Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

ianlouisiana This film has the trappings of Doyle but the aura of Christie,all wrapped up in a blanket of Hustonian braggadacio. One of the medium's most idiosyncratic directors and hammiest actors(in a good way),Mr Huston apparently lost interest in many of his projects almost as soon as they started to bear fruit. This is not detectable on screen during "The List of Adrian Messenger" except in the denouement involving his "hidden stars" which proceeds with a haste that is almost rude. Whether or not it was his idea in the first place I don't know,but clearly he was anxious to get it over with before it could be revealed as a Maguffin to rival any of Hitchcock's. The story is intriguing despite Mr Scott's English accent which may have ben a template for Mr van Dyke's efforts a little later that year. Sitting in the three and nines in the "Odeon" in Brighton's West St, I pencilled in my diary the parts I thought were being played by the Big Stars. The first name I wrote was Kirk Douglas playing George C.Scott's role. In my defence there did seem to be a close similarity. Apart from Mr Lancaster who clearly was not playing the Hunt Follower,the others were easy. Mr Scott - later to play Sherlock Holme - ,was cool and dogged,trying hard to take the rather convoluted plot seriously. The icily beautiful Miss D.Wynter was perfectly cast,the locations well - chosen and the whole thing crisply shot in startling black and white. The English aristos are everything you might expect a man who owned Estates in Ireland to sincerely believe. None of this stops "The List" from being an atypical Huston film for that stage of his career. He lifts his foot from the testosterone pedal despite a predominantly male cast and lets his cinematographer's imagination predominate. The Hunt scenes - regardless of your taste or otherwise for Foxhunting,are bravura film - making. Best seen I'm afraid,on the big screen where the interiors and exteriors may distract you from the unlikeliness of it all. Overall great fun and a worthy example of a Film Craftsman's oeuvre.

Kirpianuscus for the actors in cameo roles. for Kirk Douglas and George Scott. for the story and its old fashion flavor. for the details and for the levels of way to the truth who reflects a manner to build a film noir who could be almost fascinating. a film of keys, crimes and theories. and not only a good script but splendid performances for define events, meetings, plots, errors. the similarities with Sherlock Holmes' stories is one of pillars of this seductive film about a rich family and the danger around it. and it is only the beginning. the mark of John Huston is basis for a dark film who remains memorable for the status of game with masks, for the ambiguity and for the great job of Kirk Douglas .

Pierre M-M This little charmer has been one of my favourite films for over 30yrs and now I have the DVD I regularly re-watch it, like tonight for instance.About 3yrs ago I purchased a copy of the book that it's based on and found that this film is one of those very rare occasions when the film is not only better then the book (rare enough) but a huge improvement on the book.I attribute this in no small measure to George C. Scott's consummate acting skills! Whilst "Patton" is justifiably put forward as his greatest acting performance, and one of the greatest ever recorded on film, "The List of Adrian Messenger" is my favourite of his roles with "Patton" and "The Film-Flam Man" slugging it out for second place! I'm an actor myself and if I ever become even one tenth as good as Scott then I think I will have done very well indeed!One of the regrets I have in life is that I never got to meet the man! Vale George C. Your abilities are sorely missed!

gshatterhand 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.