Product Details

• Actors: Burl Ives, Maureen O'Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noel Coward Alec Guinness
• Directors: Carol Reed
• Format: PAL, Full Screen
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1.0
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Run Time: 103.0 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 8371341318
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #99,179 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Graham Greene wrote this witty comedy inspired by Cold War paranoia. Jim Wormald (Alec Guiness) is an Englishman selling vacuum cleaners in Cuba on the cusp of the revolution. Hawthorne (Noel Coward), a British intelligence agent, is looking for information on Cuban affairs and recruits Jim to act as a spy. Jim has no experience in espionage and no useful knowledge to pass along, but Hawthorne is willing to pay for his services, and since Jim's daughter Milly (Jo Morrow) has expensive tastes, he can use the money. To keep Hawthorne happy (and his paychecks coming in), he turns in reports on the Cuban revolution that are copied from public documents, "hires" additional agents who don't exist, and presents blueprints of secret weapons that are actually schematics of his carpet sweepers. However, Hawthorne and associate "C" (Ralph Richardson) think that Jim is doing splendid work and encourage him to continue; meanwhile, Capt. Segura (Ernie Kovacs), the elegantly corrupt chief of police, has been fooled by Jim's charade into believing he's a real spy  and has also become attracted to Milly. Our Man in Havana also features Burl Ives and Maureen O'Hara in supporting roles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why is this great film being denied re-issue in the US?, July 16, 2007

By	Joel Marcus Johnson "chesapeakebishop" (Easton, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is scandalous that this fine film has been withheld from DVD and VHS, Region 1 release in the United States. What possibly could be the problem? It couldn't be because of the director, the same Carol Reed of The Third Man, The Fallen Idol, A Kid for Two Farthings, Oliver, and scores of other fine films. It couldn't be because of the superb cast of Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives, Ernie Kovacs, Ralph Richardson, and Noel Coward. It certainly would not be because of the same infallible textures by photographer Oswald Morris which brought oohs and aahs for Kubrick's 1962 Lolita and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Surely there could be no argument that novelist Graham Greene's screenplay could be any less entertaining than his book. Given such a superb company, and the undeniable fact that this is an eye-popping, first-rate production, one wonders for the reason of its exile.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vacuum cleaners, Cuba and death: Another great movie from director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene, July 21, 2007

By	C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Our Man in Havana is an excellent, sly black comedy with a screenplay by Graham Greene and directed by Carol Reed. James Wormold (Alec Guinness) is a vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana. He's getting by but needs more money to take care of his teen-aged daughter. He's recruited as a spy for Britain by Noel Coward. He doesn't really know what's wanted, but he can use the money. Since he doesn't know anything of value, he begins making up stories and inventing plans, and mentioning the names of people supposedly involved. The names, of course, are just names he picked at random. His masterpiece is his "discovery" of a giant military complex, the plans of which he gets to his controller (Coward), who sends them on to London. The plans are actually the diagrams of one of his vacuum cleaners. This first part of the movie is a funny, sharp-edged parody of British pomposity and the thick headedness of "intelligence."

But then people begin to die.

It seems there may be more than British spies in Havana, spies who also believe the plans are genuine, and who are a lot more ruthless than the British. The second half of the film is darker, less funny and much more sardonic.

The cast is a strange grouping of disparate acting styles, but somehow they all work very well together. In addition to Guinness and Coward, there is Burl Ives, Ernie Kovacs, Maureen O'Hara and Ralph Richardson. Coward is priceless as a mannered, fatuous, obliviously incompetent spy. Kovacs for once is less Kovacs and more the part. He plays the Cuban police's main man in catching spies. He's amusing, and so are his lines. Among them, "There are two classes of people: those who can be tortured and those who can't." He and Guinness share a great scene where Guinness, who has to get away from Kovacs, challenges him to a checkers match with the pieces being miniature liquor bottles. Each time a piece is taken, the victor has to drink it. Guinness manages to lose regularly. Kovacs preens on his victories and only gradually, and increasingly incoherently, begins to suspect.

For Reed, who directed The Third Man, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol and other classic films, this is, in my opinion, the last of his first-rate movies. He continued to direct but made such things as The Key, Oliver! and The Agony and the Ecstasy.

This is a film that cries out to be on a Region 1 DVD. If nothing else, this Region 2 DVD is an excellent reason to go out and buy an all-region/PAL-compatible DVD player. Amazon sells them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Imitates Art Imitating Life?, June 25, 2008

By	Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The movie version of Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana (Penguin Classics) is well worth a watch - if you can find it in the US. Hmm, a movie about Cold War paranoia that cannot be purchased in the US? Perhaps the spooks at the CIA really do have a sense of humor.

Alec Guinness stars as Jim Wormold in this comedic spy thriller. Wormold is a vacuum salesman in Havana with a daughter with expensive tastes. He becomes the unlikely head of a British spy ring and is handsomely rewarded by MI-6. Only one problem: the spy ring is fake. Make that two problems: He is so successful, the Brits send out a couple helpers. No, wait more problems. Although the spy ring is fake, the names Wormold provides are of real live people in Havana. The bad guys get wind of the spy ring and for all they know, these are real spies. The movie combines humor with action.

The movie was filmed on location in Havana very shortly after the revolution removed the dictator Batista from power. Nearly a half-century later, it remains the last US movie shot in Cuba. In addition to Guinness, the movie also features Burl Ives, Ralph Richardson, Noel Coward, Maureen O'Hara, and Ernie Kovacs. Highly recommended.