring to veer away from the safe formula road. While much of the detective work from de Wolff's Inspector LeGris leaves a great deal to be desired. On the plus side it looks real nice, a triumph over low budget restrictions, the minimal sets dressed in period splendour, the colour sizzling and Fisher uses wide shots to make certain scenes that are played out on tiny sets actually look expansive.Devoid of up-tempo terror and finishing on a whimper, this is very much average Hammer and not easily recommended to the horror faithful. 5/10