Past Tense


Another brand new entry! Movies with gimmicks is nothing new, some are cheap stunts - others involve the audience seeking clues; we get this kind of guess who in "The List Of Adrian Messenger"...



First off, this is a short entry; only so much I can find, limited stats, but to be expected I did find some stuff.

The motion picture opened on May 29th, 1963. Can tell you, the North American box office numbers were $1,700,00.00. No clue on its budget nor rankings. What else can I tell you?

The feature opened against "Dr. No", "Atom Age Vampire", "Tammy And The Doctor", "The Critic" and "In The Cool Of The Day".

The DVD (pressed) came in a standard case without any insert or issued slipcase.

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I came in to write about this being a Wal-Mart exclusive... ended up discovering it was also, years earlier an Amazon exclusive too. Didn't see that coming. So there you go.



On November 20th, 2009 the internet giant released the film as an MOD, Manufacture On Demand, DVD-R. From the best I can gather, this sold for $9.98. I can't find out more, but I can extrapolate based on another Amazon exclusive MOD, "Powderkeg" - released in 2013.

Which was also the same, zero extras, movie only. So unless i find some blog archive or such, I'm gonna say $9.98. There is another bit which collaborates the price.

Well... there was one extra - if that counts, it had English subtitles.



On July 4th, 2017 Wal-Mart released it as an unadvertised, limited time, pressed exclusive. It sold for $7.96. The nationwide release happened on September 5th, 2017 for $9.99.

A penny difference between the pressed nationwide released and the Amazon exclusive. *nods*

This wasn't part of any end-cap sale. It was just in the regular shelves at Wal-Mart.

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Rant.

Before you ask - it was a blind purchase. Hadn't heard of this movie until that afternoon.

Gonna guess you probably hadn't heard of it too. This movie is kinda, loosely based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Philip MacDonald.

What is it about?

The core of this flick is guess who - as you can see on the poster, five famous actors at the time were in disguises. This was the assassin in hiding. The gimmick was trying to find out which actor was playing the killer (not gonna give it away) - at a particular hit. These include Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum and Tony Curtis.

The black and white movie was a thriller, not a parody. Sway.

The story is set around Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott), a retired MI-5 officer who was asked to come to the estate of "Marquis of Gleneyre" currently owned by long time friend and mystery author, Adrian Messenger (John Merivale).

He wants a favor from Gethryn; take a look at a compiled list he's created - the names of ten people who knew each other during World War II - all were caught and prisoners in a camp in Burma. A good chunk of them are dead; passed under mysterious circumstances.

Each as a separate fatality - is nothing but an odd accident. But once you examine them as a whole, these men knew each other. It's too random to be a coincidence. As a mystery writer, Messenger is very concerned about the possibility of serious foul play.



Seeing how anxious he was - Gethryn agrees. It was just to placate his friend, but it becomes dead serious when Messenger dies. As it turns out that list should've been eleven - Adrian knew all those men too, which was why he was so agitated.

Nearly getting killed in one of the hits - collateral damage, Raoul Le Borg (Jacques Roux) is also retired, he was part of the French Resistance during the war and was Gethryn's counterpart in intelligence. He wants to know what's going on and join in the manhunt, walking with a cane. Two become three with Lady Jocelyn Bruttenholm (Dana Wynter) who is Messenger's cousin and at one point, Gethryn's girlfriend.



Together the trio discover that Adrian's final work, his unpublished manuscript has clues to the killer's identity. The man was a good writer. Things become complicated as the book has been altered - names have been stripped and even replaced.

The killer is hiding his tracks.

And is keeping one step ahead of our trio. They keep failing, people are dying.



This leaves one final name, one last person who remains - they now know the murder is a master of disguise. He can be anyone. They also discover the 'why?' - if discovered, he would be guilty of wartime treachery and would be found guilty in court, sending him to prison for the rest of his life.

He's doing his best to secretly murder all those who could identify him. But Messenger was on the road to uncovering the truth. And now another - so ticked off, the assassin had marked Gethryn as his final kill. And I'll stop here. The ending was swift justice.

So? Why so long after the war? This is something lost today, but was prominent when it came out.

The book was released in '59 which at the time, 1950s - there were World War II, criminal trials still going on. The killer was content to fade in the background, but because of ongoing, very public trials - had to be sure he wouldn't get exposed and sent to prison. That's why there was a delay.

This is like the brown bags in "The Big Sleep" (1946); there's a part of the movie where our hero is focused on a photo studio across the street from a used book store. All these folks coming out with prints and such in brown bags. You see, brown bags were used to hide porn. The photo studio was developing pornographic rolls of film and also sold erotic pictures. Which was known at the time, but that plot point is lost today.

The porn angle now makes the blackmail subplot intelligible. The younger sibling had this over her - dirty pictures... from a hidden camera in a statue.

Anyhow, I didn't know where this was going and that's something I enjoy; not mindless tropes - a genuine mystery. It's a solid feature and part of my collection.

The only star who wasn't given proper screen time was Lancaster who appears in close-ups, not really in disguise in the movie. The film was directed by John Huston who had a bit part towards the end as Lord Ashton, a fox hunt, rider.

By the way, while doing some more research this was also re-released on DVD in 2016; part of "Kirk Douglas: The Centennial Collection" box set. I might add the plot to this movie was given homage for the later comic book adaptation, "RED" (2010).

There you go - not one of my bigger entries, but is serviceable. Okay. I'm satisfied. Come back here on July 15th, 2021 for the next entry. Nope, don't know what that is - yet. I'll think of something. *wink*

Have a safe and pleasant 4th of July. Don't drink and drive or text while driving. Be safe. See you then.