Carol Reed's - Our Man in Havana - Alec Guinness Burl Ives DVD

Directed by Carol Reed
UK 1959

Alex Guinness stars in this sly satire of spy movies and espionage culture itself. Like The Third Man, it's directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene

Having found so much success with his adaptations of Graham Greene novels The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949), Carol Reed revisited the author's oeuvre with this fabulous satirical spy story.

Ex-pat vacuum salesman Jim Wormold (Guinness) is roped into Britain's Cuban espionage division. Paid per item of intelligence, and desperate to send daughter Milly (Morrow) to an expensive European school, Wormold embellishes his reports with daring falsification. But the ruse has uneasy consequences, especially when his activities arouse the suspicions of police chief Captain Segura (Kovacs) suspicion.

Guinness plays his part to perfection, an Everyman paddling furiously against the tide, and excellent support comes from Ralph Richardson (as the obsessive MI6 boss), Burl Ives and Paul Rogers (as rival agent). But Coward steals the show as his patrician spymaster.

Excerpt from Channel 4 located HERE

Poster

Theatrical Release: January 1959

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DVD Review: Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK - Region 2,4,5 - PAL

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK - Region 2,4,5 - PAL
Runtime	1:54:48
Video	12.35:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.41 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0) DUBs: German, Italian, Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Edition Details: • none DVD Release Date: December 26th, 2005 Keep Case Chapters: 24

Comments:

NOTE: At the time of this review this DVD has been marked down 54% to only £5.97.

This image looks exceptionally good which is surprising as there is a fairly large black border circumventing the frame - hence limiting horizontal resolution. If this was transferred tighter to the edges it could have looked even better. Contrast and grey-tones are superb - detail is above average and audio and subtitles are clear and consistent. I see no signs of manipulation and very few artifacts. There are no extras but the DVD is region-coded to sell in other parts of the world (namely Australia and Russia) and has sub and DUB options that make is viable across Europe as well. The 2.35 has been closely maintained and the anamorphic DVD is excellent for a bare-bones offering.

This is a typically fine Brit comedy of the time - Guinness and Ernie Kovacs are in top form and there is nothing to really dislike about this affable film. It even works partially as a suspense thriller.

Gary W. Tooze

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