Made nearly 50 years ago in black and white (though in Cinemascope), this film still has some charm. It was filmed in Cuba in 1959 just after Castro came to power and the Havana of the film is not the crumbling city it is today the 1950s American cars for instance are in showroom condition. The setting is the better parts of town just before the revolution and we glimpse the sybaritic life the doomed upper classes led. Revolution or not, Carol Reed here takes a holiday from directing serious films and along with Graham Greene as screenwriter concentrates on sending up espionage thrillers. Alec Guinness is comfortably at home in the role of as Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman for Hoover who suddenly has the role of secret agent thrust upon him. Ernie Kovaks (hitherto a US TV comic) puts in a nuanced performance as the chief of police in a seriously bent town. Jo Morrow, who more or less disappeared after this film, is quite effective as Wormold's pretty young daughter Milly.
The M15 of the day is accurately portrayed as a bunch of incompetent snobs, with Ralph Richardson the boss being the master of the cover-up. No-one is better at carrying on in the face of disaster as if nothing has happened than he. Noel Coward plays the role of Hawthorn, Wormold's controller, pretty well without acting at all. That such a person should stride round Havana in dark suit, bowler hat and umbrella drawing attention to himself is utterly ridiculous, of course, but Coward gets away with it by just being Noel Coward. The lovely Maureen O'Hara as the agent sent from London to assist our man in Havana seems lost, or at least as if she is in another movie, a romantic spy drama perhaps. (I can imagine her as Ms Moneypenny). Burl Ives as Wormold's not so-loyal friend Hasslebatcher is a curious character his fate does not match the otherwise knockabout comic tone. Ives was not much of an actor, but his role here is minor.
Looking back at it now, this film seems to fall in the Ealing comedy tradition - little man triumphs over the powers that be - though of a glossier and more expensive kind than usual as Columbia was paying the bills. It does suffer from an unevenness of tone, as if Greene as writer was veering between pure comic relief and serious drama. It's not one of Reed or Greene's better efforts (they were responsible together for the sublime "The Third Man") but still quite watchable, which is something to be said after 50 years.
The M15 of the day is accurately portrayed as a bunch of incompetent snobs, with Ralph Richardson the boss being the master of the cover-up. No-one is better at carrying on in the face of disaster as if nothing has happened than he. Noel Coward plays the role of Hawthorn, Wormold's controller, pretty well without acting at all. That such a person should stride round Havana in dark suit, bowler hat and umbrella drawing attention to himself is utterly ridiculous, of course, but Coward gets away with it by just being Noel Coward. The lovely Maureen O'Hara as the agent sent from London to assist our man in Havana seems lost, or at least as if she is in another movie, a romantic spy drama perhaps. (I can imagine her as Ms Moneypenny). Burl Ives as Wormold's not so-loyal friend Hasslebatcher is a curious character his fate does not match the otherwise knockabout comic tone. Ives was not much of an actor, but his role here is minor.
Looking back at it now, this film seems to fall in the Ealing comedy tradition - little man triumphs over the powers that be - though of a glossier and more expensive kind than usual as Columbia was paying the bills. It does suffer from an unevenness of tone, as if Greene as writer was veering between pure comic relief and serious drama. It's not one of Reed or Greene's better efforts (they were responsible together for the sublime "The Third Man") but still quite watchable, which is something to be said after 50 years.