John Merivale, in the title role, has a very useful friend in George C. Scott. He's a retired British agent with an incredibly sharp mind, so when John hands George a list of ten names asking him to "find out if they're still living at those addresses", George knows there's a deeper meaning behind the list. When John is killed in an airplane bombing, George recruits Jacques Roux and Dana Wynter to help in solving the mystery. And what a mystery! Several times while watching The List of Adrian Messenger, I said, "I'm glad I'm not watching this alone!" It was so spooky, I made sure to leave all the lights on in the house when I went to bed that night. The plot moves very quickly, so you'll have to keep up—or press pause and discuss it with your friends. It's spooky, thrilling, suspenseful, and a great addition to your Halloween movie line-up this year.The greatest tragedy of the film is the lack of a Best Makeup Oscar awarded to it. There was no such Oscar at that time, an error only rectified the year after The Elephant Man went unrewarded. Bud Westmore created such incredible makeup designs, executed by John Chambers, David Grayson, and Nick Marcellino, that it's baffling why the Academy didn't create the award in 1964 to honor them. Disguises were designed for several actors, making them absolutely unrecognizable to the audience. I won't spoil anything because it's fun to guess, but be on the lookout for Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra, and Robert Mitchum.

It's almost a pity that The List of Adrian Messenger is a good film. Otherwise you could have fun with the title and call it The Mess of Adrian's List. In fact, an episode of Get Smart does this (to be exact, the episode is called The Mess of Adrian Listenger). But under the direction of the legendary John Huston, this old style English whodunit is a fun murder mystery. With the excellent George C. Scott in the lead speaking with a British accent.A writer named Adrian Messenger believes a series of apparently unrelated accidental deaths are linked murders. He asks his friend, a recently retired member from MI5, to help clear up the mystery.Spoilers ahead: The real fun of The List of Adrian Messenger and what makes this film still unique is that then famous movie stars play cameos in disguise. Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Robert Mitchum all appear in heavy makeup. Robert Mitchum is the most recognizable and the only one who uses his own voice. He certainly gives the best performance of the star cameo's (he has two scenes), but he does not give a typical Mitchum performance. He is the only one we can be sure of, because there have been claims that some of these stars just appeared in the revealing epilogue and that their scenes in the film were done by stand ins.The other actor we can also be sure of is Kirk Douglass who takes on different disguises. Douglass makes himself recognizable early in the film when he changes masks in the restroom of an airport. But his part is not a cameo, it is the second male lead and in the last act he appears without a disguise. The fact that Kirk Douglass is so recognizable does not make it much of a whodunit, but it doesn't really matter. It's still a fun guessing game why he is doing all the killings. The director John Huston himself makes a cameo at the end, although not in disguise.

After his bitter disappointment with The Red Badge Of Courage Huston began to lose interest in directing though he still, of course, needed to pay the rent which explains some of the assignments he accepted. In this case a re-jigging of Kind Hearts And Coronets in which Kirk Douglas like Richard the Third and Alec Guiness before him, systematically eliminates the line of succession standing between himself and an estate and title. In an effort to sweeten the air around this stale plot the film employs the gimmick of having four 'stars' in cameo roles but as each is heavily - and ridiculously - made up it could be - and probably was - anyone under the masks. No one from lead George C. Scott on down, seems remotely interested in the plot and I can't really blame them. To say ho hum is to give it the benefit of the doubt.

I haven't had a chance to read all the comments here but, for those who suspect the stars are not always under the makeup until the end of the film, you are right.The full story of the actors who REALLY were under the makeup in several scenes is told in an issue of Video Watchdog. You can locate a reference to it at the Video Watchdog website.Actor Jan Merlin substituted for Kirk Douglas in several of the scenes. And other actors sometimes stood in under the makeup for some of the other stars, too.Hard to believe these big stars went along with such a silly scheme and that it was undiscovered by the public for so long. But I think a lot of suspected something when the stars in makeup at the end didn't look much like the same character seen in the rest of the film.