Another first rate thriller from John Huston but this time with a subtle difference. Kirk Douglas and George C. Scott are the leading actors but other stars were brought in to play small cameo roles hidden under heavy disguises! Among them are Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster. Part of the mystery (and enjoyment of the film) was to guess where and when these stars appeared. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that a trick was played on the unsuspecting audience and that other (unknown) actors stood in for both Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster during the actual film and that these two stars only put in an appearance at the very end of the film when disguises were taken off to reveal who was who! Even so, this still remains a film worth seeing as the clever story holds your attention throughout. The film had a good supporting cast including Dana Wynter, Clive Brook and Herbert Marshall. Kirk Douglas wore the most disguises during the film and seemed to be having a good time in his various roles. "The List of Adrian Messenger" could best be described as an old fashioned mystery thriller and is none the less enjoyable for that. It is well directed by John Huston who also managed to fit in a guest appearance in the climatic hunting scene. 8/10. Clive Roberts.
77 Reviews
Intriguing mystery from John Huston with celebrity cameo roles
clive-389 November 2000
Warning: Spoilers
Yes, Movies Were Total Cash-In Enterprises Back Then, Too.
jzappa14 February 2011
John Huston displays an indiscreet lack of subtlety, taxing our tolerance with a somewhat modern English whodunit with an extra publicity stunt: Numerous major Hollywood actors are announced to appear in the film, but are all thickly concealed in John Chambers' make-up design: Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis as an organ-grinder, Burt Lancaster as an old woman, Frank Sinatra as a gypsy horse-trader. Their identities are exposed to the audience at the very end of the film, when each star strips off his masquerade. Actually, only Douglas (by far the most interesting performance) and Mitchum do any real acting beneath their heaps of collodion and crepe hair. The others just walk on to shoot their brief, tacked-on unveilings at a salary of $75,000 each, while being doubled in the film itself. The film even further cheats by often dubbing their voices with that of voice-over actor Paul Frees!
The vehicle for this cash-in is a plot wherein the eponymous writer believes a succession of ostensibly isolated "accidental" deaths are really related murders. He asks his friend George C. Scott, just retired from MI5, to help resolve the obscurity, but Messenger's plane is sabotaged while he's on the way to gather data to corroborate his fears and, with his last lungful of air, he struggles to impart to a fellow passenger a crucial clue. What do you know, the passenger just so happens to be the sole survivor and just so happens to be Scott's old WWII Resistance comrade. They collaborate to probe Messenger's inventory of names, and decipher his puzzling last gasps. Aside from the ones that insult us, more than a few story aspects in the film are akin to The Hound of the Baskervilles, like hounds, the intentions of the killer, the allusions to Canada, and the exposure of the killer using a hoax.
While we discover rather soon who the killer is, the obscurity of his intentions and the anticipation of his capture are enough to keep going, even if not gripped by genuine tension or suspense. Burdened with a rasping, implausible plot, maybe this lockstep adventure should've been set in Victorian times to oblige its villain with an infatuation with costumes, its Edwardian-style consulting sleuth in a bowler hat, and its foul play in a misty Thames Path.
There is something I quite liked, maybe because it took the edge off, made me relax and enjoy the kitsch. Before the haunting trumpet solos of Chinatown, the strange and threatening cues of Alien or the atmospheric strings of Basic Instinct, a comparatively green-horned Jerry Goldsmith shaped an evocative, and purely '60s-kitsch, ambiance out of an instrumental jumble incorporating saxophone, electric guitar, tuba, harp and the definitive eerie UFO-suggestive electronic whistle that creates nostalgic vibes as when we hear it in The Lost Weekend, Spellbound and BBC's Midsomer Murders.
The vehicle for this cash-in is a plot wherein the eponymous writer believes a succession of ostensibly isolated "accidental" deaths are really related murders. He asks his friend George C. Scott, just retired from MI5, to help resolve the obscurity, but Messenger's plane is sabotaged while he's on the way to gather data to corroborate his fears and, with his last lungful of air, he struggles to impart to a fellow passenger a crucial clue. What do you know, the passenger just so happens to be the sole survivor and just so happens to be Scott's old WWII Resistance comrade. They collaborate to probe Messenger's inventory of names, and decipher his puzzling last gasps. Aside from the ones that insult us, more than a few story aspects in the film are akin to The Hound of the Baskervilles, like hounds, the intentions of the killer, the allusions to Canada, and the exposure of the killer using a hoax.
While we discover rather soon who the killer is, the obscurity of his intentions and the anticipation of his capture are enough to keep going, even if not gripped by genuine tension or suspense. Burdened with a rasping, implausible plot, maybe this lockstep adventure should've been set in Victorian times to oblige its villain with an infatuation with costumes, its Edwardian-style consulting sleuth in a bowler hat, and its foul play in a misty Thames Path.
There is something I quite liked, maybe because it took the edge off, made me relax and enjoy the kitsch. Before the haunting trumpet solos of Chinatown, the strange and threatening cues of Alien or the atmospheric strings of Basic Instinct, a comparatively green-horned Jerry Goldsmith shaped an evocative, and purely '60s-kitsch, ambiance out of an instrumental jumble incorporating saxophone, electric guitar, tuba, harp and the definitive eerie UFO-suggestive electronic whistle that creates nostalgic vibes as when we hear it in The Lost Weekend, Spellbound and BBC's Midsomer Murders.
Nice murder mystery compellingly directed by John Huston with intrigue , thrills and twists
ma-cortes23 August 2015
This enjoyable suspenser contains intriguing events , emotion , and plot twists . A former intelligence officer called Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott) is tasked by the heir to the Gleneyre estate to investigate the unusual deaths of a disparate group of eleven men on a list . Later on , a mysterious stranger (Kirk Douglas) visiting an English state whose owner is a Lord , Marquis of Gleneyre (Clive Brook) , and the puzzling series of killings that coincide with his arrival . As retired MI-5 officer has to figure out the unusual deaths of a varied group of eleven men on a list , each seems to have died in mysterious circumstances . Working with a survivor from a airplane disaster, Raoul Le Borg (Jacques Roux) he discovers weird clues until an unexpected conclusion . The main question is the following : Someone committed killings . Can you guess who's behind the disguise?
This whodunit packs crisp performance , intrigue , thrilling scenes , suspense , twists and turns . The main gimmick results to be the all-star-cast are all heavily disguised in the character roles . This is a family film made by John Huston , as it was partially filmed on John Huston's own estate in Ireland and played by Huston's friends as well as his son . The best scenes turned to be when the stars appeared at end of the film in unmasking sequence where they peeled off makeup . Highlights of the movie result to be the fox chase scenes under an impressive soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith . Very good support cast such Robert Mitchum , Tony Curtis , Frank Sinatra , Herbert Marshall , Gladys Cooper , Marcel Dalio , Bernard Fox , being the fourth of seven films that Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster made together and final film of Clive Brook . And cameo by John Huston , who was an avid rider and hunter, appeared in a small role as Lord Ashton in a short dialogue scene in the last hunt . The filmmaker's child Tony , billed as Anthony Waller Huston plays Dana Winter's son . Evocative as well as atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Joseph MacDonald . Thrilling and suspenseful musical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith .
The motion picture well produced by Edward Lewis was stunningly by the great John Huston at his best , its tense filmmaking makes this crackerjack entertainment . The picture was made in a good time of the 60s , 70s and 80s when Huston resurged as a director of quality films with Fat City, (1972), The man who would be king (1975) and Wise blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under volcano (1984), the afore-mentioned Honor of Prizzi (1985) and Dublineses (1987). Rating : Above average , this is one of John Huston's best films , a model of his kind , definitely a must see if you are aficionado to suspense films . Huston broke a new ground with this landmark movie , providing classic scenes and agreeable dialogs . Rating : Above average , as the intrigue is entertaining on its own .
This whodunit packs crisp performance , intrigue , thrilling scenes , suspense , twists and turns . The main gimmick results to be the all-star-cast are all heavily disguised in the character roles . This is a family film made by John Huston , as it was partially filmed on John Huston's own estate in Ireland and played by Huston's friends as well as his son . The best scenes turned to be when the stars appeared at end of the film in unmasking sequence where they peeled off makeup . Highlights of the movie result to be the fox chase scenes under an impressive soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith . Very good support cast such Robert Mitchum , Tony Curtis , Frank Sinatra , Herbert Marshall , Gladys Cooper , Marcel Dalio , Bernard Fox , being the fourth of seven films that Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster made together and final film of Clive Brook . And cameo by John Huston , who was an avid rider and hunter, appeared in a small role as Lord Ashton in a short dialogue scene in the last hunt . The filmmaker's child Tony , billed as Anthony Waller Huston plays Dana Winter's son . Evocative as well as atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Joseph MacDonald . Thrilling and suspenseful musical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith .
The motion picture well produced by Edward Lewis was stunningly by the great John Huston at his best , its tense filmmaking makes this crackerjack entertainment . The picture was made in a good time of the 60s , 70s and 80s when Huston resurged as a director of quality films with Fat City, (1972), The man who would be king (1975) and Wise blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under volcano (1984), the afore-mentioned Honor of Prizzi (1985) and Dublineses (1987). Rating : Above average , this is one of John Huston's best films , a model of his kind , definitely a must see if you are aficionado to suspense films . Huston broke a new ground with this landmark movie , providing classic scenes and agreeable dialogs . Rating : Above average , as the intrigue is entertaining on its own .
A swell party except for the gatecrashers..
derekcreedon4 June 2008
Shortly after Huston's engaging oddity was released in the U.K in 1963 a Sunday Newspaper article 'exposed' the stars-in-disguise as a hoax. I'd just seen the film the previous week and though I'd half-suspected something of the sort I still felt cheated - mainly through the smug 'last bows' of the 'guests' who hadn't even come to the party. Mitchum was obviously an honourable exception, you couldn't mistake him and he had given us an excellent dialect-cameo. Douglas' villain gradually assumed command of the piece and could be excused, I suppose, for sub-letting a disguise or two. His creepy Mr.Phythian was certainly all his own. Mr.Lancaster, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found on the hunting-field. His role was played by Marie Conmee (the surname is peculiarly appropriate under the circumstances) an Irish actress reportedly sworn to secrecy. Sinatra's gypsy was filled-in, it transpires, by Hollywood look-alike Dave Willock. It was an additional marketing-ploy, of course, to bring in the punters and we fell for it. I enjoy the film certainly as an old-fashioned Holmes vs Moriarty intriguer which could have stood alone without the gimmicks.
Mystery thriller with a gimmick.
barnabyrudge12 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
A good, old-fashioned mystery thriller, The List of Adrian Messenger offers a rare chance to see director John Huston serving up an atypically light-hearted style of film. Huston is usually the champion of dark and difficult stories in which flawed characters undergo moral and religious crises. But The List of Adrian Messenger is more of a playful suspense story - similar to the kind of thing Hitchcock might have made at that time - and it comes across as a likable and occasionally exciting film.
Retired British Intelligence agent Anthony Gethryn (miscast George C. Scott, struggling with his inconsistent English accent) investigates the murder of Adrian Messenger, killed in the bombing of a plane. Shortly before his death, Adrian predicted that an attempt might be made on his life, and Gethryn is understandably intrigued when Adrian's prediction is proved true. Aided by a survivor from the plane blast, Raoul LeBorg (Jacques Roux), Gethryn links the killing to a list he was given just before Adrian's demise. It becomes apparent that the murders are the work of George Brougham (Kirk Douglas), a wartime informer and a long-lost brother to a British aristocrat, who is deviously murdering his way to a fabulous inheritance. Gethryn realises that Brougham is only two killings away from claiming his prize, and sets about ensnaring the villain before his sinister scheme is complete.
The gimmick in the film is that four major stars have brief guest roles beneath heavy make-up. Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster are the stars - they're quite hard to spot (Mitchum is probably the easiest, but the others are very well disguised). It's an interesting gimmick, though I agree with other reviewers who have pointed out that in some ways it diverts the viewer's attention away from important plot developments. If you forget the gimmick and watch The List of Adrian Messenger purely as a suspense thriller, it holds up pretty well, with clever twists and turns and a very memorable final sequence in which Brougham plans an elaborate killing during a fox hunt. There are better and worse films of this type out there, but this one will do nicely just the same.
Retired British Intelligence agent Anthony Gethryn (miscast George C. Scott, struggling with his inconsistent English accent) investigates the murder of Adrian Messenger, killed in the bombing of a plane. Shortly before his death, Adrian predicted that an attempt might be made on his life, and Gethryn is understandably intrigued when Adrian's prediction is proved true. Aided by a survivor from the plane blast, Raoul LeBorg (Jacques Roux), Gethryn links the killing to a list he was given just before Adrian's demise. It becomes apparent that the murders are the work of George Brougham (Kirk Douglas), a wartime informer and a long-lost brother to a British aristocrat, who is deviously murdering his way to a fabulous inheritance. Gethryn realises that Brougham is only two killings away from claiming his prize, and sets about ensnaring the villain before his sinister scheme is complete.
The gimmick in the film is that four major stars have brief guest roles beneath heavy make-up. Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster are the stars - they're quite hard to spot (Mitchum is probably the easiest, but the others are very well disguised). It's an interesting gimmick, though I agree with other reviewers who have pointed out that in some ways it diverts the viewer's attention away from important plot developments. If you forget the gimmick and watch The List of Adrian Messenger purely as a suspense thriller, it holds up pretty well, with clever twists and turns and a very memorable final sequence in which Brougham plans an elaborate killing during a fox hunt. There are better and worse films of this type out there, but this one will do nicely just the same.
Huston Takes a Vacation
rmax3048237 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
It's an easy-going, mildly entertaining mystery, the solution of which is given before the ending. The mystery itself could have been cooked up by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle as a neat Sherlock Holmes short story. This one is rather dragged out. There's a subplot involving a French businessman and Dana Wynters that has nothing to do with the main story. Some of the Reveals are telegraphed ahead of time. Holmes could have solved the whole thing in a few hours over three pipes of shag.
That doesn't matter. It's kind of relaxing and enjoyable. I mean, here are all these famous faces hidden behind rubber masks, sometimes with dubbed voices. The only one we can consistently recognize from beginning to end is Kirk Douglas. (That nose! That chin!) Well, that's not entirely true. In an epilogue, Robert Mitchum struggles manfully to remove his makeup and when he's through he looks almost exactly as he did before. Some mysteries are easier to solve than others.
No need to go on about the plot. I will bet my riding breeches that whoever wrote the script had read "The Hound of the Baskervilles" not long before.
However, here are John Huston and a lot of megastars of the time having a vacation in Ireland. (Not the only Huston vacation, to be sure.) Few of the megastars appear in the same shot. That's because -- well, it works this way. You hire, say, Burt Lancaster for a week. No more than that because he's expensive. And you shoot all his scenes in a few days. Then you do the same with, say, Frank Sinatra. By featuring them all in short and separate scenes, you wind up with more cameos for your buck.
The lead is George C. Scott, with a reasonable British accent, at least to untutored ears. The unnecessary French friend may have added some appeal for French audiences. Kirk Douglas has a more substantial supporting role as the head heavy, and Robert Mitchum is on screen several times as a drunken scoundrel.
The director, John Huston, had an estate in Ireland at the time and rode in exaltation to the hounds in fox hunts. Fox hunts -- "The unspeakable after the inedible," commented Oscar Wilde.
Yet I have this vision of them all having drinks and dinner at Huston's country place. And Huston getting to his feet at the end of a long evening and suggesting they all start half an hour later tomorrow. To him, at least in my vision, this is what "Donovan's Reef" was to John Ford. And the disguised cameos are kind of fun, even after you know who's who.
That doesn't matter. It's kind of relaxing and enjoyable. I mean, here are all these famous faces hidden behind rubber masks, sometimes with dubbed voices. The only one we can consistently recognize from beginning to end is Kirk Douglas. (That nose! That chin!) Well, that's not entirely true. In an epilogue, Robert Mitchum struggles manfully to remove his makeup and when he's through he looks almost exactly as he did before. Some mysteries are easier to solve than others.
No need to go on about the plot. I will bet my riding breeches that whoever wrote the script had read "The Hound of the Baskervilles" not long before.
However, here are John Huston and a lot of megastars of the time having a vacation in Ireland. (Not the only Huston vacation, to be sure.) Few of the megastars appear in the same shot. That's because -- well, it works this way. You hire, say, Burt Lancaster for a week. No more than that because he's expensive. And you shoot all his scenes in a few days. Then you do the same with, say, Frank Sinatra. By featuring them all in short and separate scenes, you wind up with more cameos for your buck.
The lead is George C. Scott, with a reasonable British accent, at least to untutored ears. The unnecessary French friend may have added some appeal for French audiences. Kirk Douglas has a more substantial supporting role as the head heavy, and Robert Mitchum is on screen several times as a drunken scoundrel.
The director, John Huston, had an estate in Ireland at the time and rode in exaltation to the hounds in fox hunts. Fox hunts -- "The unspeakable after the inedible," commented Oscar Wilde.
Yet I have this vision of them all having drinks and dinner at Huston's country place. And Huston getting to his feet at the end of a long evening and suggesting they all start half an hour later tomorrow. To him, at least in my vision, this is what "Donovan's Reef" was to John Ford. And the disguised cameos are kind of fun, even after you know who's who.
A hunting we will go
sol-kay24 April 2007
(There are Spoilers) Visiting his good friend novelist Adrian Messanger, John Merivale, former WWII British intelligence officer and member of the secretive MI5 agency Anthony Gerthryn, George C. Scott, is puzzled by Messengers' somewhat cryptic sheet of paper that he gave him to investigate. The paper has ten names on it all seemingly having nothing to do with each other.
It's not long afterword that when Messenger goes on a business flight to Canada that things begin to get a bit clearer for Gerthryn when the plane that Messenger is on suddenly explodes, from a time bomb that was secretly placed on it, in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean. It just happened that Messenger survived the airplane crash by shearing a raft with another passenger of the doomed flight WWII ace French intelligence man Raoul La Borg, Jacques Roux. La Borg who took down, in his photographic mind, the dying mans last words that reveal, if deciphered, the truth about his list and the person who's not only responsible for his impending death but the deaths of all the persons, some who at the time were still alive, on it!
Despite its novelty of guessing just who are the actors, Burt Lancaster Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis etc. etc., playing in the movie with them having very obvious disguises. It's only Kirk Douglas as George Brougham, together with some half dozen other disguises, and Robert Mitchum as James Slattery who had any real role in the movies plot line. Instead of just showing up in the end and, when the film was finally over, taking off their disguise revealing to the startled viewers just who they were playing.
Gethryn and Borg who both worked together in WWII against the Nazis team up to get to the bottom of what the late Adrian Messenger meant in his list of names and as the two check out the names one at a time.It turns out that all of them, with he exception of James Slattery, died mysteriously over the last five years. Trying to get to Slattery before the killer did the nutty and paranoid rummy gave the two the run around. Claiming that he's James brother Joe, who doesn't exist not who he really is James. Which in the end, with Gethryn & Borg giving up on him, lead to his death when the killer pushed him, wheelchair and all, off the docks and into the bay where he drowned.
The killer***SPOILERS***finally reveals himself at a fox-hunt at the estate of the Marquis of Gleneyre, Clive Brook, as his long dead brothers son George Brougham. And gaining his confidence and being excepted by the Marquis as a member of the family he then manically plans to do him in on the next fox-hunt. Where Brougham sets a trap for the old man, who's expected to be riding on the lead, at the end of hunt.
It now becomes crystal clear that the reason that the murderous George Brougham had murdered all the people on Messengers' list, as well as Messenger himself. In that they all knew about Bougham's treachery toward his fellow POW's whom they all happened to be. The one thing that all the men on Messengers' list had in common in being POW's in a brutal Japanese prison camp in Burma during WWII. With having them gotten out of the way Bougham is now trying to murder the Maquis of Gleneyer and make it look like an accident so he, as his nephew, can inherited his estate and all the riches and royalties that goes along with it. But there's one or two things that he never figured on and thats Gethryn & Borg and that in the end would be his undoing.
It's not long afterword that when Messenger goes on a business flight to Canada that things begin to get a bit clearer for Gerthryn when the plane that Messenger is on suddenly explodes, from a time bomb that was secretly placed on it, in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean. It just happened that Messenger survived the airplane crash by shearing a raft with another passenger of the doomed flight WWII ace French intelligence man Raoul La Borg, Jacques Roux. La Borg who took down, in his photographic mind, the dying mans last words that reveal, if deciphered, the truth about his list and the person who's not only responsible for his impending death but the deaths of all the persons, some who at the time were still alive, on it!
Despite its novelty of guessing just who are the actors, Burt Lancaster Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis etc. etc., playing in the movie with them having very obvious disguises. It's only Kirk Douglas as George Brougham, together with some half dozen other disguises, and Robert Mitchum as James Slattery who had any real role in the movies plot line. Instead of just showing up in the end and, when the film was finally over, taking off their disguise revealing to the startled viewers just who they were playing.
Gethryn and Borg who both worked together in WWII against the Nazis team up to get to the bottom of what the late Adrian Messenger meant in his list of names and as the two check out the names one at a time.It turns out that all of them, with he exception of James Slattery, died mysteriously over the last five years. Trying to get to Slattery before the killer did the nutty and paranoid rummy gave the two the run around. Claiming that he's James brother Joe, who doesn't exist not who he really is James. Which in the end, with Gethryn & Borg giving up on him, lead to his death when the killer pushed him, wheelchair and all, off the docks and into the bay where he drowned.
The killer***SPOILERS***finally reveals himself at a fox-hunt at the estate of the Marquis of Gleneyre, Clive Brook, as his long dead brothers son George Brougham. And gaining his confidence and being excepted by the Marquis as a member of the family he then manically plans to do him in on the next fox-hunt. Where Brougham sets a trap for the old man, who's expected to be riding on the lead, at the end of hunt.
It now becomes crystal clear that the reason that the murderous George Brougham had murdered all the people on Messengers' list, as well as Messenger himself. In that they all knew about Bougham's treachery toward his fellow POW's whom they all happened to be. The one thing that all the men on Messengers' list had in common in being POW's in a brutal Japanese prison camp in Burma during WWII. With having them gotten out of the way Bougham is now trying to murder the Maquis of Gleneyer and make it look like an accident so he, as his nephew, can inherited his estate and all the riches and royalties that goes along with it. But there's one or two things that he never figured on and thats Gethryn & Borg and that in the end would be his undoing.
A gem
vukodlak8 February 2000
Because of that gimmick with Curtis, Mitchum, Sinatra and Lancaster people seem to regard this film as a sort of spot-the-star contest. But it is much more than that. Excellent acting (especially Douglas in what must be his best role since Paths of Glory), superb music (Jerry Goldsmith) and brilliant direction of John Huston more than make up for occasional lapses in the story.
The story is quite simple, but the less said the better. The 'list' in question is a list of 10 names of people from all over the UK, who seem to have nothing in common except...well just see the movie.
And spotting the stars is quite fun too.
The story is quite simple, but the less said the better. The 'list' in question is a list of 10 names of people from all over the UK, who seem to have nothing in common except...well just see the movie.
And spotting the stars is quite fun too.
Gimmicky star-chasing all but sinks modest murder mystery
bmacv8 January 2002
The handful of top-notch films directed by John Huston, from The Maltese Falcon in 1941 to Prizzi's Honor in 1986, has always been evened out by more than his share of clunkers -- mediocre material half-heartedly helmed (The Bible, In This Our Life, Judge Roy Bean, Annie). But what was his thinking behind The List of Adrian Messenger? A modestly entertaining murder mystery of the fusty old English school, it's trumped up with foolish gimmickry that's irrelevant to the movie but was vital to its marketing. A starry cast -- Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra -- wanders around under false-faces for, with one exception, no discernible reason (they all end up looking like late Sean Connery). So sitting through it is to join the celebrity hunt (preferable, at any rate, to the fox hunts which eat up the film footage).
The plot proper concerns a series of fatal "accidents" that leads George C. Scott, sans mask and makeup, to uncover a betrayal in wartime Burma and the scion of an aristocratic family long vanished into the Canadian west. But Huston loses interest in the puzzle with unseemly haste -- as do we. Stifling yawns, we wait for the "stars" -- most of whom contribute little more than walk-ons -- to peel off their disguises, winking and smirking insufferably at the camera.
The plot proper concerns a series of fatal "accidents" that leads George C. Scott, sans mask and makeup, to uncover a betrayal in wartime Burma and the scion of an aristocratic family long vanished into the Canadian west. But Huston loses interest in the puzzle with unseemly haste -- as do we. Stifling yawns, we wait for the "stars" -- most of whom contribute little more than walk-ons -- to peel off their disguises, winking and smirking insufferably at the camera.
Not just a whodunnit, but a who-the-heck-is-that-er?
Mr. OpEd22 April 1999
Stunningly original. It's great fun sitting with people seeing the film for the first time and telling them all the big stars who are in it! "OK," they finally say, "I've seen George Scott and I've finally seen Kirk Douglas; where's everybody else?" Once you experience this classic, you'll know what I mean. Scott (one of the few Americans who can sustain a British accent) is wonderful as the sleuth. Houston's slight-of-hand direction is bang on. Goldsmith's wicked little theme and moody score need to finally be released on CD (Varese? Silva?).
A rather cold but clever English Country House mystery set in Ireland...
ianlouisiana21 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This film has the trappings of Doyle but the aura of Christie,all wrapped up in a
blanket of Hustonian braggadacio.
One of the medium's most idiosyncratic directors and hammiest actors(in a good way),Mr Huston apparently lost interest in many of his projects almost as soon as they started to bear fruit.
This is not detectable on screen during "The List of Adrian Messenger" except in the denouement involving his "hidden stars" which proceeds with a haste that is almost rude.
Whether or not it was his idea in the first place I don't know,but clearly he was anxious to get it over with before it could be revealed as a Maguffin to rival any of Hitchcock's.
The story is intriguing despite Mr Scott's English accent which may have ben a template for Mr van Dyke's efforts a little later that year.
Sitting in the three and nines in the "Odeon" in Brighton's West St, I pencilled in my diary the parts I thought were being played by the Big Stars.
The first name I wrote was Kirk Douglas playing George C.Scott's role.
In my defence there did seem to be a close similarity.
Apart from Mr Lancaster who clearly was not playing the Hunt Follower,the others were easy.
Mr Scott - later to play Sherlock Holme - ,was cool and dogged,trying hard to take the rather convoluted plot seriously.
The icily beautiful Miss D.Wynter was perfectly cast,the locations well - chosen
and the whole thing crisply shot in startling black and white.
The English aristos are everything you might expect a man who owned Estates in Ireland to sincerely believe.
None of this stops "The List" from being an atypical Huston film for that stage of his career.
He lifts his foot from the testosterone pedal despite a predominantly male cast
and lets his cinematographer's imagination predominate.
The Hunt scenes - regardless of your taste or otherwise for Foxhunting,are bravura film - making.
Best seen I'm afraid,on the big screen where the interiors and exteriors may distract you from the unlikeliness of it all.
Overall great fun and a worthy example of a Film Craftsman's oeuvre.
Above Average Mystery with a gimmick
theowinthrop3 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of those mysteries where a talented amateur (George C. Scott) slowly unravels what the police (despite having all the resources) can't seem to figure out.
Anthony Gethryn is a friend of the family of the Eark of Glenyre (Colin Brook). One of the cousins of the Earl's current heir (his grandson) is Adrian Messenger (John Merrivale) who is an author. Messenger has been working on what he calls a mystery plot, which he mentions vaguely, but with some ill-ease, to Gethryn. It seems he has been tracing a series of people he (Messenger) knew who have mostly died in grotesquely horrible accidents. He promises to tell Gethryn about it, but he has to take an air flight on business. Earlier we saw an odd looking religious man handing in a package that was supposed to go on the plane. Naturally the plane blows up killing most of the passengers and crew. But a badly injured (actually dying) Messenger tells the surviving passenger (Jacques Roux - Raoul Le Borg) a message for Gethryn. It is a long disjointed message, and Gethryn does get it after Roux is picked up (by then the sole survivor of the bombed plane).
Gethryn slowly works out the message on a set of blackboards with the assistance of the recovered Roux and Lady Jocelyn (Dana Wynter) and Sir Wilfred Lucas (Herbert Marshall). Gradually he realizes that the list of names are of men who were prisoners of war with Messenger, and that they and others were betrayed by another man who will kill anyone who is in his way to claim a large estate.
The gimmick of this film (which makes it a guessing game, but also ruins the mystery to some extent) was to guess who were the celebrities in cameo roles in this film. The five celebrities were Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Curtis. In the case of Lancaster, Mitchum, Sinatra, and Curtis the disguises are not too bad (although Mitchum bone structure is a dead give-away. But Douglas (and I am not ruining the story to say this) is in four disguises, and like Mitchum it is just too difficult to hide his bone structure. One of his disguises, by the way, looks like Dr. Hawley Crippen.
Despite the gimmick taking one's attention away from the actual mystery, the film is a good one, well directed by John Huston (who has a cameo here as well, as does his son), and has some nice countryside photography - particularly of the final fox hunt. It is a decently made, above average mystery.
Anthony Gethryn is a friend of the family of the Eark of Glenyre (Colin Brook). One of the cousins of the Earl's current heir (his grandson) is Adrian Messenger (John Merrivale) who is an author. Messenger has been working on what he calls a mystery plot, which he mentions vaguely, but with some ill-ease, to Gethryn. It seems he has been tracing a series of people he (Messenger) knew who have mostly died in grotesquely horrible accidents. He promises to tell Gethryn about it, but he has to take an air flight on business. Earlier we saw an odd looking religious man handing in a package that was supposed to go on the plane. Naturally the plane blows up killing most of the passengers and crew. But a badly injured (actually dying) Messenger tells the surviving passenger (Jacques Roux - Raoul Le Borg) a message for Gethryn. It is a long disjointed message, and Gethryn does get it after Roux is picked up (by then the sole survivor of the bombed plane).
Gethryn slowly works out the message on a set of blackboards with the assistance of the recovered Roux and Lady Jocelyn (Dana Wynter) and Sir Wilfred Lucas (Herbert Marshall). Gradually he realizes that the list of names are of men who were prisoners of war with Messenger, and that they and others were betrayed by another man who will kill anyone who is in his way to claim a large estate.
The gimmick of this film (which makes it a guessing game, but also ruins the mystery to some extent) was to guess who were the celebrities in cameo roles in this film. The five celebrities were Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Curtis. In the case of Lancaster, Mitchum, Sinatra, and Curtis the disguises are not too bad (although Mitchum bone structure is a dead give-away. But Douglas (and I am not ruining the story to say this) is in four disguises, and like Mitchum it is just too difficult to hide his bone structure. One of his disguises, by the way, looks like Dr. Hawley Crippen.
Despite the gimmick taking one's attention away from the actual mystery, the film is a good one, well directed by John Huston (who has a cameo here as well, as does his son), and has some nice countryside photography - particularly of the final fox hunt. It is a decently made, above average mystery.
An Older Sin Than Politics
bkoganbing10 December 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Adrian Messenger as played by John Merivale asks a friend George C. Scott to look up 12 names quite unofficially to see if these people are all still fogging mirrors. Right after that Merivale is killed in a plane crash that was caused by a bomb. That list becomes the key to finding his murderers as Scott and plane crash survivor Jacques Roux go on the hunt.
The List of Adrian Messenger is a nice murder mystery of the type that the British do so well. Had it not been for the gimmick of the heavily make-up laden stars playing bit roles except in two cases the film might well have stood on its own merits of well executed plot and good acting. Except for George C. Scott, like Gregory Peck in The Paradine Case he drifts in and out of an affected English accent.
Three of the stars, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Burt Lancaster have small walk-on parts. I'm also reasonably sure that both Lancaster and Sinatra's voices were dubbed. Robert Mitchum has a small role as one of the names on The List of Adrian Messenger. He plays a cockney war veteran who was with Merivale in a prisoner of war camp in the Burma Theater of World War II. John Huston would have been foolish indeed not to have taken advantage of Mitchum's uncanny gift for speech mimicry. It's the POW camp and what happened there that's the reason for all this homicide.
The villain is Kirk Douglas and we see him in several disguises. Douglas was the co-producer of The List of Adrian Messenger so he gave himself the villain's role. Although he precipitated both a train wreck and a plane crash to get two of his victims, he's by no means mad. He's got a very well thought out plan and he comes close to completing it.
I agree with everyone else who has said that John Huston took this particular film assignment so he good indulge in fox hunting and get paid for it. He was living in Ireland at the time and the fox hunting scenes were shot there. In fact it's a fox hunt that is the climatic scene of the film. Douglas almost gets away with a final murder, but a well trained gypsy horse and a bloodhound foil the villain at the end.
Clive Brook came out of a 20 year retirement to play the Marquess of Gleneyre and his daughter-in-law is played by the beautiful Dana Wynter who always graces any film she's in. Herbert Marshall is the MI5 man who was Scott's superior in war time and Huston cast as the young heir to the Gleneyre title and Douglas's last potential victim with his son Walter Anthony Huston. All look quite comfortable in their roles.
The List of Adrian Messenger is a short film for an A feature. It moves effortlessly and pleasantly and will be good entertainment. And personally I think you'll like guessing who and where the walk-ons are.
The List of Adrian Messenger is a nice murder mystery of the type that the British do so well. Had it not been for the gimmick of the heavily make-up laden stars playing bit roles except in two cases the film might well have stood on its own merits of well executed plot and good acting. Except for George C. Scott, like Gregory Peck in The Paradine Case he drifts in and out of an affected English accent.
Three of the stars, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Burt Lancaster have small walk-on parts. I'm also reasonably sure that both Lancaster and Sinatra's voices were dubbed. Robert Mitchum has a small role as one of the names on The List of Adrian Messenger. He plays a cockney war veteran who was with Merivale in a prisoner of war camp in the Burma Theater of World War II. John Huston would have been foolish indeed not to have taken advantage of Mitchum's uncanny gift for speech mimicry. It's the POW camp and what happened there that's the reason for all this homicide.
The villain is Kirk Douglas and we see him in several disguises. Douglas was the co-producer of The List of Adrian Messenger so he gave himself the villain's role. Although he precipitated both a train wreck and a plane crash to get two of his victims, he's by no means mad. He's got a very well thought out plan and he comes close to completing it.
I agree with everyone else who has said that John Huston took this particular film assignment so he good indulge in fox hunting and get paid for it. He was living in Ireland at the time and the fox hunting scenes were shot there. In fact it's a fox hunt that is the climatic scene of the film. Douglas almost gets away with a final murder, but a well trained gypsy horse and a bloodhound foil the villain at the end.
Clive Brook came out of a 20 year retirement to play the Marquess of Gleneyre and his daughter-in-law is played by the beautiful Dana Wynter who always graces any film she's in. Herbert Marshall is the MI5 man who was Scott's superior in war time and Huston cast as the young heir to the Gleneyre title and Douglas's last potential victim with his son Walter Anthony Huston. All look quite comfortable in their roles.
The List of Adrian Messenger is a short film for an A feature. It moves effortlessly and pleasantly and will be good entertainment. And personally I think you'll like guessing who and where the walk-ons are.
Shoot the messenger
Lejink7 February 2020
A movie with more cameos than a cheap jewellery box, "The List Of Adrian Messenger" is John Huston's cheeky take on the olde English whodunit. At the beginning we see a heavily made-up masked man commit murder-by-elevator and then up the stakes considerably by ending the titular Adrian Messenger amongst many others by next planting a bomb on board an aeroplane. Miraculously, you have to say, there's actually a survivor from this crash, a suave, handsome, middle-aged Frenchman who before you know it is up and about practically unscathed and besides wooing Messenger's pretty widowed cousin, actually helping retired detective George C Scott, himself a relation of Adrian's, to interpret the dying Messenger's last words which he somehow manages to do by recreating the exact pitch and speech pattern of the deceased before he drowned. So it is that this rich man's Holmes and Watson set out to track down what turns out to be a long-term serial killer in no special hurry it seems to carry out his grudge slayings.
From there, we get a fair bit of cat and mouse as the murderer continues his spree by sending a wheelchair-bound Irishman off a cliff and then attempting to set up another couple of deaths by horseback, which I wouldn't have thought was a particularly reliable modus-operandum.
After a couple of lengthy scenes taking in the thoroughly reprehensible English blood-sport practice of fox-hunting, all is seemingly resolved by the end with the unmasking of the killer, that is until Kirk Douglas steps up in person to tag on a fourth-wall-breaking epilogue which adds nothing to the story other than to help identify where his big star chums Mitchum, Curtis, Sinatra and Lancaster, as mentioned over the titles, were hiding in plain sight all along.
I wanted to like this movie which I watched in tribute to the great and sadly now late Kirk Douglas and also as I'm an admirer of the maverick John Huston's work as a writer and director. Alas, neither is at their best here, with Douglas given too little to do and Huston making rather a dog's breakfast of the direction. Apparently at least one of the cameos is said to be bogus too which wouldn't surprise me in this rather false and insubstantial caper of a movie.
From there, we get a fair bit of cat and mouse as the murderer continues his spree by sending a wheelchair-bound Irishman off a cliff and then attempting to set up another couple of deaths by horseback, which I wouldn't have thought was a particularly reliable modus-operandum.
After a couple of lengthy scenes taking in the thoroughly reprehensible English blood-sport practice of fox-hunting, all is seemingly resolved by the end with the unmasking of the killer, that is until Kirk Douglas steps up in person to tag on a fourth-wall-breaking epilogue which adds nothing to the story other than to help identify where his big star chums Mitchum, Curtis, Sinatra and Lancaster, as mentioned over the titles, were hiding in plain sight all along.
I wanted to like this movie which I watched in tribute to the great and sadly now late Kirk Douglas and also as I'm an admirer of the maverick John Huston's work as a writer and director. Alas, neither is at their best here, with Douglas given too little to do and Huston making rather a dog's breakfast of the direction. Apparently at least one of the cameos is said to be bogus too which wouldn't surprise me in this rather false and insubstantial caper of a movie.
The stars are not always under the makeup
gshatterhand8 July 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I haven't had a chance to read all the comments here but, for those who suspect the stars are not always under the makeup until the end of the film, you are right.
The full story of the actors who REALLY were under the makeup in several scenes is told in an issue of Video Watchdog. You can locate a reference to it at the Video Watchdog website.
Actor Jan Merlin substituted for Kirk Douglas in several of the scenes. And other actors sometimes stood in under the makeup for some of the other stars, too.
Hard to believe these big stars went along with such a silly scheme and that it was undiscovered by the public for so long. But I think a lot of suspected something when the stars in makeup at the end didn't look much like the same character seen in the rest of the film.
The full story of the actors who REALLY were under the makeup in several scenes is told in an issue of Video Watchdog. You can locate a reference to it at the Video Watchdog website.
Actor Jan Merlin substituted for Kirk Douglas in several of the scenes. And other actors sometimes stood in under the makeup for some of the other stars, too.
Hard to believe these big stars went along with such a silly scheme and that it was undiscovered by the public for so long. But I think a lot of suspected something when the stars in makeup at the end didn't look much like the same character seen in the rest of the film.
Whodunnit with more surprises than usual
chriswright196921 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
It's almost a pity that The List of Adrian Messenger is a good film. Otherwise you could have fun with the title and call it The Mess of Adrian's List. In fact, an episode of Get Smart does this (to be exact, the episode is called The Mess of Adrian Listenger). But under the direction of the legendary John Huston, this old style English whodunit is a fun murder mystery. With the excellent George C. Scott in the lead speaking with a British accent.
A writer named Adrian Messenger believes a series of apparently unrelated accidental deaths are linked murders. He asks his friend, a recently retired member from MI5, to help clear up the mystery.
Spoilers ahead: The real fun of The List of Adrian Messenger and what makes this film still unique is that then famous movie stars play cameos in disguise. Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Robert Mitchum all appear in heavy makeup. Robert Mitchum is the most recognizable and the only one who uses his own voice. He certainly gives the best performance of the star cameo's (he has two scenes), but he does not give a typical Mitchum performance. He is the only one we can be sure of, because there have been claims that some of these stars just appeared in the revealing epilogue and that their scenes in the film were done by stand ins.
The other actor we can also be sure of is Kirk Douglass who takes on different disguises. Douglass makes himself recognizable early in the film when he changes masks in the restroom of an airport. But his part is not a cameo, it is the second male lead and in the last act he appears without a disguise. The fact that Kirk Douglass is so recognizable does not make it much of a whodunit, but it doesn't really matter. It's still a fun guessing game why he is doing all the killings. The director John Huston himself makes a cameo at the end, although not in disguise.
A writer named Adrian Messenger believes a series of apparently unrelated accidental deaths are linked murders. He asks his friend, a recently retired member from MI5, to help clear up the mystery.
Spoilers ahead: The real fun of The List of Adrian Messenger and what makes this film still unique is that then famous movie stars play cameos in disguise. Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Robert Mitchum all appear in heavy makeup. Robert Mitchum is the most recognizable and the only one who uses his own voice. He certainly gives the best performance of the star cameo's (he has two scenes), but he does not give a typical Mitchum performance. He is the only one we can be sure of, because there have been claims that some of these stars just appeared in the revealing epilogue and that their scenes in the film were done by stand ins.
The other actor we can also be sure of is Kirk Douglass who takes on different disguises. Douglass makes himself recognizable early in the film when he changes masks in the restroom of an airport. But his part is not a cameo, it is the second male lead and in the last act he appears without a disguise. The fact that Kirk Douglass is so recognizable does not make it much of a whodunit, but it doesn't really matter. It's still a fun guessing game why he is doing all the killings. The director John Huston himself makes a cameo at the end, although not in disguise.
so many stars but not enough pay off
planktonrules12 February 2006
This was an incredibly star-studded film--having one of the most amazing list of actors assembled for one film. However, despite all this amazing talent, the film itself is only ordinary. This also despite the fact that the film is very original. The problem is that the film is sort of a comic-fantasy movie and when it degenerates into comical territory, it loses its steam and becomes a bit ponderous. It's really a shame, as you expect so much with such a star-studded cast. In many ways, this reminds me of THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE--also starring Lancaster and Douglas--made only a few years earlier. Like this film, when the characters act silly, the plot drags.
Memorable mystery movie
Chromium_514 November 2005
This is an interesting and strangely dark movie that sticks in your mind a long time after watching it. It has a light, comic feel, mainly due to the awesome theme music, that covers up an extremely morbid story about a serial killer who murders hundreds of innocent people (as someone else pointed out, this was the first movie to deal with such a theme). The "gimmick" of all the actors in disguise, which I think is more clever deception than a gimmick, makes it almost impossible to spot the killer and figure out what's going on, and the ending, where all the actors peel off their disguises, is bizarre to say the least. I'd also like to point out that this movie has one of the most horrible movie deaths I've ever seen--there's no blood, but the situation is pretty nasty. Suffice it to say I think the moral of the story is to always watch out for farm machinery while running. All in all, it's a weird, funny and dark mystery that's definitely worth watching. 7/10.
Scarily unorthodox for the time
rms125a28 April 2003
Warning: Spoilers
This is the first murder mystery, to my knowledge, where the malefactor has already killed many victims by the time the film starts and most of the rest (including scores of innocent people via an airplane bomb) early in the film. The mass murderer in question's evil goes back to his days in an Allied POW camp in Japan during World War II (important plot narrative not to be overlooked) where he sabotaged his fellow inmates' escape attempts in his function as a mole at the camp, earning the others brutal payback from their Japanese overseers. Chilling at moments as the murderer just goes along killing in nefarious and creepy disguises.
Well worth seeing without commercial interruptions, especially in the post-show credits during which guest stars who had appeared in disguise mug for the camera.
Well worth seeing without commercial interruptions, especially in the post-show credits during which guest stars who had appeared in disguise mug for the camera.
Disguises Aside I Liked This One
ragosaal23 October 2006
This film is most remembered by the cameo appearances of several stars under heavy make up which proposes a little game in trying to identify them (Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and Kirk Douglas). However, and that aside, "The List of Adrian Messenger" stands as an entertaining thriller for those of us who enjoy the genre.
The story goes with a series of apparently unrelated accidental deaths, until someone -the guy in the title- suspects they are somehow linked and starts to investigate the case; when he perishes in an airplane crash his work is taken over by a friend of his a retired police inspector.
The plot is interesting and, aided by an excellent black and white photography, director John Huston creates a sordid and most appropriate atmosphere and sustains tension and interest all along.
George C. Scott is very good as the investigator and Dana Wynter adds the feminine presence. The rest of the cast is acceptable and even. Make up masks were alright for the early 60's but they are definitely poor if you compare them with today's techniques.
Just forget the "discover the star game" and enjoy a decent and unpretentious thriller most amusing for fans of the genre. By the way, Robert Mitchum is the easy one.
The story goes with a series of apparently unrelated accidental deaths, until someone -the guy in the title- suspects they are somehow linked and starts to investigate the case; when he perishes in an airplane crash his work is taken over by a friend of his a retired police inspector.
The plot is interesting and, aided by an excellent black and white photography, director John Huston creates a sordid and most appropriate atmosphere and sustains tension and interest all along.
George C. Scott is very good as the investigator and Dana Wynter adds the feminine presence. The rest of the cast is acceptable and even. Make up masks were alright for the early 60's but they are definitely poor if you compare them with today's techniques.
Just forget the "discover the star game" and enjoy a decent and unpretentious thriller most amusing for fans of the genre. By the way, Robert Mitchum is the easy one.
The gimmick - I disagree
hoversj14 April 2005
I wanted to say something in praise of the masked star gimmick - something I haven't seen anyone else mention.
Rather than viewing the various "heavily made-up" characters as a spot the star contest, look at it from the other side and, suddenly, the gimmick becomes an ingenious way of covering up the killer - hiding him from the audience. Since the filmmakers knew they couldn't find a way to make a full head latex "invisible" to the audience, (and presumably didn't want to go with a completely other actor) they went the Purloined Letter route and threw in a bunch of such "spottable" characters to keep the audience from guessing which one was the killer.
Much like the movie The Spanish Prisoner - where every person seems somehow fakey UNTIL you watch from the viewpoint of "spot the scam" and realize the EVERYONE sounds fake (i.e., like they're scamming someone) so you CAN'T spot the con artists.
Brilliant, really. In both cases.
Rather than viewing the various "heavily made-up" characters as a spot the star contest, look at it from the other side and, suddenly, the gimmick becomes an ingenious way of covering up the killer - hiding him from the audience. Since the filmmakers knew they couldn't find a way to make a full head latex "invisible" to the audience, (and presumably didn't want to go with a completely other actor) they went the Purloined Letter route and threw in a bunch of such "spottable" characters to keep the audience from guessing which one was the killer.
Much like the movie The Spanish Prisoner - where every person seems somehow fakey UNTIL you watch from the viewpoint of "spot the scam" and realize the EVERYONE sounds fake (i.e., like they're scamming someone) so you CAN'T spot the con artists.
Brilliant, really. In both cases.
It has George C. Scott's performance to recommend it...
Again, Scott is great as the principal investigator and some of the other performances are very good also ... and Joe MacDonald's photography is characteristically wonderful ... but the game isn't worth the candle. The mystery runs out of steam around the one-hour mark, with 35 minutes still to go. And there are seemingly endless (and somewhat unsettling) scenes of fox hunts. In fact, I'm guessing that the fox hunting stuff is what drew director Huston to the project in the first place.
He should have been hunting for a better story. My score: 6/10.
filmklassik6 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
- but not much else. I suspect one reason it leans so heavily on its well-publicized make-up gimmick is that the mystery itself is so mediocre, and makes little to no sense. Indeed, why a man with just moments to live and desperate to communicate details about a recent string of homicides would talk about them in cryptic, allusive terms is the REAL mystery of the story (and one no one even addresses in the movie!)
Again, Scott is great as the principal investigator and some of the other performances are very good also ... and Joe MacDonald's photography is characteristically wonderful ... but the game isn't worth the candle. The mystery runs out of steam around the one-hour mark, with 35 minutes still to go. And there are seemingly endless (and somewhat unsettling) scenes of fox hunts. In fact, I'm guessing that the fox hunting stuff is what drew director Huston to the project in the first place.
He should have been hunting for a better story. My score: 6/10.
Was it that bad?
falconer9927 June 2004
Looking through the readers' comments, nobody seems to like this film very much. OK, so it is gimmicky, but that was the trend in the early sixties. I failed to spot most of the made-up stars as I assumed they would have been central to the plot, which most aren't. But the plot is unusual and interesting, and the film really shows what it's like to be in love when it seems unreturned (few others might describe this film as romantic, and yet it is one of the most realistically romantic films I've seen - one can really identify with the French "hero" on seeing his apparently superior rival). Also, Jerry Goldsmith's score is phenomenal. And, in his final "unmasking," is Kirk Douglas trying to suggest he was the George C. Scott character too? The resemblance is quite strong.
One of a kind mystery thriller works a treat
Leofwine_draca14 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER is an incredibly inventive murder mystery/thriller, made by John Huston and shot on his estate in Ireland. It's quite unlike any other film I've watched, the stark black-and-white shooting style accompanying the action quite nicely. It's one of those films where the mystery is deliciously ambiguous until around the halfway mark.
I found the early scenes to be the best part of the film as you have no idea what's going to happen next. Evil Kirk Douglas proves a master of disguise as he goes around bumping people off and making it look like they were killed in accidents. George C. Scott is a delight as the amateur detective who gets drawn into the proceedings and Jacques Roux is even better as the warm-hearted Frenchman and Watson character.
Eventually the story begins to make sense but it continues to engage anyway thanks to the strong performances. The latter half of the story gets bogged down a bit in the fox hunting scenes but it still picks up for a climax tying it all together nicely. One of the most interesting things about the production are the elaborate disguises worn by characters; the make-up which includes face masks and even false eyes is really something special. I found most of the celebrity cameos to be a bit of a distraction, but all of the winking and grinning at the end is irresistible.
I found the early scenes to be the best part of the film as you have no idea what's going to happen next. Evil Kirk Douglas proves a master of disguise as he goes around bumping people off and making it look like they were killed in accidents. George C. Scott is a delight as the amateur detective who gets drawn into the proceedings and Jacques Roux is even better as the warm-hearted Frenchman and Watson character.
Eventually the story begins to make sense but it continues to engage anyway thanks to the strong performances. The latter half of the story gets bogged down a bit in the fox hunting scenes but it still picks up for a climax tying it all together nicely. One of the most interesting things about the production are the elaborate disguises worn by characters; the make-up which includes face masks and even false eyes is really something special. I found most of the celebrity cameos to be a bit of a distraction, but all of the winking and grinning at the end is irresistible.
The Disguises Are Better Than The Film
ccthemovieman-114 May 2006
If you include the cameos, the cast in here is tremendously impressive. The first part of the movie also gives one the promise to be a very intriguing story. However, it bogs down in the middle and never really recovers.
With the hype of this big-name cast and a great director like John Huston, you'd expect more. Starring are George C. Scott, Clive Brook, Dana Waynter, Herbert Marshall and Kirk Douglas. Cameos (in disguises) are by Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra.
It's supposed to be an English film but Scott hardly fits in with his American accent. He made no effort even to fake a British accent, so he sounds out of place. The film isn't bad and really not boring but it should be a lot better. Maybe I just expected too much.
Probably the most fun is figuring out who is whom in all those disguises. It's better than the story.
With the hype of this big-name cast and a great director like John Huston, you'd expect more. Starring are George C. Scott, Clive Brook, Dana Waynter, Herbert Marshall and Kirk Douglas. Cameos (in disguises) are by Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra.
It's supposed to be an English film but Scott hardly fits in with his American accent. He made no effort even to fake a British accent, so he sounds out of place. The film isn't bad and really not boring but it should be a lot better. Maybe I just expected too much.
Probably the most fun is figuring out who is whom in all those disguises. It's better than the story.
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