Our Man in Havana (1959)

Jim Wormold, who is a vacuum cleaner salesman, participates as an Agent in the British Secret Service. But he soon realizes that his plans by lying are going to get him into trouble.

Director:

Carol Reed

Writer:

Graham Greene (novel)

Stars:

Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alec Guinness	...	Jim Wormold
Burl Ives	...	Dr. Hasselbacher
Maureen O'Hara	...	Beatrice Severn
Ernie Kovacs	...	Capt. Segura
Noël Coward	...	Hawthorne
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
Joseph G. Prieto	...	Lopez (as Jose Prieto)
Duncan Macrae	...	MacDougal
Gerik Schjelderup	...	Svenson

Storyline

Jim Wormold is an expatriate Englishman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter Milly. He owns a vacuum cleaner shop but isn't very successful so he accepts an offer from Hawthorne of the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba. Wormold hasn't got a clue where to start but when his friend Dr. Hasselbacher suggests that the best secrets are known to no one, he decides to manufacture a list of agents and provides fictional tales for the benefit of his masters in London. He is soon seen as the best agent in the Western Hemisphere but it all begins to unravel when the local police decode his cables and start rounding up his "network" and he learns that he is the target of a group out to kill him.

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Plot Keywords:

british secret service | cuba | vacuum cleaner salesman | vacuum cleaner | drunkenness | 

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Taglines:

A murderously funny story, magnificently cast....marvelously made !

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Movie Channel

Country:

UK

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

19 February 1960 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Nuestro hombre en La Habana

Filming Locations:

Havana, Cuba

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kingsmead Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In 1963, Malcolm Williamson and Sidney Gilliat adapted Graham Greene's novel "Our Man in Havana" into a libretto opera, with music by Williamson and lyrics by Gilliat, the latter of whom had worked on this movie.

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Goofs

The draughts (checkers) game is cut to suggest that Wormold makes the second move of the game to his right, and that Segura then captures to his right. This is impossible in an actual game of draughts, but if you watch closely you can see a cut between those two moves where the board configuration has changed.

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Quotes

Jim Wormold: I keep them under my pillow. At night, I mean.

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Connections

Spoofed in Get Smart: Our Man in Leotards (1965)

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Soundtracks

LA BELLA CUBANA
(uncredited)
(traditional Cuban melody)
Composed by Jose White Lafitte (1853)
used as love theme in the opening credits

User Reviews

Graham Greene at his cinematic best.

This is one of Alec Guiness's best performances. The whole film is understated and takes into account the arid wit of the novel. Graham Greene usually buries humor in dark text that deals with one man's coming to grips with some moral or religious crisis. In Our Man in Havana Greene sets aside his usual level of introspection-made-manifest and dwells upon the absurdity of a small man with a small life that is drawn into circumstances that quite outdistance his usual worldly sphere of experience and expectation. A vacuum cleaner salesman is drawn into a vortex of espionage and intrigue. He has to create from whole cloth scenarios to satisfy his spy-master contacts. Due to his agility at fabrication he becomes regarded as an indispensable operative and ultimately draws upon a well of heretofore untapped personal resources in order to save the day. Guiness, alternating between bewilderment and resolve paints a lovable portrait of a man pinned between a bedrock sense of duty and a stomach-emptying realization of being completely out of his depth. It's a sin and a shame that this film is not available in any format in any country.