The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)

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, the matter becomes more serious. As his friend checks into the list, ... See full summary »

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Anthony Veiller (screenplay), Philip MacDonald (based upon a story by)

Stars:

George C. Scott, Dana Wynter, Kirk Douglas

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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)
Ronald Long	...	Carstairs (as Roland Long)
Kirk Douglas	...	George Brougham / Vicar Atlee / Mr. Pythian / Arthur Henderson
Tony Curtis	...	Cameo
Burt Lancaster	...	Cameo
Robert Mitchum	...	Cameo

Storyline

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, the matter becomes more serious. As his friend checks into the list, each seems to have died in mysterious circumstances. As he goes down the list, the deaths become more recent and a race to find the remaining survivors and what put each of them on this list ensues.

---

Plot Keywords:

accident | hitlist | murder | multiple murder | fox hunting | 

---

Taglines:

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

---

Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 May 1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Totenliste

Filming Locations:

County Wicklow, Ireland

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Joel Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Actor Jan Merlin reportedly played several of the alleged star cameos in the movie (including Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum); according to Merlin, the big-name actors never appeared in the film proper and only shot close-ups for an epilogue peeling off their heavy make-up. Merlin used his experiences as the basis of a thinly-veiled novel about the filming of the movie titled 'Shooting Montezuma'.

---

Goofs

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.

---

Quotes

Mrs. Karoudjian: During the war, my husband was... Swiss.

---

Crazy Credits

At the end of the last scene, the words "The End" (and production company and distributor credits) are superimposed. But then Kirk Douglas says in voiceover "Hold it! Stop!" The text now disappears again and the music score also stops. He continues: "That's the end of the picture, but it's not the end of the mystery." Scenes featuring four of the film's minor roles are now quickly reprised, with a suitable musical score, and the four actors each remove face masks and other makeup to reveal that the respective parts were played by Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, and Frank Sinatra. Finally, Douglas similarly reprises five disguises that his character wore during the course of the story, and after the last one, reveals his face (which we had already seen when his character was undisguised). He says to the camera, "Ladies and gentlemen -- The End", and continues picking off bits of face mask glue while the musical theme concludes.

---

Connections

Referenced in Remington Steele: Premium Steele (1985)

---

Soundtracks

"A Wand'ring Minstrel, I"
from the operetta "The Mikado"
Music by Arthur Sullivan
Played by the orchestra as Tony Curtis removes his makeup

User Reviews

A swell party except for the gatecrashers..

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.