8 Classic Hammer Horror Films You Need To See

A brilliant sculptor and doctor Georges Bonnet seems to have it all: the adulation of the Paris art-set and a successful clinic of his own. He has the world at his feet but underneath it all he hides a dark secret: he is 104 years old and he needs to have glandular transplantation every decade in his quest for eternal life.

This 1959 film starring Anton Diffring, Hazel Court and Christopher Lee, and directed by Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher, is a mix of sci-fi and creature feature, with a dash of Gothic flair that the company was well known for, but yet it somehow works. Mainly, if truth be told, due to the choice of cast.

Diffring excels in the lead, playing Bonnet as a man afraid of death but one who you feel sympathy towards as he is totally alone and Hazel Court's Janine Dubois is so blinded by love that she can't see the monster that Bonnet really is.

As for Christopher Lee, well he's Christopher Lee, so what else do you need to know?

A slow burn of a film, something Hammer could do better than most, The Man Who Could Cheat Death is great little film with only one problem. How come everyone in France spoke perfect English back then?