Our Man in Havana (1959)
The British spy comedy film, Our Man in Havana (1959), was shot in CinemaScope and helmed by director and producer Carol Reed. Set in pre-revolutionary Cuba, the film follows James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman who is recruited by Hawthorne of the British Secret Intelligence Service as their operative in Havana. Rather than recruiting actual agents, Wormold creates imaginary ones out of men he barely knows and fabricates plans for a rocket-launching pad using vacuum cleaner parts to impress the service and secure more funds for himself and his lavish daughter, Milly. As his importance increases, a secretary named Beatrice and a radioman are sent to join him from London as part of his team.
With their arrival, maintaining his facade becomes more challenging for Wormold. Nevertheless, the fabricated information he has been sending starts to become reality: enemy agents intercept his messages and act upon them, resulting in the death of one of his ‘agents’ and putting him at risk of assassination. Eventually, he confesses everything to Beatrice and is summoned back to London. In the end, instead of revealing the truth to the Prime Minister and other military intelligence services, Wormold’s superiors agree to come up with a false story claiming that his fictional machines have been dismantled.
Date of download: 2015-11-11T17:22:34+00:00
Cast:  Alec GuinnessJim Wormold  Burl IvesDr. Hasselbacher  Maureen O'HaraBeatrice Severn  Ernie KovacsCapt. Segura  Noël CowardHawthorne |
Ralph RichardsonThe British spy comedy film, Our Man in Havana (1959), was shot in CinemaScope and helmed by director and producer Carol Reed. Set in pre-revolutionary Cuba, the film follows James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman who is recruited by Hawthorne of the British Secret Intelligence Service as their operative in Havana. Rather than recruiting actual agents, Wormold creates imaginary ones out of men he barely knows and fabricates plans for a rocket-launching pad using vacuum cleaner parts to impress the service and secure more funds for himself and his lavish daughter, Milly. As his importance increases, a secretary named Beatrice and a radioman are sent to join him from London as part of his team.
With their arrival, maintaining his facade becomes more challenging for Wormold. Nevertheless, the fabricated information he has been sending starts to become reality: enemy agents intercept his messages and act upon them, resulting in the death of one of his ‘agents’ and putting him at risk of assassination. Eventually, he confesses everything to Beatrice and is summoned back to London. In the end, instead of revealing the truth to the Prime Minister and other military intelligence services, Wormold’s superiors agree to come up with a false story claiming that his fictional machines have been dismantled.
