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OUR MAN IN HAVANA is a real buried treasure. This pre-Bond satire is full of a lot of great things. Alec Guiness is a not so bright vacuum cleaner salesman living in Havana recruited as a spy by British operative Noel Coward. Coward is particularly funny as he keeps insisting that Guiness will make a great spy even though the only thing he seems to be able to produce are vacuum cleaner blueprints he passes off as bomb making instructions. Guiness's real goal is simply keep his daughter in the finer things: a good school, riding lessons, etc. Carol Reed directs Graham Greene's novel and it's as light as their previous collaboration --- THE THIRD MAN --- was dark. Instead of spying, Guiness spends most of his time drinking at the country club, which he can finally afford to join!
Guiness is great and the terrific supporting cast includes Burl Ives as a wily American ex-patriot, Jo Morrow as Guiness's infinitely understanding daughter, and Ernie Kovacs, looking very Fidel-like, as a lecherous Cuban cop. As an agent sent by Coward to try and motivate Guiness, Maureen O'Hara has seldom been more striking.
score 8/10
JasparLamarCrabb 21 January 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1270993/ |
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18-3-2021 00:07:27