The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)

The List of Adrian Messenger is a 1963 black and white crime thriller about a retired British intelligence officer (George C. Scott) investigating a series of apparently unrelated deaths. It is directed by acclaimed film director John Huston. The film is based on the 1961 novel of the same title by Philip MacDonald.

Adrian Messenger (John Merivale) asks his friend, British colonel Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott), to check on the whereabouts of the eleven men named on a written list. Not long afterward, the plane on which Messenger is travelling is deliberately blown up.

The mystery killer slipped the bomb on the plane while disguised as a priest, and we soon learn that the killer adopts a different guise for each of his subsequent murders.

As Gethryn tracks down the men on Messenger's list, he discovers that all had been POWs in the same Burmese stockade during World War II, and he deduces that the murderer, who is methodically decimating those on the list, had been a traitor and informer. Gethryn traces the killer to the British estate of The Marquis of Gleneyre (Clive Brook), where his visit coincides with the return of "prodigal" American relative George Brougham (Kirk Douglas). Gethryn is convinced that Brougham is the killer, and that he plans to murder the only heir who stands in the way of the family fortune, but he has no tangible proof.

Filmed primarily in Ireland, The List of Adrian Messenger received good theatrical bookings by virtue of its gimmick: several of the bit characters are played by famous stars in heavy makeup, and each of these stars -- Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Curtis -- "unmasks" in the epilogue. In truth, only Douglas and Mitchum did any real acting under their mounds of collodion and crepe hair; the others showed up only to shoot their unmasking scenes (at a salary of $75,000 each!) and were "doubled" in the film itself.

John Huston was eager for a lightweight lark, and The List of Adrian Messenger was just the project he needed. Philip MacDonald's upper-crust British murder mystery allowed Huston to work close to his Irish estate, including fox hunting and quail shooting well suited to Huston's lord-of-the-manor lifestyle. The mystery itself is clever enough: As a former MI-5 agent, George C. Scott is lured into the case when writer Adrian Messenger (John Merivale) gives him a list of 11 names to investigate, just before Messenger is mysteriously killed. Scott combs for clues to connect the names, and the film's promotional gimmick--big-name stars disguised under Bud Westmore's expert makeup--kicks into gear. Thus you get Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, and Frank Sinatra, barely identifiable under layers of latex, and the mystery never suffers from this playful distraction. Huston enjoyed making this film (he makes a cameo appearance, and his son Tony plays a supporting role), and that pleasure is passed along to the viewer.

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Mute Witness (1995)

Mute Witness, is a 1994 thriller/horror shot in Moscow, Russia written, directed and produced by Anthony Waller. Although made in 1994, it was not released in the USA until the fall of 1995 (with the UK not seeing it till the following year).

Known for having Alec Guinness in cameo as a Mystery Guest Star along with a mostly European cast.

Originally set in Chicago, Waller changed the location when told that Moscow would provide much cheaper sets/labor.

Director Anthony Waller filmed Alec Guinness scenes nine years before the rest of the film from an earlier draft of the screenplay.

Guinness gave his performance in one morning before catching a plane.

When Waller needed an additional scene, he used the film from earlier and reversed it.

Billy (Marina Zudina), an FX make up artist who does not have the physical ability to speak, is in Moscow working on a low budget slasher film directed by her sister's boyfriend Andy (Evan Richards). On one particular night Billy returns to the set to fetch a piece of equipment for the next day's shoot when she is accidentally locked in the studio. Being unable to speak but having the ability to communicate with her sister Karen (Fay Ripley), Billy makes several telephone calls but is interrupted when she discovers a small film crew working after hours to shoot a cheap porno film. Watching unseen Billy is amused until the performed sex becomes sadistic. When a masked actor pulls out a knife and stabs the actress (Olga Tolstetskaya), Billy reacts and is discovered. She flees pursued by the homicidal film crew.

Billy narrowly escapes and manages to tell her story to her sister and the Police, however the snuff film crew manages to convince the authorities that the onscreen 'murder' was a cinematic special effect. The events however bring forward Larsen (Oleg Yankovsky), an undercover detective who is tracking the activities of the covert film crew and their connection to a shadowy criminal mastermind called The Reaper. The Reaper (Alec Guinness) is a financier of an international underground snuff ring. He tells the criminal film crew that Billy is a witness and must be eliminated thus motivating the snuff film director, his thug assistant and a host of subsidiary criminals to retrieve a missing computer disc from her and dispatch her. As more and more factions get involved in killing and saving Billy the action become wild and fantastic and hard to discern what's real from movie magic.

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Oscar® on its way...

Kevin Spacey and Bond 23

Apparently, both Spacey and director Sam Mendes were particularly excited about the Oscar winner playing the villain in the upcoming Bond 23.

According to Live for Films, it's Richard III that's at fault for Spacey getting blocked out of the role.

The theater enthusiast is going on tour with the production right as Mendes takes Bond 23 into filming, creating an unavoidable scheduling conflict. When it comes to choosing between Hollywood and the stage, Spacey has repeatedly chosen the latter. Now, as a result, Javier Bardem, is the man we're all waiting for an answer from.

Mendes and Spacey worked already together on American Beauty.

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Hoffman (1970)

Hoffman is a 1970 British film directed by Alvin Rakoff and starring Peter Sellers, Sinéad Cusack, Jennifer Ruth Dunning and Jeremy Bulloch.

Hoffman is the tale of an older man, played by Peter Sellers, who invites a young lady to his flat in England for a sexual liaison. As the film progresses, it is revealed that Sellers' character caught one of his workers dealing in a scam, and decided to blackmail the man's lovely fiancée away for a full week to convince her to fall in love with him. Mostly a drama, the film has an almost terrifying performance by Sellers, involved in intricate mind games with the other protagonists.

Reportedly, Sellers despised Hoffman because the lead character too closely reflected his own personality.

Notable for the haunting music by Ron Grainer, and as one of Sellers' few 'straight' performances.

Peter Sellers stars in this quirky drama as Benjamin Hoffman, a nebbish office worker who has been in love with his company's secretary, Janet Smith, for years. When Hoffman happens onto some unsavory information about her fiance, he hatches a disturbing blackmail scheme. Presenting Janet with the information, Hoffman tells her that in return for spending a week with him, he will destroy the information. She agrees and proceeds to spend the week with the quietly psychotic Hoffman, who behaves like a perfect gentleman, never betraying his obsessive love. Disturbing and oddly moving, Hoffman is a powerful love story that features an unforgettable dramatic performance by Peter Sellers.

In 1970 Hoffman put a fresh spin on the sexual revolution with its story about a middle-aged boss who blackmails his young secretary into spending a week alone with him. Its sharp observations on the theme of youth being wasted on the young struck a chord with the generation who missed out on all the fun.

Forty years on and Hoffman is, at times, positively creepy. Like Miss Jones (Cusack) we fear the worst and, to begin with at least, the cold, unlovable Mr Hoffman (Sellers) does little to dissuade us of this assumption. He admits to his secretary that he is sexually frustrated, calls women "fallopian tubes with teeth" and when she visits the bathroom tells his quarry to "get ready to be fertilised". Yet, despite all the sexual insinuation it transpires that all Mr Hoffman wants is to be with her, admire her legs as they stand at his kitchen sink and breathe in her smell.

Hoffman is odd; it's also wickedly smart. Slowly, and sweetly, the reasons for all the strange behaviour reveal themselves and the odious Mr Hoffman becomes a moderately likeable human. As the mood lightens so does the comedy - but it is hardly romantic comedy as we know it today. Sellers is at the peak of his powers, wonderful in a bittersweet role that demands him to be both darkly comic and gentle, mournful yet mischievous. Cusack offsets him brilliantly - skittish and ditzy against his hound dog solemnity.

The cinematography is also terrific and often loaded with metaphor, like a small scene when the couple visit the Harrods Food Hall and Cusack, looking innocent and lost, is framed against a backdrop of vast sides of pork. Or the opening titles which, to the soundtrack of Matt Monro, follow Miss Smith on her journey across London to Hoffman's flat.

Despite it's dry humour and bizarre morality Hoffman deserves to be rediscovered.

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Ralph Fiennes in Bond 23?

Ralph Fiennes is being lined up as one of the stars of the next James Bond movie - reports the Daily Mail.

According to the paper, "his Hollywood representatives are in discussions with the producers and director Sam Mendes about a role in the film that so far is known only as James Bond 23. Mendes, who will direct Daniel Craig as Bond and Judi Dench as M, has spoken to Fiennes about taking on what has been described to me as ‘a darkly complex’ role."

"Fiennes is not interested in the usual run-of-the-mill action picture, but he was intrigued when he was told of Mendes’s ‘revolutionary’ plans for Bond 23."

‘It’s the first of a new generation of Bond films, and the ideas Mendes has push the film into darker territory where the characters are modern, mature and challenging,’ a film executive in Los Angeles connected to the production told the paper.

At the moment, the situation with Fiennes is purely at the discussion stage. Fiennes was approached because ‘the part is one of extreme complexity and only an actor of great ability and dexterity can take it on — and Ralph’s name is top of our list’.

The paper claims it’s not the same part that’s being talked about for Javier Bardem.

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Javier Bardem in Bond 23?

Javier Bardem recently met with director Sam Mendes to talk about playing the villain in the next James Bond film, temporarily titled “James Bond 23” and set for a Nov. 9, 2012, release.

The actor, who is Oscar-nominated for his lead work in the Spanish-language drama “Biutiful” and who won in 2008 for another villainous role in "No Country for Old Men," hasn’t said yes to Mendes -- yet. He wants to read the screenplay first. But, apparently he’s very open to the idea.

“I’m a huge fan of the James Bond saga,” Bardem says. “When I was little, I went watching Mr. Connery doing James Bond with my father."

Bardem says he was intrigued by what Mendes told him at their meeting.

“They’re changing the whole thing, the whole dynamic,” Bardem says. “I’d be playing Bond’s nemesis, yes, but it’s not that obvious. Everything is more nuanced. It’s very intriguing.”

In Memoriam : John Barry ( 1933-2011 )