Customer Reviews

The Man Who Could Cheat Death

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This Hammer Studios film is one of their lesser known but better films.
A remake of a 1940's era film "The Man in Half-Moon Street", this one has
a more sensationalized approach and benefits from the presence of Anton
Diffring in the title role. Christopher Lee is the "good" guy but this
great actor's aloofness may have you rooting for the title character
instead (no offense Chris; we're just used to seeing you in villianous
roles). Beautiful sets, gorgeous color, great actors including the late,
great Hazel Court and a breezy short running time make this a winner all
the way.

I really enjoyed watching this film I did not know as a kid. It has no much action compared with other Hammer entries around this time (Horror of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein). However, the film is really good at a more philosophical side as it deals with the positive and negative considerations of achieving eternal life. These two sides are illustrated by a partneship of two fellow scientists. On top of this you get the character played by the great Christopher Lee. This last aspect makes worth enough to get a copy of this DVD release. Except for the first 3 min or so, the digital transfer is pretty good. The film is close captioned in English and no extras are available except for a scene selection tool.

The Man Who Cheated Death


First Impressions:

This was one of the few Hammer films I have seen where Christopher Lee plays a sophisticated good guy in this fascinating horror film. This film is a remake of "The Man in Half Moon Street" (1945).

Georges Bonnet is on the hunt for glands! He sneaks around at night and kills the occasional person to get the gland and replenishes the one in his body -- after all, he is not getting any older at 104! And he doesn't look a day over 35!

He tires of going from place to place to change his identity before anyone notices that he does not age. Sadly, he goes into a rage and turns green with an acid touch if he does not get his gland or, a liquid substitute.

Story & Plot: I really liked the acting of Anton Diffring as Bonnet. He has an intense stare and is somewhat crazy to begin with, so the character really comes through as a frustrated, lonely man who, though he has discovered a way to immortality (at the expense of others), has no love.

Christopher Lee plays a surgeon who is slated to take over for another surgeon (Bonnet's pal) who was unexpectedly killed by Bonnet when challenged about the immorality of his quest for immortality. Oops!

There's a minor love story in there somewhere, kinda slapped together. The fun is in the horror. :)

The ending is quite ironic. A must-see!

Cast & Crew:

Director:
Terence Fisher
Writers:
Barré Lyndon (play), Jimmy Sangster (screenplay)
Stars:
Anton Diffring, Hazel Court and Christopher Lee

[The DVD is average with scene selection and music, and not much else!]

THIS MOVIE DOES NOT HAVE THE GREATEST SPECIAL EFFECTS BUT IT HAS A GREAT STORY PLOT AND WILL NOT BORE YOU. I THINK IT'S WORTH WATCHING.

'The Man Who Could Cheat Death' is indeed about a man who could (and did) cheat death. Problem is, that's basically ALL it's about. That's it. Once you've read the film's title, you've pretty much seen the movie and all it has to offer . . . . with ONE exception: Christopher Lee, giving a very subdued but highly effective performance. If you're like me, you're used to seeing him in (and excel at) more over-the-top roles, and you will be surprised at how reserved he is in this film, proving that he's equally as strong an actor on either side of the spectrum.
Unfortunately, even the great Mr. Lee cannot save this film from lumbering along, merely mildly diverting us instead of exuding any genuine interest or excitement. Director Terence Fisher, who is responsible for the majority of Hammer Films' best and most dynamic films, gives this movie none of his trademark flair or gothic flavor.
It's far from a TERRIBLE movie; one of the nice things about Hammer Films is that even with lesser films like this one, they're almost always perfectly watchable (which doesn't sound like much of a compliment, but I hope you know what I mean). Overall, on the Hammer scale, I'd place 'The Man Who Could Cheat Death' on the lower end of the "middling" class: below such middling films as 'The Phantom of the Opera' and 'The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb' (and FAR below such classics as 'The Curse of Frankenstein' and 'Horror of Dracula'), but still easily much better than the majority of Hammer's output in the 1970s . . . now some of THOSE movies were dreadful!

I'm one of the countless fans of this movie, very pleased it's on DVD at last... but is it? And if it is, then WHERE is it? How come it's unavailable within 48 hours of its release? What's going on? Can someone, anyone, explain?
UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!!!
Here is the latest info, dated Thursday October 9th 2008... from the nice polite folks at Legend Films, who responded to my email immediately...
and there's some interesting info re. Best Buy...

"We did ship in Amazon's initial order of DVDs which went amazingly quickly. They placed their reorder on Monday and the shipment got into Amazon's warehouse last night. I believe if you go online now, you will see that it is available. The title is on full release now, which means as Amazon runs out of stock, they will place a reorder and it should never be more than a 3-4 day backorder for the title.
We do know that Best Buy has still made no efforts to correct issues with online ordering as well as shipping internationally, which is the precise reason we took back the title from them."