Our Man in Havana

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Our Man in Havana ★★★ 1959

Excellent noir—with plenty of veddy British black comedy—has ordinary, but not very successful, Havana-based vacuum salesman Guinness joining the British spy service to make some extra money. He begins spinning elaborate tails of intrigue to justify himself, and his lies eventually spiral out of control and into some very real, very dangerous situations. Kovacs, Richardson, and Coward stand out among a great cast. See “The Tailor of Panama” for a post-Cold War re-telling of the tale, but see this one first. 111m/B VHS, DVD . GB Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O'Hara, Noel Coward, Ernie Kovacs, Ralph Richardson, Jo Morrow, Paul Rogers, Gregoire Aslan, Joseph Prieto, Timothy Bateson, Duncan MacRae, Maurice Denham, Raymond Huntley, Ferdinand “Ferdy” Mayne, Rachel Roberts; D: Carol Reed; W: Graham Greene; C: Oswald Morris.

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