A vacuum cleaner salesman (Alec Guinness) who lives a placid life in Havana with his teenage daughter is recruited by a British secret agent (Noel Coward). Guinness is tasked with recruiting his own network of agents to pass on intelligence, but, egged on by a suggestion from his friend (Burl Ives), Guinness instead makes up a list of agents using names he has heard in conversation. He even goes so far as to make up a sketch of a secret Cuban military invention which he bases on his most recent vacuum cleaner model. His bosses, believing him to be useful and important, send him a secretary (Maureen O'Hara) for whom Guinness must keep making up more and bigger lies until the situation threatens to spiral out of control. This spy satire, based on a Graham Greene novel, is difficult to get a handle on—it ambles along like a shaggy dog story for about 20 minutes until the gears start meshing, loses its way again but has a satisfying conclusion. But it's worth watching mostly for the performances of Guinness, Coward and Ralph Richardson. O'Hara is fine but overshadowed, and Ernie Kovacs is wasted as a Cuban military officer who is romancing Guinness daughter (Jo Morrow, possibly best known for William Castle's 13 GHOSTS). The first contact between Coward and Guinness plays out like a gay men's room pickup and is quite amusing. Pictured are Richardson and Guinness) [Criterion sreaming]
Friday, January 17, 2020
OUR MAN IN HAVANA (1960)
A vacuum cleaner salesman (Alec Guinness) who lives a placid life in Havana with his teenage daughter is recruited by a British secret agent (Noel Coward). Guinness is tasked with recruiting his own network of agents to pass on intelligence, but, egged on by a suggestion from his friend (Burl Ives), Guinness instead makes up a list of agents using names he has heard in conversation. He even goes so far as to make up a sketch of a secret Cuban military invention which he bases on his most recent vacuum cleaner model. His bosses, believing him to be useful and important, send him a secretary (Maureen O'Hara) for whom Guinness must keep making up more and bigger lies until the situation threatens to spiral out of control. This spy satire, based on a Graham Greene novel, is difficult to get a handle on—it ambles along like a shaggy dog story for about 20 minutes until the gears start meshing, loses its way again but has a satisfying conclusion. But it's worth watching mostly for the performances of Guinness, Coward and Ralph Richardson. O'Hara is fine but overshadowed, and Ernie Kovacs is wasted as a Cuban military officer who is romancing Guinness daughter (Jo Morrow, possibly best known for William Castle's 13 GHOSTS). The first contact between Coward and Guinness plays out like a gay men's room pickup and is quite amusing. Pictured are Richardson and Guinness) [Criterion sreaming]
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