Graham Greene's funny novel about a British vacuum cleaner salesman who becomes a spy had the idea director Carol Reed and star Alec Guinness and isn't bad but isn't that interesting. Jo Morrow is dreadful as Guinness's daughter. Noel Coward terrific as a secret service man - ditto Ralph Richardson as Coward's boss.
Maureen O'Hara is alright as Guiness's secretary. Ernie Kovacs is funny as a local head of police. Burl Ives is, well, Burl Ives as a German.
I went with this for a while but then it got annoying. It's smart but there's no emotion - no sense that Guiness is really in danger even though he is, or that O"Hara and he fall in love even though they do, or that he loves his daughter, or that he feels sad when Ives is killed and wants revenge. I wish Hitchcock had made it (he wanted to but the rights were too expensive.)
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