1959 - OUR MAN IN HAVANA has a great Alec Guinness performance but movie is a little to smart for it's own good

A comedy thriller from Graham Greene and Carol Reed who had made The Third Man. This is a very clever spy film but probably a little to subtle for a mass audience entertainment.

 

British Intelligence needs an agent in Cuba. They recruit a vacuum cleaner salesman named Wormold to spy for them. Wormold is given a code name that ends in 005 amusingly enough and realizes rather quickly he doesn't have a clue what to do as a spy. He pulls out the Havana phone book, randomly picks some names out of the book and starts making up reports to send to British Intelligence in London. Soon "the other side" realizes the British have a new agent in Cuba and send an assassination team out to kill him and his list of agents. Remember this is a comedy.

Graham Greene and Carol Reed are top professionals. The dialog is good, the acting is very good and the on location filming in Cuba literally while the revolution was going on is pretty cool. However the film is so clever and subtle in it's tone and humor, it works against the enjoyment of the film. The understated nature of the story is kind of interesting to watch unfold and when the story gets serious and the violence comes it is kind of surprising.

Carol Reed always got great performances out of actors, apparently he was a director who actually liked his actors, unlike Hitchcock or David Lean. All the acting is good but this film has an amazing performance by Alec Guinness. Playing the vacuum cleaner salesman who goes from being a wimp to a cold blooded killer seems perfectly in character the way Guinness approaches the role.

 Love the name on that sign by the way.

111 minutes.