178 The Man Who Could Cheat Death ( 1959 )

This  early  Hammer  offering  was   based   on   a   play and  does  suffer  a  bit  from  too  much  talk  and  not  enough  action  though  good  acting  keeps  it  watchable.

Anton  Diffring  plays  George  Bonnet, a  doctor  who  sculpts  women  as  a  hobby. But  he  has  a ghastly  secret; he  is  104  and  maintains his  youth  by  regular  transplants of  the  thyroid  glands  from  his  models. When his  old  partner, Professor  Weiss ( Arnold  Marle ) ,becomes  too  infirm  to  perform  the  operation  he  approaches  Dr  Gerard  ( Christopher  Lee ) the  new boyfriend  of  Janine  Dubois, a  model  he has  hitherto  spared.

Hazel  Court  ( as  Janine  Dubois )

Sex : Janine poses  topless  but  the  full  view  is  only  in  the  European  version

Death : Survives

Hazel  was  from  Sutton  Coldfield  and  started appearing in  British  films  as  a  teenager  in  the  mid-forties. She  made  her  name  as  a  horror  queen in  The  Curse  of  Frankenstein  then  moved  to  Hollywood  where  she  worked  extensively  with  Roger  Corman. She  retired in  the  mid-sixties on  marriage  to  actor  Don  Taylor  but  made  sporadic  appearances  in  the  eighties. Ironically, she  herself  sculpted..She  died  in  2008  aged  82.

Delphi  Lawrence  as  Margot

Sex : No

Death : Burns  to  death  in  the  fire  she  started 

Delphi  was  born  in  Hertfordshire  and  was  a  very  busy  actress  in  TV  and  B-movies  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. She  retired  in  the  mid-seventies  and  died  in  2002  aged  70.

Gerda  Larsen  ( as  Street  girl )

Sex : No

Death : Killed  ( offscreen )  by  Bonnet

This  was  the  last  of  three  films  for  this  obscure  actress.