I grabbed this because it had been some time since I saw or read something by Graham Greene, and I'm glad I did. This was one of his "entertainments" as he called them, as opposed to his more serious novels. In this seriocomic tale of espionage gone awry one can see the great influence he had on other storytellers, e.g. Ian Fleming and John leCarre, and the spy movies of the 1960s.
Alec Guinness (fine as always) plays Wormold, a Brit who runs a vacuum cleaner shop in Havana, Cuba. Short on cash, he allows himself to be recruited for the British spying services by a proper but not very clever Noel Coward. Soon however he is required to come up with actual intelligence and, on the advice of his German doctor buddy (played by Burl Ives) he begins making stuff up - stuff that unexpectedly makes him a hot property. Unfortunately corpses start turning up, and soon people are after Wormold's hide, and serious action is required.
Ernie Kovacs is excellent as a sleazy but clever Cuban police captain, and Margaret O'Hara and Ralph Richardson are a pleasure to watch as well. Filmed in B&W with a good amount of realistic detail, this helps the viewer feel like he is back in pre-revolution Havana. For some reason director Carol Reed likes to shoot a lot of scenes at a slight angle, something I found disconcerting. Overall it is good fun, if not clean fun, and not without drama. There may have been some satire as well, since the British officials are portrayed as a bunch of stiff nincompoops who end up making some amusing decisions at the end.
Alec Guinness (fine as always) plays Wormold, a Brit who runs a vacuum cleaner shop in Havana, Cuba. Short on cash, he allows himself to be recruited for the British spying services by a proper but not very clever Noel Coward. Soon however he is required to come up with actual intelligence and, on the advice of his German doctor buddy (played by Burl Ives) he begins making stuff up - stuff that unexpectedly makes him a hot property. Unfortunately corpses start turning up, and soon people are after Wormold's hide, and serious action is required.
Ernie Kovacs is excellent as a sleazy but clever Cuban police captain, and Margaret O'Hara and Ralph Richardson are a pleasure to watch as well. Filmed in B&W with a good amount of realistic detail, this helps the viewer feel like he is back in pre-revolution Havana. For some reason director Carol Reed likes to shoot a lot of scenes at a slight angle, something I found disconcerting. Overall it is good fun, if not clean fun, and not without drama. There may have been some satire as well, since the British officials are portrayed as a bunch of stiff nincompoops who end up making some amusing decisions at the end.