Our Man in Havana (1959)

ALMOST A COMEDIC VERSION OF THE THIRD MAN

Besides The Third Man, the film of Carol Reed's that I find most interesting is Our Man In Havana: partly because of the music, which, like The Third Man, is unique and memorable; partly because anything Alec Guinness is in is going to be memorable; but also because it is almost a comedic version of The Third Man. Instead of post-war Vienna, the story is set in pre-Castro Cuba - only, it was filmed in Cuba after Castro had taken office; so it is a final glimpse of what Cuba was like before it was closed to the free world. For that reason alone, it is fascinating.

It is a spoof on spy thrillers. As with all Reed's most successful films, the story and script are by Graham Greene. Alec Guinness, who is an ex-patriot that owns a vacuum cleaner shop, is recruited by the British secret service to spy on everyone and everything that looks suspicious. He only does it for the money, to keep his daughter in horses and tack; so he makes up a lot of imaginary contacts and sub-agents. But when HQ requires results, he gets the idea of doing some drawings of secret facilities and weapons that are based on his vacuum cleaners. This creates a sensation with the home office, who send Maureen O'Hara down to assist him with the "important work" he's doing. Things get out of hand when Burl Ives, a friend of Guinness', acts like the ruse he's pulling off is real; when Ernie Kovacs, the local police captain, wants Guinness to be his counter-spy; and when Noel Coward, Guinness' British contact, tells him someone is trying to kill him. It is really a lot of tongue-in-cheek fun.

I don't know why this film has not received more attention, unless it is because it is not out on DVD yet, except in non-US format. If you ever get a chance to watch it on Turner Classic Movies, do so - it is a little gem shaped by the hand of a real master. But I trust it won't be long before it is out. It definitely deserves to be.

Waitsel Smith June 23, 2008

Criminal inactivity - an essential film

I repeat - it is virtually criminal that this is not available on DVD. This is an absolutely essential Alec Guinness film. Everything about it is superb. Wonderful entertainment. September 15, 2007

Scandalous!

It is scandalous that this fine film has been withheld from DVD and VHS, Region 1 release in the United States. What possibly could be the problem? It couldn't be because of the director, the same Carol Reed of The Third Man, The Fallen Idol, A Kid for Two Farthings, Oliver, and scores of other fine films. It couldn't be because of the superb cast of Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives, Ernie Kovacs, Ralph Richardson, and Noel Coward. It certainly would not be because of the same infallible textures by photographer Oswald Morris which brought oohs and aahs for Kubrick's 1962 Lolita and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Surely there could be no argument that novelist Graham Greene's screenplay could be any less entertaining than his book. Given such a superb company, and the undeniable fact that this is an eye-popping, first-rate production, one wonders for the reason of its exile. July 17, 2007

Hilarious Lines in Our Man in Havana

I see there are already six reviews as I write this, some of them more knowledgeable about directors and screenplays than I could ever be, and a number of them mention what an excellent spoof on spying this movie is. I just want to add some of the wonderful jokes I recall from seeing the movie, about forty years ago. Note that some of what follows might be interpreted as SPOILERS, although that is not my intent.

Of course Guiness could be funny just walking down the street, but as he drew the Vacuum cleaner parts and provided a description of a scientific weapon being developed in secret, it was already funny. When Ralph Richardson, the British Spymaster (of MI5? I don't recall a name being given for the agency) sees the plans, he describes them to Noel Coward, who is in based in some neighboring South American Country, as looking for all the world like a GIGANTIC VACUUM CLEANER! Noel Coward, who knows Guinness sells vacuum cleaners, looks quite upset (in an understated, British way of course -- everything is quite subtly done). Ralph Richardson then becomes worried that Guinness will be up to the task. "He IS a man of substance, I hope," he says to Coward. "A small businessman is no use at all!"

Noel Coward then goes back to his base, and looks into things, soon asking Guinness to visit him. By this time he is convinced everything is real because he's picked up chatter from the enemy about Guinness' discovery. The funniest thing in this visit, so subtle it could easily be missed, is when Coward welcomes Guinness out in his garden and carefully closes the gate to the terrace with a subtle hint of wanting to frustrate eavesdroppers. But the gate is a typical garden gate, made up of a few ribbons of wrought iron, and completely useless for containing sound.

We meet Ernie Kavaks relatively early, when Guinness' daughter is berating him for arresting a (presumably liberal) Doctor Mendez (I think), and, saying, ". . .no doubt you're torturing him!" Kovaks answers in a perfect Spanish accented English, "No, some people we arrest expect to be tortured, but Doctor Mendez is not in the torturable class."

The scene where Guinness challenges Kovaks to play checkers with Whiskey miniatures, Bourbon against Scotch, and purposely forces him to take piece after piece, is for the purpose of taking Kovaks' gun. Guinness doesn't own a gun, but needs one to confront the man who is killing his supposed agents, and at one point in the game begins to worry that he doesn't know how to load a gun. "Do you keep your gun loaded, Lieutenant?" he asks. Kovaks has a great line, which he delivers with great restraint. "The kind of enemies I have . . . They don't give me time to load."

There is real spy stuff going on as well, understand. People are killed, a few of whom we care about. But I remember this movie for it's FUNNY lines. December 26, 2006

enchanting

I found this movie a masterpiece from begining to end. The photography of old Havana is superb, the humor, extremely ingenous, the performances of Alec Guiness, Ernie Kovacs and Burl Ives, outstanding. The movie is very costumbrist; in the sense that shows very accurately every day life in Havana decades ago July 13, 2005

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