| Not just a whodunnit, but a who-the-heck-is-that-er? (by Mr. OpEd) |
| Stunningly original. It's great fun sitting with people seeing the film for the first time and telling them all the big stars who are in it! "OK," they finally say, "I've seen George Scott and I've finally seen Kirk Douglas; where's everybody else?" Once you experience this classic, you'll know what I mean. Scott one of the few Americans who can sustain a British accent is wonderful as the sleuth. Houston's slight-of-hand direction is bang on. Goldsmith's wicked little theme and moody score need to finally be released on CD Varese? Silva? . |
| A gem (by vukodlak) |
| Because of that gimmick with Curtis, Mitchum, Sinatra and Lancaster people seem to regard this film as a sort of spot-the-star contest. But it is much more than that. Excellent acting especially Douglas in what must be his best role since Paths of Glory , superb music Jerry Goldsmith and brilliant direction of John Huston more than make up for occasional lapses in the story.The story is quite simple, but the less said the better. The 'list' in question is a list of 10 names of people from all over the UK, who seem to have nothing in common except...well just see the movie.And <more> |
| This is why you go to the movies. (by eronavbj) |
| Entertaining...that's what this film is - the reason you go to the movies in the first place.If you like mysteries, this is among the best. The clever use of cameo appearances only makes it better.It was so magnetic, I had to see it again almost immediately. The plot is second to none. |
| Was it that bad? (by falconer99) |
| Looking through the readers' comments, nobody seems to like this film very much. OK, so it is gimmicky, but that was the trend in the early sixties. I failed to spot most of the made-up stars as I assumed they would have been central to the plot, which most aren't. But the plot is unusual and interesting, and the film really shows what it's like to be in love when it seems unreturned few others might describe this film as romantic, and yet it is one of the most realistically romantic films I've seen - one can really identify with the French "hero" on seeing his <more> |
| Find the stars behind the masks! (by Petey-10) |
| The List of Adrian Messenger is a John Huston film from 1963.It's a movie filled with fantastic stars.Some of them are hard to recognize because they have disguised themselves.Your job is to guess which is which.You can discover Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra.Your job is not easy for some of them are pretty unrecognizable.The brilliant Kirk Douglas is among the stars you can recognize, even though he is seen in many masks.It's always great to see this now 90 year old actor in a movie.The fine actor George C. Scott plays Anthony Gethryn.Dana Wynter is <more> |
| Great little movie (by dragondav) |
| What a great little movie. Good mystery, good actors. The cameos were a little unnecessary, but kind of neat. If you liked the old Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone, you'll like this. It's got the same kind of "flavor" to it. Very enjoyable. |
| Intriguing mystery from John Huston with celebrity cameo roles (by clive-38) |
| Another first rate thriller from John Huston but this time with a subtle difference. Kirk Douglas and George C. Scott are the leading actors but other stars were brought in to play small cameo roles hidden under heavy disguises! Among them are Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster. Part of the mystery and enjoyment of the film was to guess where and when these stars appeared. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that a trick was played on the unsuspecting audience and that other unknown actors stood in for both Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster during the actual <more> |
| Scarily unorthodox for the time (by rms125a) |
| This is the first murder mystery, to my knowledge, where the malefactor has already killed many victims by the time the film starts and most of the rest including scores of innocent people via an airplane bomb early in the film. Kirk Douglas' character is heinously evil, and not just in the present time frame, but going back to his days in the Japanese prison camp during World War II important plot narrative not to be overlooked where he sabotaged his fellow inmates' escape attempts in his function as a mole at the camp. Chilling at moments as the murderer just goes along killing <more> |
| The gimmick - I disagree (by hoversj) |
| 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 <more> |