The List of Adrian Messenger Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The List of Adrian Messenger Blu-ray Movie Review

Ode to Latex

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 31, 2018

The List of Adrian Messenger is another in the group of Universal titles being released in minimalist presentations as the studio attempts to replicate the Warner Archive Collection's success at monetizing its back catalog. Having already discussed the many failings in Universal's new enterprise, I will not repeat that account here. The good news is that List is one of the studio's better efforts, no doubt in large part because its DVD release was relatively recent, so that the transfer being recycled here isn't the product of antiquated technology. The film is also far less technically challenging than a three-strip Technicolor production like For Whom the Bell Tolls. Black-and-white was still a viable format in the early Sixties, and List was a B&W production shot "flat" for projection at 1.85:1. Its translation to Blu-ray does not require special handling.

List is nominally a detective story adapted from a short story by mystery writer Philip MacDonald and featuring MacDonald's signature sleuth, Anthony Gethryn. But the film's real claim to fame is a gimmick that would shortly become familiar on TV with the premiere of Mission: Impossible but was still a novelty in 1963: the sight of a character peeling back layers of facial disguise to reveal someone entirely different underneath. Today such transitions are facilitated by CGI intervention that allows one actor seamlessly to replace another, but in List's era they had to be done in-camera and in real time. List has so many of them that they become their own separate plot line, as stars like Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster pop up for cameos disguised as other people. An entire end sequence is devoted to their unmasking.

John Huston directed, and it's obvious to anyone familiar with the filmmaker's biography that List's primary appeal for Huston was its extended fox hunting sequences, which could be shot near the director's Irish estate. The director himself makes a cameo on horseback (but sans latex), and his teenage son Tony has a small but pivotal role as a potential murder victim.

An opening sequence shows a murder being engineered in the guise of an elevator accident. The killer is wearing a disguise, but he is immediately recognizable as Kirk Douglas, who will reappear in numerous forms throughout the film. Eventually his character will be identified as a Canadian named George Brougham, but his motives take longer to uncover. After the unfortunate elevator passenger plunges to his death, we see Brougham cross a name off a list that already has multiple cross-outs.

One of the names still unblemished is that of Adrian Messenger (John Merivale), an author who is about to embark on a book tour to America. Before leaving, Messenger asks a strange favor of his old friend, Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott), a retired MI-5 operative. He gives Gethryn a list of ten names to check out, refusing to explain why because his suspicions are "too preposterous". But Messenger's request acquires new urgency when his plane explodes over the Atlantic, with only one survivor rescued from the icy waters: a former French resistance fighter named Le Borg (Jacques Roux), who reports Messenger's dying words, a fractured verbal salad that includes the phrase "clean sweep".

It quickly turns out that most of the names on Messenger's list have also died in accidents that Gethryn now suspects were not accidental. With the full backing of his former intelligence colleagues, Gethryn joins forces with Le Borg to investigate what connects these apparently unrelated deaths. Meanwhile, Brougham continues his nefarious activities. Eventually he presents himself without disguise at the sprawling Gleneyre estate of Adrian Messenger's family, headed by the imperious Marquis of Gleneyre (Clive Brook). Brougham introduces himself as a long-lost relative and is eagerly welcomed by the Marquis and his widowed daughter-in-law, Lady Jocelyn Bruttenholm (Dana Wynter). But Gethryn and Le Borg are already suspicious of Brougham's well-timed appearance, and as they begin to understand the significance of Adrian Messenger's list, a terrible secret is uncovered.

Fox hunting plays a major role in List ("the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible", in Oscar Wilde's famous phrase). It's after a hunt that Messenger makes his request to Gethryn, and another hunt features prominently in Brougham's plan for one of his final murders. Filmed mostly on location (with a few rear-projection inserts), these live-action sequences provide a kinetic counterpoint to the more traditionally static scenes of Gethryn and Le Borg sitting together, teasing out clues and debating hypotheses. Still, the best parts of List remain the transformations, as we watch Kirk Douglas' Brougham don and shed his elaborate prosthetics, all of which serves as a buildup to the final set of unveilings. Robert Mitchum's disguise is easy enough to spot, but I'll bet many viewers will be surprised by some of the others.

The List of Adrian Messenger Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The List of Adrian Messenger was shot by Joseph MacDonald, a three-time Oscar nominee for both black-and-white (The Young Lions) and color photography (Pepe and The Sand Pebbles). Universal's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray appears to be derived from the same transfer used for its 2009 DVD (which was reissued in 2017). Though dated, the transfer is acceptably organic, with little or no evidence of the grain reduction and artificial sharpening that have marred too many of the studio's previous releases. Sharpness and detail are generally superior, with solid blacks and sufficiently fine delineation of grays to create a sense of texture and depth. A less detailed image might better "sell" the makeup effects, and I suspect they deceived Sixties audiences more effectively, since most viewers in that period would have seen fourth-generation release prints that softened some of the prosthetics' rougher edges. Universal's cleanup of the master is reasonably thorough, and the studio has mastered List on Blu-ray with a generous average bitrate of 34.77 Mbps.

The List of Adrian Messenger Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

List's mono audio has been encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, and the best part of the soundtrack is the late Jerry Goldsmith's score, which adroitly shifts from an archly comic tone to genuine suspense beats. Key sound effects are rendered with appropriate impact, and the dialogue is reproduced with sufficient clarity that you can easily hear George C. Scott's English accent come and go. (Robert Mitchum's isn't much better.)

The List of Adrian Messenger Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As is typical of this latest round of Universal catalog Blu-rays, there are no extras, and there isn't even a menu. Universal's DVD releases of List in 2009 and 2017 were similarly bare.

The List of Adrian Messenger Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The List of Adrian Messenger may not rank among John Huston's finest, but it's an interesting melange of Agatha Christie-style sleuthing and Mission: Impossible gimmickry. The location photography is entertaining, and the cast is clearly enjoying itself (even the notoriously cantankerous Scott). The Blu-ray's image and sound won't win any awards, but at least Universal hasn't screwed it up. Recommended.