(1959)
Directed by Carol Reed
Written by Graham Greene
Starring Alec Guiness, Noel Coward, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives, Jo Morrow, Ernie Kovacs
IMDB Entry
Spies are the subject of countless films. Some are serious, some play it for laughs. Our Man in Havana tries to do both.
Jim Wormold (Alec Guinness) is an expatriate Englishman who sells vacuum cleaners in pre-Castro Cuba. He is approached by Hawthorn (Noel Coward) to spy for the UK. Wormold is reluctant, but he is not making much money and needs to finance his daughter Milly (Jo Morrow), who is an avid horsewoman and insists on joining an expensive country club to stable the animal there. Wormold consults with his friend Dr. Hasselbacher (Burl Ives) who advises him to take up the offer and to make up a network of spies and concoct secrets. He succeeds too well, sending reports to London about his network along with plans for a new secret weapon (which looks suspiciously like a vacuum cleaner). London decides he needs more staff and sends Beatrice Severn (Maureen O'Hara) to be his secretary. Meanwhile, Captain Segura (Ernie Kovacs) of the Havana police takes a shine to Milly and wants to marry her.
Things get complicated from there. And when someone dies on a mission to find the weapon, it stops being a game.
The movie starts out as a satire of spycraft and bureaucracy, but turns very serious partway through, and returns to its original mood at the end.
People often forget how good Guinness was with comedy. He has a droll, laid-back style -- something like Bill Murray -- and is excellent here. But the real comic star is Noel Coward, who is wonderful as the spy recruiting him, delivering even the most innocuous of lines in a naturally amusing manner. Jo Morrow was the one American actor* in the cast and makes no attempt to sound English; I was amused at a line of dialog that explains her American accent. Maureen O'Hara has little to do and plays the straight woman and love interest.
I do find Ernie Kovacs to be disappointing. Not because he performs badly: Kovacs was a comic genius but this is just a straight role of the corrupt cop. Why they cast him, I don't know, since he was not written to handle his strength. Kovacs form of humor was years before its time, though, and didn't translate well to a narrative film.
The film had scenes shot in Havana. Castro had taken power (though hadn't announced he was a communist), and allowed it because it showed the corruption of the previous Batista regime.
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*Maureen O'Hara was originally Irish. I saw her live on stage many years ago in a performance of Cheaper by the Dozen.
