The List of Adrian Messenger

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 was directed by John Huston from a screenplay by Anthony Veiller, based on the 1959 novel of the same title by Philip MacDonald.

The passenger survives and turns out to be Raoul Le Borg Jacques Roux, Gethryns old World War II counterpart in the French Resistance. They join forces to investigate Messengers list of names, and decode Messengers final cryptic words. They establish that all on the list were together in a prisoner of war camp in Burma, where a Canadian sergeant, George Brougham, betrayed his fellow prisoners, foiling their escape attempt. Each has a reason to kill Brougham. It evolves that Brougham is their killer, but why? They deduce that he is about to come into prominence and cannot risk being recognised. Gethryn and Le Borg establish that he stands in line to an inheritance of the Bruttenholm family, landed gentry who are friends of Gethryn and the late Messenger, and who avidly engage in fox hunting.Having disposed of all possible witnesses to his wartime treachery, Brougham Kirk Douglas appears at a Bruttenholm estate fox hunt and introduces himself as a member of the family he has previously been seen only in disguise. It then becomes clear to the visiting Gethryn and Le Borg that Broughams next victim is to be the young heir, Derek. In an attempt to divert Brougham, Gethryn makes known his investigation of Messengers list, calculating to set himself up as the next victim. ........

Source: Wikipedia