Throw together Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives, Ernie Kovacs, Ralph Richardson, and assorted other actors into a pot of Batista Era Havana, Cuba, stir in the Cold War arms race, add a household appliance, and simmer on low heat in black and white for just under two hours, and you'll have Our Man in Havana (1959), directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene.
Wormold (played by Guinness) is an expatriate Brit running a vacuum cleaner shop in Havana. His daughter Milly doesn't understand that money doesn't grow on trees, and she wants a horse. She has also caught the eye of Police Captain Segura (Kovacs). A British agent is recruiting contacts and offers Wormhold steady money and expenses to observe, make reports, and recruit other contacts.
Wormold has no interest in the intelligence game, but he needs funds. He makes an effort to recruit an agent at the country club, a college professor. The professor happened to be seated at the table with a drunk pilot named Mendez--or something like that. The attempt goes badly and he scares away the professor.
Wormold has a friend, Dr. Hasselbacher (Ives) who seems to be on the shady side, and may be involved with the criminal world or some foreign power. It might've been made clear, but I missed it if it was.
Hasselbacher suggests that one might merely provide information without any sources, and Wormold takes the idea to heart. He recruits some "contacts"--including the professor--who all require payments from British Intelligence--coming through him--and he fabricates information from them. He passes on the observations via a book code, his daughter gets a horse, and his bank account grows.
Severn wants to meet with the source of the new information. Wormold puts her off and stalls for time until he comes up with a plan--inspired by a comic strip in the paper--that the informant, the fictitious pilot, who happens to have the same name as the pilot who was seated at the table of the professor he tried to recruit, can have a convenient accident.
Since I'm going from memory here, and to rush things along, Wormold and Severn are at Hasselbacher's when word comes that the pilot has been killed in a car crash. Hasselbacher is distraught because the actual pilot, who is his friend, was killed. The professor also gets dropped off, tied up in a bundle, at the vacuum shop. Things are getting out of hand. Real people are being hurt and killed. Severn also discovers that Hasselbacher has the same book that Wormold uses for his coded messages. He has been intercepting and decoding the messages.
Wormold gets warned that "they" are out to kill him. He goes to a convention with the understanding that "they" will attempt to poison him. He plays it safe, avoiding the food and drink provided to him. Unfortunately, a dog who lapped up the drink he spilled on it was killed by the poison, thus helping Wormold to identify at least one of the assassins.
Hasselbacher is killed, and Captain Segura pressures Wormold to let him marry his daughter. Wormold, who has fallen for Severn, decides to take matters into his own hands. He instructs Severn to take Milly out of the country while he resolves things.
He invites Segura for a game of checkers with single serving size beverage bottles as pieces. Every piece taken must be consumed.
After Segura passes out, Wormold takes the captain's semi-auto pistol and finds his assassin friend from the convention, eventually serving him with a special goodbye message.
For reasons I didn't quite understand, Segura orders Wormold deported with his daughter and Severn. Back in England, he has to face the music, having already provided a confession regarding his fictitious contacts and drawings. Fortunately, seeing the need to save face, British Intelligence decides to decorate him and provide him with a pension. He and Severn and Milly leave together. Happy ending.
Guinness plays Wormold with the low-key demeanor of a weary Obi-Wan on a remote desert planet. He sets the tone and the film is droll rather than hilarious. My main complaint was not enough Maureen O'Hara. Her part seemed smaller than it should've been and the romance between Wormold and Severn didn't get much play at all. The characters were fun and the satire was subdued. It's an amusing experience, but fails to fully satisfy. I would give it four out of five vacuum cleaners--something with which I'm familiar, having spent one summer selling them.
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