June 26th 2014. Pick of the Day.

Look, I'm just gonna get it over with and scream GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

And now, film.

Today's continuing series include Alec Guinness 100 at Film Forum, An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA, and The Italian Connection: Poliziotteschi and Other Italo-Crime Films from the 60's and 70's at Anthology Film Archives. The revolution as televised;

Film Forum

OUR MAN IN HAVANA (1959) Dir; Carol Reed

MoMA

AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1973) Dir; Werner Herzog

BowTie Chelsea Cinemas

PINK FLAMINGOS (1972) Dir; John Waters

Anthology Film Archives

CALIBER 9 (1972) Dir; Fernando Di Leo

INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION (1970) Dir; Elio Petri

Today's Pick? The godsend for those who craved, and continue to do, the casting of pioneering TV comic Ernie Kovacs as a Cuban El Capitan under the Batista regime. That's right, you're not alone. Everything's gonna be alright.

Carol Reed was among the most esteemed directors the UK film system ever produced, from a time when Brit studios dared compete with the budgets, scale and sophistication of a seemingly insurmountable Hollywood machine. He was first paired with his finest collaborator, lit luminary Graham Greene, by the man perhaps most responsible for the industry's prominence in that era, producer Alex Korda, who thought Reed perfect for an adap of Greene's THE FALLEN IDOL. That film, a thinly veiled analogy for an increasingly impotent Brit Empire, was a smash, and the men were paired again on what I and every other sane person esteem to be the finest film ever made, 1949's THE THIRD MAN. I believe I've spoken my piece on this flicker in the past? Yes?

It would be ten years before the men collaborated again, and for the last. Reed was searching for a hit as his fortunes waned in the 50's. Greene's tale of a faux spy reporting false info in order to keep collecting a paycheck had started as a WW2 tale, but was deemed anti-Brit by that industry's publishers. When he switched the setting to postwar Havana, it was most well received by publishers and readers alike, and Hitchcock himself was among the bidders for the film rights. Greene went with Reed, based on their successful previous pairings, and set up the producton at Columbia, with three weeks of location shooting planned for the very sugar cane and tobacky paradise depicted within its script's pages.

Then a coupl'a cats named Castro and Guevera threw everyone's plans for a loop. Selfish bums. The film was briefly held up until assurances were gotten from the newly established communist government by the producers, a process more easily facilitated by Greene's friendship with the newly minted Cuban dictator. The dream cast of Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Noel Coward, the aforementioned Kovacs, recent Oscar-champ Burl Ives, and Ralph Richardson joined Reed, Greene and ace DP Oswald Morris for a mostly, politically anyway, uneventful shoot, with only the nitpicks of Castro's newly appointed censors, and the venom of the recently liberated (or not?) Cuban citizens aimed at the Batista costumes worn by the actors, the minor bumps ridden over.

The film itself is classic Greene, and classic Reed adap of Greene; sly, wry, intricate and deviously clever. Ex-pat Guinness' vaccuum cleaner salesman is misjudged as spy material by Noel Coward's MI6 man, and recruited to report on any communist activities in the region. He decides to falsify his reports to the home branch in order to continue receiving the much-needed cash, and then something odd happens; his dreamt up espionage turns out to be true. His resulting battle of wits with forces from either side of the iron curtain, as well as eminently corruptible local interests, is one of the swiftest the screen's ever seen, perfectly encapsulated by Guinness and Kovacs' chess game which substitutes mini-bottles of rum and whiskey for the actual pieces. Which is a bittersweet scene for me actually, as I never get invited to those parties. Political or otherwise.

Carol Reed's OUR MAN IN HAVANA screens all day today as part of Alec Guinness 100 at the Film Forum. Anybody wanna play chess after? Anyone?

For more info on these and all NYC's remaining classic film screenings in June '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview and other audio tomfoolery check out the podcast, and follow me on SoundCloud! For reviews of contemporary cinema and my streaming habits (keep it clean!) check out my Letterboxd page. And be sure to follow me on both Facebook, where I provide further info and esoterica on the rep film circuit and star birthdays, and Twitter, where I provide a daily feed for the day's screenings and other blathery. Back tomorrow with a brand new Pick, til then c'mon. One game of chess. Just one.

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net

P. S. Even though we're coming into the summer months and therefore not often as mindful of the displaced, some of our fellow NY'ers are yet to be made whole since Hurricane Sandy hit nearly two years ago. Check in with the good folks at Occupy Sandy to see if you can't still volunteer/donate to our neighbors in need. Be a mensch.