Our Man in Havana

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

6.2K

YOUR RATING

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Dark Comedy Comedy Crime Drama Thriller

Expatriate vacuum cleaner salesman Jim Wormold agrees to work as an agent, and to recruit new agents, for the British Secret Service in Cuba, but he soon realizes that his deceptive ways are... Read allExpatriate vacuum cleaner salesman Jim Wormold agrees to work as an agent, and to recruit new agents, for the British Secret Service in Cuba, but he soon realizes that his deceptive ways are going to get him in trouble.Expatriate vacuum cleaner salesman Jim Wormold agrees to work as an agent, and to recruit new agents, for the British Secret Service in Cuba, but he soon realizes that his deceptive ways are going to get him in trouble.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

6.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 nominations

Trivia
Fidel Castro's government gave permission for this movie, which presents the fallen regime of Fulgencio Batista in an unflattering light, and also condemns American and British meddling, to shoot on-location in Havana, only a few months after the revolution. It was completed during the brief period in 1959 before Cuba had aligned itself with the Soviet Union.

Goofs
At the end of the film,the aerial footage of the Tower of London has been flipped, resulting in Tower Bridge being on the West of the Tower of London and all traffic driving on the right.

Quotes
Capt. Segura: Some people expect to be tortured, others are outraged by it.

Connections
Featured in The South Bank Show: Sir Alec Guinness (1985)

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

User reviews69

Review

Featured review

10/10

My idea of paradise

My idea of paradise would be sitting down with a DVD boxed set of Alec Guinness comedies from the 1950's. What will it be tonight? The Man in the White Suit, or The Ladykillers (both by Mackendrick)? Or Kind Hearts and Coronets, where he played eight parts to perfection? No, tonight will be Our Man in Havana, the blackest of black comedies, directed by Carol Reed from Graham Greene's novel. The tone of confusion and mounting panic, the sense of things sliding hopelessly out of control is perfectly caught by Reed, who had already given us the classic The Third Man.

The casting is very good. Noel Coward, Gregoire Aslan, Ferdy Mayne and especially Burl Ives as Hasselbacher, the most reluctant of spies are all impressive. Maureen O'Hara is a Rolls Royce when a Morris would have done for this story, but she plays well. I liked Ernie Kovacs as Segura, the brutal police chief; he had a nice vulgarity blended with sensitivity that worked for me.

Now my pleasure would be complete if this picture were available on DVD, and if IMDb would give us the memorable quotes this film abounds in. Like Segura: "one never tortures except by a kind of mutual agreement", or Beatrice's description of her estranged husband: "He was very beautiful; he had a face like a young fledgling looking out of the nest in one of those nature films..."