The late Christopher Lee has one of the most prolific acting careers in cinematic history, known for such iconic roles as Dracula and the evil Count Dooku. However, one of Lee’s most underrated roles came in 1959 with the British sci-fi film The Man Who Could Cheat Death, a Hammer Films picture that asks the simple question: what if one could achieve eternal life through murder?
Directed by horror veteran Terrence Fisher, who would frequently collaborate with Lee in his career after The Man Who Could Cheat Death, the film follows Dr. Georges Bonnet (Anton Diffring), a Parisian physician and sculptor who’s unlocked the secret to prolonging his life through an unusual medical procedure every ten years; Christopher Lee plays his opposite in Dr. Pierre Gerrard, a dignified surgeon caught in a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly love triangle with Bonnet. One part Dorian Gray and another part Frankenstein, The Man Who Could Cheat Death is a hidden horror gem, and one of the best obscure sci-fi movies you can stream on Amazon Prime Video today.
Christopher Lee’s The Man Who Could Cheat Death Deserves More Attention
The Film Fantastically Blends Gothic Horror And Sci-Fi
The Man Who Could Cheat Death takes place in 1890 Paris, where Dr. Georges Bonnet, a man who appears to be in his mid to late 30s, is actually 104 years old and has maintained his youthful appearance through a procedure involving parathyroid gland transplants performed every ten years. In the film, Bonnet anxiously awaits the arrival of his surgeon, Professor Ludwig Weiss (Arnold Marlé), whose late arrival has forced the physician to resort to survival via a green elixir that he can only use for a month.
After Professor Weiss arrives and reveals that a stroke has left his right hand incapacitated, Bonnet is forced to seek out the help of Dr. Gerrard in the procedure. Meanwhile, the pressure around Bonnet increases amid a police investigation into the disappearances of several women and the increasingly suspicious Professor Weiss, leading to a fiery climax that pits the two physicians against one another in a cunning battle of wits.
Why The Man Who Could Cheat Death Wasn’t Appreciated At The Time
It Wasn’t Your Typical Hammer Films’ Horror Flick
Though The Man Who Could Cheat Death has gone on to achieve hidden gem status among horror fans, it wasn’t initially successful upon its release in 1959. Though there are several reasons for this poor performance, one that is particularly significant is the film’s lack of blood, which was a staple of many horror movies from Hammer Films in the ’50s (and throughout all nine of Christopher Lee’s films as Dracula).
Christopher Lee almost became an opera singer before taking up acting.
However, The Man Who Could Cheat Death more than makes up for the absence of red, garish blood with a brooding, uneasy atmosphere and its themes of aging, death, and narcissism. Furthermore, it’s great to see a young Christopher Lee before he was championed for performances in roles such as Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun and Saruman the White in Lord of the Rings. Ultimately, if you’re looking for a chilling portrait of the consequences of cheating death, The Man Who Could Cheat Death offers a petrifying look at vanity gone too far.
