The List of Adrian Messenger

The List of Adrian Messenger is a 1963 black and white crime thriller about a retired British intelligence officer (George C. Scott) investigating a series of apparently unrelated deaths. It was directed by John Huston from a screenplay by Anthony Veiller, based on the 1959 novel of the same title by Philip MacDonald.

Contents

 * 1 Plot
 * 2 Commentary
 * 3 Production
 * 4 Home media availability
 * 5 In popular culture
 * 6 References
 * 7 External links

Plot
A writer named Adrian Messenger (John Merivale) believes a series of apparently unrelated "accidental" deaths are actually linked murders. He asks his friend Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott), recently retired from MI5, to help clear up the mystery. However, Messenger's plane is bombed while he is en route to collect evidence to confirm his suspicions and, with his dying breath, he tries to tell a fellow passenger the key to the mystery.

The passenger survives and turns out to be Raoul Le Borg (Jacques Roux), Gethryn's old World War II counterpart in the French Resistance. They join forces to investigate Messenger's list of names, and decode Messenger's final cryptic words. They establish that all on the list were together in a prisoner of war camp in Burma, where a Canadian sergeant, George Brougham, betrayed his fellow prisoners, foiling their escape attempt. Each has a reason to kill Brougham. It evolves that Brougham is their killer, but why? They deduce that he is about to come into prominence and cannot risk being recognised. Gethryn and Le Borg establish that he stands in line to an inheritance of the Bruttenholm family, landed gentry who are friends of Gethryn and the late Messenger, and who avidly engage in fox hunting.

George Brougham (Kirk Douglas) and Derek Bruttenholm (Walter Anthony Huston).

Having disposed of all possible witnesses to his wartime treachery, Brougham (Kirk Douglas) appears at a Bruttenholm estate fox hunt and introduces himself as a member of the family (he has previously been seen only in disguise). It then becomes clear to the visiting Gethryn and Le Borg that Brougham's next victim is to be the young heir, Derek. In an attempt to divert Brougham, Gethryn makes known his investigation of Messenger’s list, calculating to set himself up as the next victim.

That night, Brougham sabotages the next morning’s hunt by laying a drag with a fox in a sack over the fields. He especially marks a blind spot behind a high wall, and moves a large hay tedder behind, intending for Gethryn (who has been given the honour of leading the hunt) to be impaled upon its lethal tines. Unbeknownst to Brougham, his plan goes awry when a farmer repositions the tedder early the next morning. The hunt commences but comes to a halt at the specified spot. Gethryn reveals to the gathered crowd that he discovered and removed the hay-tedder booby trap earlier that morning and, with the help of the lead fox hound, will detect the scent of the culprit amongst a group of hunt saboteurs. Brougham, once again disguised, is identified and runs off, mounting Derek's horse. When Derek shouts a command to the horse, the animal stops short, throwing Brougham and impaling him on the very same machine he intended for Gethryn.

Commentary[edit]
The List of Adrian Messenger is a relatively modern-day Golden Age type of mystery with an additional gimmick of its own. A number of prominent Hollywood actors are advertised to appear in the film heavily disguised in make-up designed by John Chambers: Tony Curtis (as an organ-grinder), Kirk Douglas (as the killer), Burt Lancaster (as an old woman—Lancaster in fact only appears in the credits as his part in the film is actually played by Jan Merlin and voiced by an unknown actress), Frank Sinatra (as a gypsy horse-trader), and Robert Mitchum (as the final victim). Their identities are revealed to the audience at the very end of the film, when each star removes his disguise and make-up.

Production[edit]

 * There were several screenplay drafts written—one by Vertigo co-writer Alec Coppel—prior to the final draft by Anthony Veiller, who receives sole screen credit.[2]
 * Character actor Jan Merlin portrays several of the disguised roles in the film, despite attribution to stars such as Kirk Douglas. Merlin later incorporated his experiences working on this production into a thriller novel, Shooting Montezuma (ISBN 1-4010-2823-3).[3]

Home media availability[edit]
The List of Adrian Messenger was released on DVD by Universal in 2009 as part of their print-on-demand "Vault Series."[4] It's also available on an Australian factory-pressed PAL DVD distributed by Umbrella Entertainment.[5] An original soundtrack recording of the Jerry Goldsmith score was released in 2014 by Varese Sarabande.[6]

In popular culture[edit]

 * Get Smart did a 1970 parody of this movie called "The Mess of Adrian Listenger" starring Pat Paulsen aka Adrian Listenger alias Ace Weems.
 * The plot of Red (2010 film) is a variation on that of "Messenger": man coming into prominence needs to bump off old associates.