Our Man in Havana
1959 · Movie · 111 min. · United Kingdom
Graham Greene wrote this witty comedy inspired by Cold War paranoia. Jim Wormald (Alec Guiness) is an Englishman selling vacuum cleaners in Cuba on the cusp of the revolution. Hawthorne (Noel Coward), a British intelligence agent, is looking for information on Cuban affairs and recruits Jim to act as a spy. Jim has no experience in espionage and no useful knowledge to pass along, but Hawthorne is willing to pay for his services, and since Jim's daughter Milly (Jo Morrow) has expensive tastes, he can use the money. To keep Hawthorne happy (and his paychecks coming in), he turns in reports on the Cuban revolution that are copied from public documents, "hires" additional agents who don't exist, and presents blueprints of secret weapons that are actually schematics of his carpet sweepers. However, Hawthorne and associate "C" (Ralph Richardson) think that Jim is doing splendid work and encourage him to continue; meanwhile, Capt. Segura (Ernie Kovacs), the elegantly corrupt chief of police, has been fooled by Jim's charade into believing he's a real spy -- and has also become attracted to Milly.
Direction Carol Reed
Cast Alec Guinness · Burl Ives · Maureen O'Hara · Ernie Kovacs · Noël Coward · Ralph Richardson · Jo Morrow · Grégoire Aslan · Paul Rogers · Raymond Huntley · Ferdy Mayne · Maurice Denham · José Prieto · Duncan Macrae · Gerik Schjelderup · Hugh Manning · Karel Stepanek · Maxine Audley · Elisabeth Welch · Yvonne Buckingham · John Le Mesurier
Screenplay Graham Greene
Cinematography Oswald Morris
Original title Our Man in Havana
6.8
1K votes (FilmAffinity)
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