THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH (1959), CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960)

PHENOMENALITY: (1) *marvelous,* (2) *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

Anton Diffring certainly lucked out, Many actors-- Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi-- became typed after having starred in horror films. Diffring was tapped to headline Hammer's THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH because Peter Cushing declined the role. Diffring then also starred in a second terror-flick the next year, Anglo-Amalgamated's CIRCUS OF HORRORS. Yet he continued to act in numerous mainstream movies thereafter, only occasionally dipping his toes into other metaphenomenal fare.

CHEAT adapted Barre Lyndon's play THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET, which had previously been adapted in 1945 under that name, though I have the impression that the film was not a major success. The premise is that scientist Georges Bonnet (Diffring) becomes a renowned amateur sculptor in late 19th-century Paris, as well as a social bon vivant, since he appears to be a handsome man in his thirties. In truth, Bonnet is one hundred and four years old, his youth preserved by a glandular experiment he conducted with his now aged colleague Ludwig, the only person who knows his secret. Over the decades, Bonnet and Ludwig have staved off the Devil of Age by harvesting glands from corpses and transplanting them into Bonnet. Bonnet's doing so well that he throws over his current flame, a model named Margo, in order to pursue an earlier love, Janine (Hazel Court)-- much to the displeasure of another of Janine's conquests, Doctor Gerrard (Christopher Lee).

Unfortunately, if Bonnet doesn't get his gland-fix in time, he becomes a green-eyed maniac. Ludwig's hand has succumbed to paralysis, so he can't perform the transplant operation any more. His suggestion is to acquire the services of the best possible surgeon to take over-- none other than Gerrard. 

CHEAT is an okay thriller, but it's very talky and Bonnet's downfall feels by-the-numbers, with no strong insights as to why he wanted immortality so badly in the first place. Diffring is decent but unexciting, but I doubt Cushing could have done any better. Chris Lee's supporting role resembles many others he did during the sixties, where he was injected just for the effect of his name. However, he makes the most of an underwritten role. Bonnet's transformations are decent but unremarkable.

CIRCUS OF HORRORS is a very different beast. Pop fiction is full of polymath mad scientists who can conjure up both laser-ray cannons and mutated beast-men with a flick of the wrist. However, to my knowledge the evil Doctor Schuler of CIRCUS is the first time a mad plastic surgeon revealed himself to be equally expert at running a circus-- even one nicknamed "the Jinxed Circus."

In 1947, Schuler flees English prosecution for a botched surgical operation and ends up with his two aides in France. By chance he comes across a run-down circus, suffering from a postwar disinterest in cheery attractions. The young daughter of the rumpot circus-owner has a disfiguring scar, so Schuler talks the owner into letting him fix the girl's face. In gratitude the father signs over part ownership to Schuler, after which the father conveniently gets himself killed by a performing bear. (It's one of the few "accidents" at the circus for which Schuler is not directly responsible.)

Years pass with Schuler and his assistants-- one being a woman deeply in love with him-- making "Schuler's circus" a resounding success. Yet Schuler isn't content with square living. He believes himself a genius of plastic surgery, and since he can't practice openly, he recruits low-class women with disfigurements and entices them to join the circus in exchange for facial repair. If Diffring's Bonnet was Faust, Schuler is a road-company Mephisto-- and any time his conquests try to leave his service, they have unfortunate accidents.

However, the circus's reputation sparks an investigation by a young reporter, who chats up Nicole, once the little daughter of the late circus-owner, and now a lissome young acrobat. (At least her transformation into a performer makes sense, given her having lived with the circus all her life. The shady ladies, not so much.) Inevitably the sinister surgeon is undone, less by the investigator than by Schuler's own controlling nature. 

Both the direction of Sidney Hayers and the script of George Baxt (both of whom would later work together on 1962's BURN WITCH BURN) provide good barnstorming entertainment to paper over the lapses in logic. Diffring makes a good hissable (if one-dimensional) villain, and of all the mad scientists who pursued evil to nurture their egos, Schuler must be the only one who "ran away to join the circus."