The gimmick of stars in disguise isn’t enough to spark this routine whodunit and the extended sequences of fox-hunting might deter the contemporary viewer but oddly enough something else of considerable interest is going on and enough to keep you hooked.
Given it’s an actor’s screen persona that tempts you to their movies, how are you going to respond when that’s gone AWOL? Actually, you get a more intriguing performance. Covered in slabs of make-up Kirk Douglas makes out like a latter-day Alec Guinness or Peter Sellers, essaying a number of quite different characters. So the jutting chin, the fierce eyes and the aggressive tone are all gone and in its place he shows he can act. His vicar is especially appealing.
But the same holds true of George C. Scott even though he’s not in disguise. Director John Huston, much as he did with his trio of star names in The Misfits (1961), gets Scott to tone down his screen idiosyncrasies. So the growl is tempered, the flaring eyebrows in cold storage for much of the time, and his jutting chin and aggression set to one side as he depicts a different character to his usual.
The Academy usually hands out Oscars to people who over-act or have some affliction to overcome, and they seem to wilfully ignore it when actors show how well they can act outside their comfort zone.
The story is the usual combination of clever deduction, red herrings and set pieces. Former spy Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott) is hired by the titular character (John Merivale) to find out if a bunch of people on his list are still alive. Messenger himself is soon bumped off in a plane explosion but not before he leaves a garbled clue with sole survivor of the sabotage Raoul Le Borg (Jacques Roux). Gethryn soon discovers everyone on the list is dead. This may have something to do with the Second World War or it may be that the killer wants to cover up something now before potential scandal can ruin a promising future.
Meanwhile, the killer keeps bumping people off. And just to keep Gethryn from getting distracted by possible romance by Lady Bruttenholm (Dana Wynter) Le Borg pounces on her.
By this point the director was pursuing his dreams of becoming landed gentry with a stately home in Ireland and very keen on all the trimmings including fox-hunting which probably accounts for the length of time accorded the sport.
Kirk Douglas, who’s company produced the picture, thought – either to fire up public interest or to help along a fairly straightforward tale – he would ask a few of his movie star buddies to bury themselves in make-up and play bit parts. Whether audiences spent all their time when they should have been concentrating on Gethryn’s detection on carrying out their own sleuthing trying to detect which of the supporting characters might actually be Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum or Burt Lancaster is anybody’s guess. It does have to be pointed out that some of the make-up is unconvincing, some faces looking as though they’ve come out of a box.
Despite all this, I enjoyed seeing George C. Scott (Patton, 1970) and Kirk Douglas (Cast a Giant Shadow, 1966) playing decidedly against type and showing how easy it is to act if you’re not always having to adopt a screen persona.
John Huston looks as if he’s having a ball. Written by Anthony Veiller (Night of the Iguana, 1964) and Alec Coppel (Vertigo, 1958) from the book by Philip MacDonald.
A watchable curiosity.
The Magnificent 60s 
Brian, good write-up, which I enjoyed reading. I like and appreciate your last sentence describing THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER(filmed 1962, released 1963) as, “A watchable curiosity.” Yes, it’s that and more. I find this very interesting and enjoyable movie to be a titillating escapist macabre thriller encased in a bizarre puzzle. This movie grippingly made in an ingenious gimmicky fashion of disguising well-known stars in heavy make-up and prosthetics intrigued me from the get-go when I first viewed it on the NBC SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES in 1968. I don’t want to give away too much about THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER, but later in 1975 when I again watched it on Memphis, Tennessee’s WREG Channel 3 LATE MOVIE, I began to notice with a closer look something about the gimmick used to camouflage the well-known stars. Even through Bud Westmore’s make-up and John Chamber’s well-designed prosthetics I could tell that in one particular disguise that it wasn’t Kirk Douglas, but another actor. Could this clever gimmick of disguise actually have been a con pulled over on the audience? Well, in 2004 in VIDEO WATCHDOG magazine the con was revealed. Too me this makes the movie and it’s behind the scenes shenanigans even more interesting. I think actor/writer Jan Merlin deserves more recognition. I can’t leave without commenting on the very distinctive mysterious music motif used during the George Brougham(Kirk Douglas) scenes where he uses his many disguises. It’s very memorable and we have Jerry Goldsmith to thank for this. I remember that this very music motif was used on two episodes of the TV series HAWAII FIVE-O in the 3rd(1970) and 4th(1971) seasons involving Hume Cronyn when he was rearing disguises.
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Thanks, Walter, I did read somewhere that Lancaster, Sinatra and Curtis only appeared in person for the reveals at the end and it was other actors under the disguises. But, except for Lancaster, I’m not sure that’s true. Even with all the make-up you could detect their screen personas, the way their eyes worked or their smile.
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Brian, from what I’ve read the woman fox hunt protestor was Irish actress Marie Conmee instead of Burt Lancaster. The Gypsy was character actor Dave Willock with Paul Frees doing the voice. The organ grinder was probably an uncredited double or stuntman instead of Tony Curtis. Jan Merlin was all the Kirk Douglas characters except one and at the gripping end. Robert Mitchum was under the make-up as Cockney James Slattery and was clearly not part of the hoax, con, or joke of this entertaining movie.
Jan Merlin wrote a semi-autobiographical novel with names changed and location changed titled SHOOTING MONTEZUMA: A HOLLYWOOD MONSTER STORY(2001), which is about an odd movie in which the audience is to guess who was acting in disguise behind masks, the novel reveals how a movie is ingeniously made and how it affects those involved in it. With celebrated stars, a legendary director, and an egotistic make-up artist extraordinaire. Does this sound familiar?
Jan Merlin gave interviews which appeared in VIDEO WATCHDOG(JAN/FEB/2004) and in Tom Weaver’s EARTH VS. THE SI-FI FILMMAKERS(2005). Merlin has discussed this in several movie convention appearances before his death in 2019.
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Amazing. Thanks, Walter.
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