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.