Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Amazon.com
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 paycheques 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.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), German ( Mono ), Italian ( Mono ), Spanish ( Mono ), Arabic ( Subtitles ), Dutch ( Subtitles ), English ( Subtitles ), German ( Subtitles ), Greek ( Subtitles ), Hindi ( Subtitles ), Hungarian ( Subtitles ), Italian ( Subtitles ), Portuguese ( Subtitles ), Romanian ( Subtitles ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), Turkish ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Jim Wormold is an expatriate Englishman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter Milly. He owns a vacuum cleaner shop but isn't very successful so he accepts an offer from Hawthorne of the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba. Wormold hasn't got a clue where to start but when his friend Dr. Hasselbacher suggests that the best secrets are known to no one, he decides to manufacture a list of agents and provides fictional tales for the benefit of his masters in London. He is soon seen as the best agent in the Western Hemisphere but it all begins to unravel when the local police decode his cables and start rounding up his 'network' and he learns that he is the target of a group out to kill him.; SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Golden Globes, ...Our Man in Havana
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
What a treat! Here we have one of the UK's finest twentieth century actors (Alec Guinness) starring in a story by one of the UK's finest twentieth century novelists (Graham Greene). It also stars Burl Ives, Ralph Richardson and Maureen O'Hara. This is a light-hearted black-and-white comedy (Greene called it an 'entertainment') about Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, recruited into espionage by Secret Service agent Hawthorne (Noel Coward). Wormold needs the money to finance his daughter's expensive tastes, especially with horses, but quickly finds himself out of his depth when expected to find further recruits at his country club. He files false reports and supplies drawings of non-existent secret weapons, based on vacuum cleaner designs. The story takes several darker turns, but by the end we all have a smile on our faces.
It's wonderful to contrast late-fifties Havana with Havana today. The opening credits show a lady doing languid backstroke down a rooftop swimming-pool, then turning to gaze past the twin towers of the Hotel Nacional towards the arc of the malecon and Old Havana - seemingly unchanged. A street hustler approaches dapper, quick-striding Hawthorne and grows increasingly desperate as Hawthorne fails to bite: "Shoeshine? Pretty girl? Dirty movie?...Palace of Art?!" The hustlers are still there, but these days it's more likely to be: "Cigars? Restaurant? Pretty girl?...Viagra?!"
You can watch this film in four different languages, with a choice of 12 languages as subtitles - great! OK, sometimes the subtitles go astray. "Kettle" gets subtitled as "tetera" (= teapot) - not much good for steaming letters open! According to the subtitles, a man found bound and gagged in the gutter (arroyo) is said to have been found in the "puerta" (= doorway) - not quite the same thing! But these shortcomings are amusing rather than annoying. Apart from being great fun to watch, the film supplies an important piece of social history. The timing is critical: the book was written in 1958 about events in 1957, i.e. the end of the Batista regime. But director Carol Reed needed Fidel Castro's permission to film in 1959, after the revolution. Luckily Castro complied. Buy it and enjoy!
It's wonderful to contrast late-fifties Havana with Havana today. The opening credits show a lady doing languid backstroke down a rooftop swimming-pool, then turning to gaze past the twin towers of the Hotel Nacional towards the arc of the malecon and Old Havana - seemingly unchanged. A street hustler approaches dapper, quick-striding Hawthorne and grows increasingly desperate as Hawthorne fails to bite: "Shoeshine? Pretty girl? Dirty movie?...Palace of Art?!" The hustlers are still there, but these days it's more likely to be: "Cigars? Restaurant? Pretty girl?...Viagra?!"
You can watch this film in four different languages, with a choice of 12 languages as subtitles - great! OK, sometimes the subtitles go astray. "Kettle" gets subtitled as "tetera" (= teapot) - not much good for steaming letters open! According to the subtitles, a man found bound and gagged in the gutter (arroyo) is said to have been found in the "puerta" (= doorway) - not quite the same thing! But these shortcomings are amusing rather than annoying. Apart from being great fun to watch, the film supplies an important piece of social history. The timing is critical: the book was written in 1958 about events in 1957, i.e. the end of the Batista regime. But director Carol Reed needed Fidel Castro's permission to film in 1959, after the revolution. Luckily Castro complied. Buy it and enjoy!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Yes, for some, the late 1950s are ancient history, black and white films are anathema and anything less than high tech wizardry involving the spontaneous combustion of entire planets is tedium.
Yet 'Our Man in Havana', produced in 1959, has for me, retained its status as an excellent film.
At the risk of appearing biased, I have to say that nearly anything involving the late Alec Guinness is usually top notch! This witty, humorous film, of one hour 43 minutes duration, based upon the original story by Graham Greene, is no exception. A raised eyebrow from Guinness can communicate more emotion than the chest heaving, tear jerking, gut wrenching 'pathos' of some contemporary dramas.
If you haven't read the other reviews, briefly, this is a spy spoof with Guinness as Jim Wormold, an English expatriate in Havana, selling vacuum cleaners. Needing funds for his beloved teenage daughter's extravagant requests, Wormold reluctantly agrees to be recruited as an operative for the Secret Service.
Having absolutely no experience of espionage, Wormold is forced to invent information for his reports. Needless to say, vacuum cleaner components play a key role. (The idea of spying on secret military instillations in Cuba was said to predict the Cuban missile crisis of 1962)
Fiction is blithely accepted as fact by London. However, soon fictitious agents and creative drawings assume a life form of their own! Two operatives are dispatched from London to assist Wormold and it seems that discovery is imminent.
Although there are many comic moments, the story has its poignancy. Played out against a backdrop of the brutal Batista regime (Soon to be overthrown by Castro), betrayal, deceit and their consequences, particularly for innocent victims, are interwoven themes. Wormald's wife has left him and as a result, his life is literally a vacuum. Wormald's attempts to deceive the Secret Service have tragic consequences, one of which is the death of his close friend Dr Hasselbacher. Agents are not what they appear: someone is a double agent out to kill Wormwold.
Usually the filmed version of a novel I have particularly enjoyed, is a disappointment. This is an exception. The film skilfully manipulates the tension between comedy and tragedy.
Recommended....but do read the novel as well!!
Yet 'Our Man in Havana', produced in 1959, has for me, retained its status as an excellent film.
At the risk of appearing biased, I have to say that nearly anything involving the late Alec Guinness is usually top notch! This witty, humorous film, of one hour 43 minutes duration, based upon the original story by Graham Greene, is no exception. A raised eyebrow from Guinness can communicate more emotion than the chest heaving, tear jerking, gut wrenching 'pathos' of some contemporary dramas.
If you haven't read the other reviews, briefly, this is a spy spoof with Guinness as Jim Wormold, an English expatriate in Havana, selling vacuum cleaners. Needing funds for his beloved teenage daughter's extravagant requests, Wormold reluctantly agrees to be recruited as an operative for the Secret Service.
Having absolutely no experience of espionage, Wormold is forced to invent information for his reports. Needless to say, vacuum cleaner components play a key role. (The idea of spying on secret military instillations in Cuba was said to predict the Cuban missile crisis of 1962)
Fiction is blithely accepted as fact by London. However, soon fictitious agents and creative drawings assume a life form of their own! Two operatives are dispatched from London to assist Wormold and it seems that discovery is imminent.
Although there are many comic moments, the story has its poignancy. Played out against a backdrop of the brutal Batista regime (Soon to be overthrown by Castro), betrayal, deceit and their consequences, particularly for innocent victims, are interwoven themes. Wormald's wife has left him and as a result, his life is literally a vacuum. Wormald's attempts to deceive the Secret Service have tragic consequences, one of which is the death of his close friend Dr Hasselbacher. Agents are not what they appear: someone is a double agent out to kill Wormwold.
Usually the filmed version of a novel I have particularly enjoyed, is a disappointment. This is an exception. The film skilfully manipulates the tension between comedy and tragedy.
Recommended....but do read the novel as well!!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A very entertaining film, with fine performances by an excellent cast. Alec Guinness, as usual, plays the lead role impeccably. The addition of Noel Coward puts the "icing on the cake".
A complete farce, when a vacuum cleaner salesman is recruited to be a British spy, although quite why he is recruited leaves a lot to the imagination. Having no experience or interest in his new role (apart, that is, from the money it offers him), he finds it impossible to recruit "agents" to work for him. His charming, but totally irresponsible, daughter wants to live the high-life and who is he to deny her the opportunity to do so, merely because of a small thing called money!
Thus, he cleverly creates completely fictitious, potentially dangerous machines and installations, drawings of which he passes on to the British. They, of course, are most impressed and pretty soon he is paid even more money, because his results have become almost legendary.
Things begin to crumble about him, when he is assigned a secretary. There is some real action, where innocent parties are caught up in the web of intrigue and a murder (Burl Ives' character) is committed and another character is abducted. Hence, there is a slightly tragic, as well as humourous side, to the story.
The conclusion is a typical British farce, but I won't spoil it for you. I found the film enjoyable, very easy watching and definitely one I shall be enjoying in the future.
A complete farce, when a vacuum cleaner salesman is recruited to be a British spy, although quite why he is recruited leaves a lot to the imagination. Having no experience or interest in his new role (apart, that is, from the money it offers him), he finds it impossible to recruit "agents" to work for him. His charming, but totally irresponsible, daughter wants to live the high-life and who is he to deny her the opportunity to do so, merely because of a small thing called money!
Thus, he cleverly creates completely fictitious, potentially dangerous machines and installations, drawings of which he passes on to the British. They, of course, are most impressed and pretty soon he is paid even more money, because his results have become almost legendary.
Things begin to crumble about him, when he is assigned a secretary. There is some real action, where innocent parties are caught up in the web of intrigue and a murder (Burl Ives' character) is committed and another character is abducted. Hence, there is a slightly tragic, as well as humourous side, to the story.
The conclusion is a typical British farce, but I won't spoil it for you. I found the film enjoyable, very easy watching and definitely one I shall be enjoying in the future.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Our man in Havana
It was great to be able to still get this DVD starring Sir Alec Guinness in one of his un-forgetable roles. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Mrs. JEAN WISS-ROGERS
Havana heaven!
Classic film of the classic book filmed in post revolution Havana.
Nice British film with great performances and faithful to the book.
Nice British film with great performances and faithful to the book.
Published 1 month ago by R. N. Lightowler
Havana Club
A cinema classic set in pre-revolutionary Cuba. Filmed on location, Greene's script captures the spirit of Havana during an fascinating period of transition. Read more
Published 3 months ago by MacGregorMurton
Our Man in Havana
A really unusual tale set in Cuba just before the Revolution.An English shop -keeper in Havana,Wormold,who sells vacuum cleaners and gets drawn into the world of espionage. Read more
Published 3 months ago by jb
A great classic
I had recently stumbled on this film from a recipe book I was reading about cocktails from the movie - strange but true! Read more
Published 10 months ago by Luke
well done but not a timeless comedy, unfortunately
Some things just don't age well. Well done but no longer funny.
The story definitely played into the popular perception of the political climate at the time, (Cuba a few... Read more
The story definitely played into the popular perception of the political climate at the time, (Cuba a few... Read more
Published 10 months ago by G. Gavigan
Good film, horrible DVD
Sony have made a pig's ear of this movie (I bought the PAL 2005 edition). They have butchered the picture; there is a significant amount (perhaps 10% of the original width in... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Julian Hughes
Our Man in Havana
We think this film is great and recommend it. It was a great reminder of a recent holiday in Cuba. Cuba hasnt changed much since the beginning of the last century and this film... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Maureen
Just Where Did Havana Go?
"Our Man in Havana," (1959) is a black and white almost-famous British mystery/drama/thriller/comedy created by the same hands that created the justly famous, immortal thriller The... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Stephanie DePue
Our Man in Havana
Excellent film with (Sir) Alex Guinness. Cannot understand it has not been released world-wide.
Published 22 months ago by Fred
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
