I love this movie so much

To me, this movie is perfection.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Recently picking up the DVD/Blu-Ray of Dracula,I started looking out for other Hammer Horror films. Taking a look to see what was on the Horror section of Netflix UK,I was surprised to spot a lesser-known Hammer title,which led to me cheating death.The plot-Paris 1890:Looking for ways to make life eternal, scientist Georges Bonnet makes the discovery but also finds one catch,that one ingredient for eternal life is the parathyroid glands of a women. Over the next decades,Bonnet kills one women every 10 years and continues to live. Moving to Paris in order to get his next locals, curious locals soon discover that Bonnet has no past. View on the film:Rushed into the movie just days before production due to Peter Cushing suddenly quitting, Anton Diffring (the only one to put on a French accent!) gives a good performance as Bonnet,with Diffring getting an easy feel of the "Hammer Gentlemen" side of Bonnet,and displaying a clear delight in leaping into the wide-eyed madness of the everlasting scientist. Despite pretty much being limited to screaming on the sidelines looking pretty, Hazel Court gives the title a quality touch of beauty as Janine Du Bois,whilst Christopher Lee gives Dr. Pierre Gerrard a considerate edge.Cut onto screens a year before the "Mad Scientist" epic Eyes Without a Face,the screenplay by Jimmy Sangster gets Hammer Horror into first place in some parts,via openly revealing the body parts Bonnet needs to survive. Based on Barré Lyndon's play, Sangster is unable to break from the stage roots,from the dialogue having a dusty atmosphere,to the limited locations draining the movie of any real shots of menace.Finding room for style in the uncompromising stage roots,directing auteur Terence Fisher and cinematographer Jack Asher heat Bonnet's madness up in a blaze of primary colours,where lines of ultra- stylised lime green dash across the screen and get under the ageing skin. Stuck in limited locations,Fisher pushes the movie open with creepy,tightly-held close-ups pulling out the deranged ideas of the man who cheated death

A good thriller in the old-style classic sense, beautifully filmed in color by England's Hammer company. "The Man Who Could Cheat Death" is somewhat static near the beginning and almost stage play in its construction, but that is OK as it is well acted by a fine ensemble cast.Anton Diffring offers a nervous-energy-driven, neurotically sinister presence from the very beginning of the film. He provides the requisite menace that is essential to his role. Beautiful Hazel Court, Diffring, Christopher Lee and others contribute elegant, psychologically interesting characterizations that are rendered within an uncluttered thriller format.I can't emphasize enough how thoroughly this film epitomizes the unique Hammer production values, decor, color scheme and general style, while also effectively evoking foggy turn-of-the-century nighttime Paris streets. Despite the Paris locale, it is distinctively Hammer. Laboratories, scalpels, weird medicines, fog, and all the classic elements are here. Fans of the genre and of the era in thriller filmmaking should not miss it.

The Man Who Could Cheat Death is a carefully presented and decently crafted movie from Hammer Films; and while for the most part it lacks the gusto of Curse Of Frankenstein and Dracula it's a decent enough addition to Hammer Horror.The movie does take quite a while to get going, though. The first 45 minutes or so are bogged down in over-talky scenes that occasionally tell the viewer plot details that are already known - or at least strongly guessable - and the film suffers from some quite bad overacting from Anton Diffring in the set up stages of the plot. Like the film, though he improves as things develop and ceases to look as if he's acting, which is the biggest fault in his performance in the early part of the movie.Diffring plays Georges Bonnet, both a surgeon and noted amateur sculptor, well respected by the art fraternity. Bonnet hides a ghastly secret, however: this 35 year-oldish handsome man is actually 104 (about the same age as Cliff Richard) and through means of a glandular operation has been able to prolong his life, banishing sickness and ageing to boot. Every 10 years the effect wears off, and Bonnet must find a new unwilling donor to increase his already unnatural life span.Diffring is lent sterling support from Hazel Court and Christopher Lee - this is one of Lee's most relaxed early performances and he does well in the role of a young surgeon coerced into performing the operation on Bonnet - and Hammer's production design is as usual impeccable.The movie also ends on a neat twist which you will probably see coming, but is effective anyway. All in all a neatly done, not quite top draw Hammer offering. It just needed more pace during the first half.

We were really shocked by this Hammer studio early work. It deals with Perverted science, that got the way to be healthy all the time. An old professor takes experiment on his senior student. And the student becomes immortal, except one thing- he needs to make and drink some gravy green stuff and kill people to get the raw-materials for work. The film is almost HP Lovecraft's story and has both science fiction and gore. Finally the question of eternal life is the most striking of all. This film is for people who care a lot about physical side of life.www.myspace.com/neizvest