Our Man in Havana (1959)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Carol Reed

Writers:

Graham Greene (novel)
Graham Greene (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 February 1960 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | Comedy

Plot:

Jim Wormold is an expatriate Englishman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter Milly...

Plot Keywords:

Vacuum Cleaner | British Secret Service | Cuba | Police | London

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Alec Guinness	...	Jim Wormold
Burl Ives	...	Dr. Hasselbacher
Maureen O'Hara	...	Beatrice Severn
Ernie Kovacs	...	Capt. Segura
Noel Coward	...	Hawthorne (as Noël Coward)
Ralph Richardson	...	'C'
Jo Morrow	...	Milly Wormold
Grégoire Aslan	...	Cifuentes (as Gregoire Aslan)
Paul Rogers	...	Hubert Carter
Raymond Huntley	...	General
Ferdy Mayne	...	Prof. Sanchez
Maurice Denham	...	Admiral
José Prieto	...	Lopez (as Jose Prieto)
Duncan Macrae	...	MacDougal
Gerik Schjelderup	...	Svenson

Runtime:

USA:111 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2005) | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Havana, Cuba

Company:

Kingsmead Productions

Trivia:

Alfred Hitchcock was interested in making a film based on Greene's novel. The writer wasn't keen on Hitchcock, however, after his days as a film critic, so he chose to work instead with Carol Reed.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the sequence where Wormold seeks revenge on Carter, Wormold stands in an alley way, with a window behind him to his left. He shoots at Carter, misses him, and walks quite a distance down the alley while putting on his jacket. Carter then pulls out a gun, shoots twice at Wormold who is walking away. Suddenly, the scene cuts back to Wormold back in his original location standing in the alley way with the same distinctive window behind him to his left. He is now without the jacket he had just been seen putting on while walking away. Wormold then shoots Carter.

Quotes:

Jim Wormold: We should all be clowns, Milly.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Get Smart: Our Man in Leotards (#1.10)" (1965)

Soundtrack:

¿Domitila, dónde vas?

A splendidly acted movie about "real" spying before the genre was established. The Government's ready and willing acceptance of misinformation is chillingly relevant in light of the recent Iraq ma

This movie is a good example of how a story can be carried by the force of the actors' skill and director's art rather than relying the science of special effects. The absence of "action" means that the audience's attention has to be held by the sheer force of the story line, the actors' interpretations of it and the director's presentation of the product as a whole.

It deals honestly with what intelligence gathering is. A mundane craft open to manipulation not only by governments but also by lowly operatives. Sir Alec Guinness, as he later became, portrays the ordinariness of the seedy characters who carry on this trade. Ernie Kovacs gives a splendid presentation of the laid back but sinister not so secret policeman while Burl Ives is as powerful as ever.

The pre-Castro Cuban setting is well portrayed and one can almost feel the tropical heat as the cast of misfit characters go about there subterfuge business.