JohnHowardReid Nils Asther (Julian Karell), Helen Walker (Eve Brandon), Reinhold Schunzel (Dr Kurt Van Bruecken), Paul Cavanagh (Dr Henry Latimer), Edmond Breon (Sir Humphrey Brandon), Morton Lowry (Allen Guthrie), Matthew Boulton (Inspector Garth), Brandon Hurst (Simpson, butler), Aminta Dyne (Lady Minerva Aldergate), Arthur Mulliner (Sir John Aldergate), Edward Fielding (Colonel Ashley), Reginald Sheffield (Mr Taper), Eustace Wyatt (Inspector Lawson), Forrester Harvey (Harris, a cabby), Konstantin Shayne (Dr Vishanoff), Gerald Oliver Smith (pharmacy clerk), Leyland Hodgson (Dr Albertson), Harry Cording (1st bobby), Clive Morgan (plainclothesman), Arthur Blake (man), Ernie Adams (porter), Norman Ainsley (butler), Edward Cooper (liveried servant), John Sheehan (expressman), Frank Baker (plainclothesman), T. Arthur Hughes (plainclothesman), Frank Moran (skipper), John Power (guard), Don Gallaher (ticket agent), Bob Stevenson (guard), Bobby Hale (deck hand), Cyril Ring (O'Hara), Wilson Benge (official), George Broughton (morgue official), Robert Cory, Frank Hagney, Al Ferguson (bobbies).Director: RALPH MURPHY. Screenplay: Charles Kenyon. Adaptation: Garrett Fort. Uncredited script contributors: Don Hartman, Albert Maltz. Based on the stage play by Barré Lyndon. Photographed in black-and-white by Henry Sharp. Film editor: Tom Neff. Art directors: Hans Dreier, Walter Tyler. Set decorator: Sam Comer. Costumes supervisor: Edith Head. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Music score: Miklos Rozsa. Orchestrations: Eugene Zador. Assistant director: John R. Coonan. Sound recording: Ferrol Redd, Philip Wisdom. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Walter MacEwan.Copyright 19 October 1944 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 19 January 1945. U.S. release: October 1944. U.K. release: 26 February 1945. Australian release: 9 November 1944. 10 reels. 8,277 feet. 92 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A variant on "The Picture of Dorian Gray" . NOTES: Re-made by Hammer Films as "The Man Who Could Cheat Death" (1959).COMMENT: A stand-out cast, led by the remarkably charismatic Nils Asther, transform Lyndon's somewhat old-fashioned play into 92 minutes of solidly atmospheric suspense. Capable direction, superb photography and a marvellous music score help out considerably too.

mark.waltz A 90 year old man, played by an actor in his mid 40's, is said to look like he's in his mid 30's. This overly talkie melodrama has an intriguing plot but is one of the most dreadfully boring films to deal with the desire for eternal youth. Nils Asther plays the scientist who finds his time is running out after living as a thirty something for 55 years and turns to Dorian Gray like evils to retain that youth. It's an intriguing idea, but the film's pacing drags this way down, making it nearly impossible to get into. Reinhold Schünzel is very good as Asther's aging colleague (whom he went to school with) who offers wisdom as to why the desire for eternal youth is evil. There are some good moments of melodrama as well as a melodramatic ending, but that doesn't make up for the general lack of suspense and certain ridiculous moments, particularly the scenes with Helen Walker as the glamorous socialite in love with him but unaware of his deep, dark secret. So much potential, but a huge letdown.

christopher lyons This is a great little underrated film with a beginning, middle and end. There are some great lines of dialogue and good solid performances by the whole cast especially the two leads and the police inspector, an early Columbo who smells a rat and won't give up. You cannot explain the fingerprints! There is a great scene where the main character walks along the road chatting and posts a letter, then the camera pans, to reveal a dead man sitting upright in the car, very sinister and cruel of the murderer to leave the body there.If you follow the scene you are not expecting it. This film has some relevance to today with the obsession with image and staying young forever if possible, never growing old. But there is always a price to pay! Well worth a viewing.

BijouBob8mm THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET (later remade by Hammer Films as THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH) is an overlooked and under-appreciated little horror-fantasy. Sometimes compared with Oscar Wilde's PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, unlike many genre efforts of the era, the film rarely seemed to get the same airplay on late night TV or on any of the "Shock Theatre" programs that were so popular in the pre-cable/pre-VCR days of the 1960s & 1970s. With so many of the classic horror films of the '30s and '40s now on DVD, and since Paramount produced THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET (as well as handled distribution for the Hammer Films remake), it would be nice to see this released to DVD (possibly as a double feature with the Hammer Film production).