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.
Polished, diverting entertainment, brilliant in its comedy but falling apart towards the end when undertones of drama, tragedy and message crop up.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
27 Aug 2008
fresh:
For those who regard Alec Guinness as the niftiest little con man on the screen, we will guarantee Our Man in Havana to be a source of immeasurable fun.
– Bosley Crowther,
New York Times,
9 May 2005
fresh:
Guinness is in above-average form, and Ernie Kovacs is wonderful as the callous but charming government official with a soft spot for Guinness's daughter.
– Don Druker,
Chicago Reader,
10 Sep 2003
rotten:
The mixture of mayhem and heehaw is particularly tricky to handle, and not even the sure hand of Director Reed has always achieved a smooth blend.
– ,
TIME Magazine,
2 Aug 2011
fresh:
A real 'winds of change' film, with traditional values crumbling in the heat of pre-revolutionary Cuba. Guinness is wonderful.