Before the revolution in Cuba, a vacuum cleaner salesman is recruited by the British Secret Service for the title role. This cold war comedy sets up a premise ripe with comic possibilities but fails to deliver the laughs. The script by Greene, adapting his own novel, is good for only a few chuckles. A marvelous cast is wasted, including Guinness as the recruited spy hoping to make a quick buck, Coward as his recruiter, O'Hara as his devoted secretary, and Richardson as a befuddled Secret Service superior. Kovacs steals the film as a slimy Cuban police chief who has designs on Guinness's daughter. A disappointment, considering the cast and the director (Reed).