Blast from the Past: Director Carol Reed Revisited
Adapted from Graham Greene’s 1958 novel of the same namem Our Man in Havana is a British spy comedy, directed and produced by Carol Reed.
Hitchcock tried to get the film rights to the novel but felt they were too expensive.
Headed by Alec Guinness, fresh off of his Oscar winning turn in the 1957 The Briodge on the River Kwai, the film boasts an impressive ensemble that includes Burl Ives, Maureen O’Hara, Ralph Richardson, Ernie Kovacs, and Noël Coward himself.
Marking Carol Reed’s third collaboration with Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana is the weakest, coming right after two mmasterpieces, The Fallen Idol and The Third Man, which Coward scripted.
Grade: B-
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In pre-revolutionary Cuba, James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, is recruited by Hawthorne of the British Secret Intelligence Service to be their Havana operative.
Instead of recruiting his own agents, Wormold invents agents from men he knows only by sight and sketches plans. The idea is for a rocket-launching pad, based on vacuum cleaner parts, that will increase his value to the service and also procure more money for himself and his extravagant daughter Milly.
Shooting began on location in Havana in March 1959 just two months after the overthrow of the Batista regime. Shooting was relatively smooth, with some difficulties. Fidel Castro visited the film crew on May 13, 1959, while they shot scenes at Havana’s Cathedral Square.
Alec Guinness wrote that Reed wanted him to play his part differently from his vision: ” I had seen an untidy, shambling, middle-aged man with worn shoes, who might have bits of string in his pocket, and perhaps the New Statesman under his arm, exuding an air of innocence, defeat and general inefficiency. When I explained this, Carol said, ‘We don’t want any of your character acting. Play it straight. Don’t act.’ That might be okay for some wooden dish perhaps but was disastrous for me. ‘Mustn’t act, mustn’t act,’ I kept repeating to myself; and didn’t. The director, particularly a world-famous one like Carol, is always right. Or often so.”
Guinness recalled: “When the film was released we both received a well-deserved poor press.The only person I felt sorry for was Graham, who had been lucky with Carol in the past but was to continue to be unlucky with me.”
Cast
Alec Guinness as Jim Wormold
Burl Ives as Dr Hasselbacher
Maureen O’Hara as Beatrice Severn
Ernie Kovacs as Captain Segura
Noël Coward as Hawthorne
Ralph Richardson as ‘C’
Jo Morrow as Milly Wormold
Grégoire Aslan as Cifuentes
Paul Rogers as Hubert Carter
Raymond Huntley as General
Ferdy Mayne as Professor Sanchez
Maurice Denham as Admiral
Joseph P. Mawra as Lopez
Duncan Macrae as MacDougal
Gerik Schjelderup as Svenson
Hugh Manning as Officer
Karel Stepanek as Dr Braun
Maxine Audley as Teresa
Timothy Bateson as Rudy
John Le Mesurier as Louis the Waiter
Produced, directed by Carol Reed
Written by Graham Greene
Produced by Carol Reed
Cinematography Oswald Morris
Edited by Bert Bates
Music by Frank and Laurence Deniz
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates: Dec 30, 1959 (UK); 27 Jan 27, 1960 (USA)
Running time: 107 minutes
Box office: $2,000,000 (US)
