Our Man in Havana (1959) on Netflix
Jim Wormold sells vacuum cleaners in pre-revolutionary Havana and raises his teenage daughter Milly. Hawthorne of the British Secret Service asks him to run a network of agents in Cuba.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.1/106,916 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
Hawthorne of the British Secret Service approaches Jim Wormold, an Englishman in pre-revolutionary Havana who runs a vacuum cleaner shop and brings up his teenage daughter Milly, and offers him work as the Havana operative for the service. Wormold accepts. He has no idea how to begin. His friend Dr. Hasselbacher remarks that the secrets nobody knows are the safest, so Wormold draws up a list of agents from men he has only seen and sends London invented reports about them. Drawings of a rocket-launching pad built from vacuum cleaner parts raise his standing with his superiors and bring in more money for himself and Milly.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Our Man in Havana (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Alec Guinness pictured his part as an untidy, shambling, middle-aged man with worn shoes, bits of string in his pocket and an air of innocence, defeat and general inefficiency; Reed wanted none of it, telling him to play it straight and not act, which Guinness said was disastrous for him.
- Filming started on location in Havana in March 1959, just two months after the overthrow of the Batista regime, and Fidel Castro visited the film crew on 13 May 1959 while they were shooting scenes at Havana's Cathedral Square.
- Columbia wanted actors familiar to American audiences, so the daughter character was made American; Reed wanted Jean Seberg to play her, but she had signed to make Breathless, and Ernie Kovacs recommended Jo Morrow, who was under contract to Columbia.
