| AN IMPERFECT SPY : Carol Reed's 'Our Man In Havana' (1959) [5/10] |
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| Wednesday, 27 September 2006 | |
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Cuba, the 1950s. With dictator Batista in charge, decadence is the order of the day - and the Revolution is still no more than a distant rumour. Jim Wormold (Alec Guinness), an English vacuum-cleaner salesman in the capital Havana, is recruited as an operative by MI6 - in the silky form of Caribbean-area boss Hawthorne (Noel Coward). Wormold is a self-effacing sort, but has a high-maintenance teenage daughter (Jo Morrow) whose social aspirations require a constant supply of ready cash. Keen to impress his new 'employers,' Wormold concocts an imaginary string of sub-agents - and 'evidence' of a technologically advanced weapons programme being readied by enemies of the Crown... Seen in the light of the recent 'dodgy dossier' Iraqi-WMD affair, Our Man In Havana has a certain topical charm nearly four decades on - but as a whole the picture hasn't aged particularly well, and can't even be mentioned in anything like the same breath as previous collaborations between director Reed and scriptwriter Graham Greene (here adapting his own novel) such as the peerless Third Man. It's instead a fair example of what Greene called his 'Entertainments' - mildly thought-provoking time-passers without any great pretentions to depth or distinction. The Havana locales are flavourful and of significant historic interest, but as a picture Our Man is only intermittently engaging. Pacing and performances are uneven: American starlet Morrow is miscast, Maureen O'Hara is stuck with a thanklessly underwritten role as Wormold's love-interest, and a little of Burl Ives, as his sardonic pal Dr Hasselbacher, goes a very long way. The picture only really comes to life when Coward, or Ralph Richardson (as his under-pressure boss 'C') are on screen - or preferably both, which occurs all too infrequently, and even then the pair are often forced to make the best of ever-so-slightly-substandard material. Neil Young 27th September, 2006 OUR MAN IN HAVANA : [5/10] : UK 1959 : Carol REED : 107 mins (BBFC timing) seen at National Film Theatre, London (UK), 8th September 2006 - public show (paid £7.60) |
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