1963 Directed by John Huston
Adrian Messenger, a famous writer, asks his friend Anthony Gethryn, a former British agent, to help him investigate the whereabouts of the people who appear on a list, without asking him the reason why he should do so.
The list of Adrian Messenger is vastly more just a celebrity game but an atmospheric murder mystery, showcasing the barbaric nature of hunting for a sport that represented, complemented the murderer boldly proving a deadly insight into the inner workings of a killer's mind! Dusky visuals covered in thick smog are often set on side streets, dingy bars, and observant glaring eyes watching our protagonist follow breadcrumbs in the darkness. The actors are charismatic, discreet, forceful, and think outside the box= while some death-defying situations occur in horses chasing innocent foxes narrowly dodging a combined harvester. Kirk Douglas portrays menace, selfishness, and greed getting brutally impaired by the harvester after an upper-class child miraculously has a horse given by Adrien…
John Huston’s The List of Adrian Messenger manages to be an entertaining murder mystery despite some stilted direction. The early interior scenes are particularly lifeless and could have been directed by any hack. Huston’s interest in making the film seems to be the three fox-hunting scenes shot in Ireland where he lived at the time. But the mystery of who is killing off a group of men who served in Burma during WWII is compelling, even after we learn who and why, because George C. Scott, as the pursuer, and Kirk Douglas, as the pursued, are so good and because we want to see how Scott finally traps Douglas.
The film’s famous gimmick is that Douglas and others* appear under…
Ça faisait vraiment longtemps que mon père me parlait de ce film, qu'il avait trouvé vraiment bon. J'ai fini par mettre la main dessus (une édition DVD trouvée à la Grande bibliothèque) et j'ai amené ça chez mes parents.
Regarder un film avec mes parents, c'est pas reposant, surtout quand c'est un film qu'ils connaissent déjà. Ça commence avec mon père qui se rappelle un détail : « Ah oui, y s'fait tuer! » Je ne vous révèle rien, en passant, ses souvenirs sont souvent déformés. Mais c'est toujours frustrant, alors je lui réponds un « Dis-le pas! Je l'ai jamais vu! » Pendant le visionnement, on fait souvent pause, parce qu'on s'explique des choses qui pourraient se passer d'explication.…
A fun murder-mystery type film, with various big name actors buried under Dick Tracy levels of latex make-up, with George C. Scott as the detective attempting to crack the enigma behind the titular character's death. It's fun and an easy watch from director John Huston, nothing too meaty or substantial about it, just a director having fun hanging out on his hunting estate with his famous friends. Luckily that sense of fun translates to the screen.
Adrian Messenger, a famous author, is killed when a bomb explodes in his airplane en route to New York, but not before passing a list of seemingly random people to his friend, a retired MI5 officer. The latter soon discovers the connection between those men that Messenger was exploring and ultimately led to his death.
This mystery thriller might be one of legendary John Huston's lesser films but it's still one hell of an entertaining affair. Based on a solid script and some quality location shooting at his estate in Ireland, the veteran director is obviously enjoying himself, and in the process so do we.
The movie is also unique in another aspect: the use of many Hollywood stars in…
*Trolley’s Kirk Douglas Pre-103rd Birthday Watchlist #8*
'I thought that The List Of Adrian Messenger could have been a really big commercial success... Some people did enjoy the movie. But it never became the big commercial success I had hoped for. It could have been exciting. A lot of it I blame on myself, because I didn't have the time to focus on it.. ' (Kirk Douglas)
Brief Synopsis: A British Intelligence Officer (George C. Scott) attempts to apprehend a 'master of disguise' murderer (Douglas) who is eliminating all those standing between him and a vast fortune.
Verdict: A pretty good Kind Hearts And Coronets-lite murder mystery from the prolific John Huston with the gimmick of a whole host of…
The blood sport of fox hunting, an activity in which director John Huston often engaged, runs parallel to Kirk Douglas's mass killer, who hunts down and removes those who are in the way of his inherited fortune. The hunts are superbly shot on location. They dominate the film, partially because the murder-mystery is a non-starter. There's humour in the portrayal of the British aristocracy centred on Clive Brook's Marquis of Gleneyre and the grandson who mirrors his actions, but, as with the cruel fox hunt, Huston's attentions are, in the end, admiring. George C. Scott's ex-MI5 colonel moves through the investigation and the halls of the wealthy with a similar tone: at one point he says he admires the killer's…
Una película de misterio con notables influencias pulp (¡esos disfraces! ¡esa memoria prodigiosa!) con John Huston dirigiendo, George C. Scott y Jacques Roux de héroes, Kirk Douglas de villano y un montón de cameos (Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis y Robert Mitchum) maquillados hasta quedar irreconocibles.
Un enorme y desconocido divertimento.
This unremarkable thriller from a below-par John Huston is more daft than dull, but even a star-studded roster of cameos (most hidden behind masks) can't lift this from a very average watch.
George C Scott has fun as the investigator who tries to uncover what becomes an almost secondary mystery, but other than the gimmick of persuading the likes of Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster to disguise themselves for (probably) more their fun than hours, this film quickly slumps into tedium.
What a strange movie. The actual whodunnit (or rather, 'whydunnit'), is quotidian, but the stuff with the face masks is utterly bizarre. In a good way. That final sequence is nightmare-worthy.
