Our Man in Havana Page #3

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.
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Director(s): Carol Reed
Production: Kingsmead Productions
  Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
7.3
Rotten Tomatoes:
87%
NOT RATED
Year:
1959
111 min
493 Views


And you don't set fire to people?

That was when I was 13.

Father, I don't really want it.

It doesn't matter.

Now listen, Milly.

If suddenly I made a lot of money,

how would you like to go to Switzerland?

To a finishing school?

It isn't very good riding country.

Awfully expensive.

- Couldn't we instead...

- What?

Join the country club?

Tax a-free.

What are you doing, Father?

Do you remember last year at the circus,

that clown?

The one who fell off the tightrope

into the bucket of whitewash?

We should all be clowns, Milly.

- Are you still unhappy about Mother?

- Sometimes.

- But, of course, I pray for her.

- That she comes back?

Oh, no, not that. We don't need her.

- No, that she'll be a good Catholic again.

- I'm not a Catholic.

That's different. You're invincibly ignorant.

I expect I am.

I'm not insulting you, Father.

It's only theology.

What else do you pray?

Well, of course, lately...

I've been concentrating on the horse.

- Can't you stay a little longer?

- There are things I've got to arrange.

- About the horse.

- Father!

It's wonderful how you always get

what you pray for.

You go to sleep.

Can't be too careful.

I've brought you back your umbrella.

Sorry I'm late.

- You've moved the Lamb.

- I was just looking around.

You seem fond of Lamb's

Tales from Shakespeare.

- One copy's for you.

- But I don't read Lamb.

It's not meant for reading.

You never heard of a book code?

- As a matter of fact, no.

- I keep one copy.

All you do when you communicate with me,

is to indicate the page and the line...

where you begin the coding.

You understand?

Well, I'll explain in a minute.

It's rather complicated and not very secure.

- You got an electric kettle?

- Yes. Why?

For opening letters, of course.

And plastic knitting needles.

You'll want those.

- I've brought you some ink.

- I have plenty of ink.

Secret ink.

For communicating with your agents.

- Well, I haven't any agents.

- Your first job is to recruit some.

If you run short of ink,

you can always use bird droppings.

Your code number is 59200l5.

I, of course, am 59200.

You will number your sub-agents 59200l5l1

and so on.

Do you get the idea?

I don't see how I can

possibly be of any use to you.

- You refuse to serve your country?

- I didn't say that. It's just that...

Well, the vacuum cleaners

take up a lot of time.

It's an excellent cover.

- Your profession has quite a natural air.

- It is natural.

Now, if you don't mind,

we'll get down to our Lamb.

This code is damned hard to break

without knowing the name of the book.

Why did you choose Lamb?

It's the only book I could find here

in duplicate except Uncle Tom's Cabin.

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Graham Greene

Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991), better known by his pen name Graham Greene, was an English novelist regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted, in 1966 and 1967, for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Through 67 years of writings, which included over 25 novels, he explored the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world, often through a Catholic perspective. Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a Roman Catholic novelist, rather than as a novelist who happened to be Catholic, Catholic religious themes are at the root of much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, and The End of the Affair; which are regarded as "the gold standard" of the Catholic novel. Several works, such as The Confidential Agent, The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, The Human Factor, and his screenplay for The Third Man, also show Greene's avid interest in the workings and intrigues of international politics and espionage. Greene was born in Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire into a large, influential family that included the owners of the Greene King Brewery. He boarded at Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire, where his father taught and became headmaster. Unhappy at the school, he attempted suicide several times. He went up to Balliol College, Oxford, to study history, where, while an undergraduate, he published his first work in 1925—a poorly received volume of poetry, Babbling April. After graduating, Greene worked first as a private tutor and then as a journalist – first on the Nottingham Journal and then as a sub-editor on The Times. He converted to Catholicism in 1926 after meeting his future wife, Vivien Dayrell-Browning. Later in life he took to calling himself a "Catholic agnostic". He published his first novel, The Man Within, in 1929; its favourable reception enabled him to work full-time as a novelist. He supplemented his novelist's income with freelance journalism, and book and film reviews. His 1937 film review of Wee Willie Winkie (for the British journal Night and Day), commented on the sexuality of the nine-year-old star, Shirley Temple. This provoked Twentieth Century Fox to sue, prompting Greene to live in Mexico until after the trial was over. While in Mexico, Greene developed the ideas for The Power and the Glory. Greene originally divided his fiction into two genres (which he described as "entertainments" and "novels"): thrillers—often with notable philosophic edges—such as The Ministry of Fear; and literary works—on which he thought his literary reputation would rest—such as The Power and the Glory. Greene had a history of depression, which had a profound effect on his writing and personal life. In a letter to his wife, Vivien, he told her that he had "a character profoundly antagonistic to ordinary domestic life," and that "unfortunately, the disease is also one's material." William Golding described Greene as "the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety." He died in 1991, at age 86, of leukaemia, and was buried in Corseaux cemetery. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Our Man in Havana" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/our_man_in_havana_15411>.

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