The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Philip MacDonald (story)
Anthony Veiller (writer)

Release Date:

29 May 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

Tagline:

5 Great Stars Challenge You to Guess the Disguised Roles they Play!

Plot:

Messenger asks a friend to check into a list of names before leaving on a trip. When his plane is blown out of the sky...

Plot Keywords:

Accident | Wheelchair | Serial Killer | Multiple Murder | British

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Tony Curtis	...	Cameo
Kirk Douglas	...	George Brougham / Vicar Atlee / Mr. Pythian / Arthur Henderson
Burt Lancaster	...	Cameo
Robert Mitchum	...	Cameo
Frank Sinatra	...	Himself
George C. Scott	...	Anthony Gethryn
Dana Wynter	...	Lady Jocelyn Bruttenholm
Clive Brook	...	Marquis of Gleneyre
Gladys Cooper	...	Mrs. Karoudjian
Herbert Marshall	...	Sir Wilfrid Lucas
Jacques Roux	...	Raoul Le Borg
John Merivale	...	Adrian Messenger
Marcel Dalio	...	Max Karoudjian
Bernard Archard	...	Insp. Pike
Tony Huston	...	Derek Bruttenholm (as Walter Anthony Huston)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:13 | West Germany:12 (nf)

Filming Locations:

County Wicklow, Ireland

Company:

Joel Productions

Trivia:

Fourth of seven films that Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster made together.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Gwendolynne La Doll's address is shown on the manuscript as being on Fulham Road, London S.W.8., and later dialogue describing the location as "the Fulham Road" makes it clear that this means the main street of that name. But this runs from Fulham to Brompton, whereas the SW8 postal district lies across the Thames in districts such as Battersea and Wandsworth.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Immoral Mr. Phillips (2004) (V)

The gimmick - I disagree

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.