Film Review
A decade after their first collaborations on two landmark British films
The Fallen Idol (1948)
and
The Third Man (1949), director
Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene pooled their resources one more time and
delivered another classic of British cinema, albeit one in a much
lighter vein. Greene reworked his recently published novel
Our Man in Havana, an idiosyncratic
study in identity against a backdrop of British colonial decline, into
a highly amusing spy parody, showing a flair for dry comedy that came
as a surprise to many of the writer's admirers. Reed's experience
with comedy was also comparatively limited - he was far better known
for his realist dramas and noir thrillers - and so it is doubly
surprising that he and Greene should concoct between them one of the funniest
British films of the 1950s.
Alec Guinness is perfectly cast as the hapless Englishman abroad who
finds himself embroiled in a web of intrigue, largely of his own
making. As ever, Guinness is all the funnier for downplaying the
comedy, almost to the point that he gives an entirely straight
performance, allowing the laughs to come from the increasingly absurd
situations that his character finds himself in. As the mood of
the film darkens, so the comedy takes on a blacker hue, and there is a
point near the end where we become unsure whether we are watching a
comedy or a serious thriller. As Wormold's fiction turns
into grim reality, the film suddenly resembles
The Third Man, with Reed once again
making use of titled camera angles and high contrast photography to
suggest the dark labyrinthine world of the lone secret agent. The
film's tongue-in-cheek ending takes a broad comic swipe at the kind of
self-serving political one-upmanship that was (and still is) endemic in British
government departments, whilst simultaneously blowing a well-timed
raspberry at British pretensions to be a major colonial power.
© James Travers 2011
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Carol Reed film:
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
Film Synopsis
Jim Wormold is a modest vacuum cleaner salesman in Cuba, just a few
years before the revolution. He attracts the attention of fellow
Englishman Hawthorne, who invites him to work for the British secret
service. In exchange for a handsome salary he must recruit
further agents and send in regular reports about suspicious
developments in the area. Wormold is initially reluctant to get
involved but agrees when he realises that the money will allow him to
indulge his daughter Milly's expensive whims, which include membership
of the Country Club, a haven for the island's millionaires.
Having proven to be hopeless as a spy, Wormold takes the advice of his
friend Dr Hasselbacher and begins to fabricate his reports, based on
bogus information from imaginary contacts. Wormold's superiors
are so impressed by his reports, which include sketches of a new
super-weapon resembling a vacuum cleaner, that they send another agent,
Beatrice Severn, to assist him. Wormold is on the point of
confessing everything when his elaborate charade begins to come
true...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.