The Man Who Could Cheat Death

4K UHD, Hammer UK Limited Collector's Edition, Region Free/B

Anton Diffring gives a chilling performance as a monstrous doctor seeking immortality in Jimmy Sangster and Terence Fisher’s visually sumptuous shocker, The Man Who Could Cheat Death, one of the initial run of 1950s Gothics that made Hammer a worldwide byword for horror.

With strong support from Hazel Court and Christopher Lee, The Man Who Could Cheat Death has been painstakingly restored by Hammer in 4K from the original film negatives and includes optional, originally censored scenes thought lost for years.

A doctor and dilettante, Georges Bonner's sculptures are the talk of Belle Époque Parisian society. But Bonner hides a grisly secret: he is over a century old and a serial murderer, kept artificially young by harvesting glands from his unfortunate victims.

Now over six-decades since its original release, this Limited Collector’s edition sees the film available for the first time on UHD in the UK, complete with an exceptional range of recent and archival material.

This Limited Collector’s Edition comprises:

• A leather-feel slipcase with debossed foil titling, housing a stylish digipak
  containing four discs: two UHDs and two Blu-rays, with content duplicated on
  both formats.
• Rigid inner box featuring new artwork by illustrator and artist Lucas Peverill.
• Double-sided poster of original one-sheets and 8 art cards.
• Book featuring reproduction of British master make-up artist Roy Ashton's
  annotated copy of the original shooting script.
• Six iterations of The Man Who Could Cheat Death across three aspect ratios
  (1.37:1 as-filmed, 1.66:1 UK theatrical and 1.85:1 US theatrical) featuring both
  censored and uncensored scenes.
• Brand-new 5.1 mix for each version of the film alongside the original mono film
  soundtrack.
• English, French, Italian, Spanish and German subtitles on each version of the
  film.

The discs feature:

• A comprehensive series of new and archive commentaries across the six
  iterations with contributions and critical perspectives from Lizbeth Myles, Paul
  Cornell, Kim Newman, Stephen Jones, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Lauren
  Barnett, John Hamilton, Professor Lucy Bolton, Pamela Hutchinson, Constantine
  Nasr and Dr. Steve Haberman.
• A new programme with Hammer expert Wayne Kinsey, discussing the making of
  this classic Gothic horror.
• A Hideous Concoction: an archive featurette featuring actor and horror expert
  Jonathan Rigby, who discusses the film and source play.
• The Man Who Could Direct Death: an archive featurette with film historian and
  BFI curator Vic Pratt, who discusses the film’s director, Terence Fisher.
• The Man Who Can Chat Death: an archive interview with Hugh Harlow, a
  Hammer mainstay and third AD on the film.
• Court in Session: an archive featurette with film historian Melanie Williams, who
  discusses actor Hazel Court.
• Hazel Court 1999 interview: a candid interview with Hazel Court in front of a live
  audience at Manchester’s Festival of Fantastic Films.
• Hammer Convention Panel 1999: in addition to the FoFF interview, Hazel Court
  also appeared on a panel chaired by Wayne Kinsey and featuring writer Jimmy
  Sangster and award-winning director Freddie Francis.
• A restoration featurette.
• Original censor Card, UK trailer, clapperboard and alternative burning shot.
• Extensive image gallery of stills and publicity material.