User reviews

Not a lot of background info on IMDb on this 67 minute shortie from "Premium Pictures", and even less info on the writer, Joseph Hoffman, and its director Ed Cahn; as of today, not even one message on the message boards at the bottom of the main page. "Pier 5" starts out with narrator (Cameron Mitchell as Steven Daggett) giving us the first-person background on Batista skipping town, and Castro moving in take over Cuba. Daggett tells us he is trying to find his best friend Hank Miller (Logan Field), but is quickly picked up by the police for questioning... we are introduced to the local bigshot Senor Ricardo (Eduardo Noriega), American singer Monica Gray (Allison Hayes), and local businessman Senor Schluss (Otto Waldis), who all may or may not be involved in something together.. Ms. Gray admits that she knows the missing man Miller, so Dagget starts following clues to try to find his missing friend. The biggest Hollywood name here is our narrator, Mitchell, who later had several successful TV series in the 1960s and 1970s (the Beachcomber, Swiss Family Robinson, High Chaparrel). The bombshell Hayes has an interesting bio.. apparently was a contestant in the Miss America Pagaent, but unfortunately died quite young at age 47, possibly from being overdosed with calcium...how strange.... she was even in "Tickle Me", with Elvis, and died a couple months before he did. "Pier 5 " Produced by Robert Kent aka James Gordon, who had started out as a writer in the 1930s, and wrote and produced many films with a foreign, exotic location. This one is a good solid script, with perfectly competent actors, but I guess isn't shown often, since it doesn't have any real big names. It's interesting that what some of the "bad guys" are involved in might today be treated differently than how it was regarded at the time.... but that's a matter for history to sort out...won't say any more to avoid giving away any plot points.

I remember seeing this film way back in 1959 when it first came out in the theater. History was moving very fast back in this time in Cuba and within days this item was quickly withdrawn from circulation. Before 1959 was out you could never have made an American film with the Castro as the good guy and the Batista counterrevolutionaries as the bad guys.

Cameron Mitchell in the immediate days after the Castro revolution in Cuba comes to Havana to find his friend Logan Field who has gone missing. What he finds is Field's wife Allison Hayes now involved with Eduardo Noriega a rich plantation owner and singing at the nightclub in hotel owner Nestor Paiva's palatial resort hotel, once the playground of touring Americans as were many such places in Batista Havana.

Michael Granger the local Havana cop and Castro supporter is taking a real interest in the comings and goings of Mitchell. And before long Mitchell up to the neck in a counterrevolutionary assassination plot that the missing Mr. Field was involved in before.

Within days of this film's release public opinion changed radically about Fidel Castro and this film was buried. Not that it should have been unearthed for art's sake. This is sloppily put together with the villains making stupid moves that would have rivaled some of the movie Nazis of World War II vintage.

If Pier 5, Havana teaches us anything it is that with help like this no wonder Batista never regained power.

From 1959, Pier 5, Havana, stars Cameron Mitchell and Allison Hayes, directed by Edward L. Cahn.

Mitchell, pre-nose job, plays Steve Daggert, who comes to Havana to search for a friend, Hank Miller (Logan Field) who disappeared during the recent revolution.

No one wants him around, including his ex-girlfriend (Hayes) now divorced from Miller. Items found belonging to Miller indicate he is dead.

Upon investigation, he finds a movement afoot to overthrow Castro and put Batista back in power, perceived in the film as a bad thing. Well, that point of view changed.

Done on the cheap, though it seems to include footage from Havana. The end is exciting. Mitchell does his usual solid job.

Hayes, a B movie star in the '50s, has her own channel on YouTube. She was beautiful with a knockout figure and unfortunately died young.

Cheesy melodrama set during the time after the fall of Battista in Cuba. While the film has a man shot in the airport for crimes that a never specified this film seems to be a starting point for Hollywood's fixation with tin pot Latin American dictators/despots. In this film the bad guys are the supporters of Battista and the law abiding guys are working for the Castro Government. The only thing missing is a rally for Che. Not a very good film the acting is surprisingly wooden. I had a lot of good memories of Cameron Mitchell but this film made me question my recollections. The film was obviously shot on sets and very little location work is done. The dialog is uninspiring, and unlike other films of this era this film is not much fun to watch.

Steve Daggett (Cameron Mitchell) heads to post-revolutionary Cuba to look for a missing friend. He's no more than off the plane when he's mixed-up with some baddies who may have more sinister intentions than kidnapping his friend. He's also mixed up with an old flame, Monica Gray (Allison Hayes), which is bound to lead to even more problems. Can he find his friend, not get killed, and still get the girl?

As soon as I saw Cameron MItchell's name in the credits, I knew I wanted to see Pier 5, Havana. I"ve been a fan since I was a kid watching The HIgh Chaparral. Throw in Allison Hayes and I'm definitely watching. Overall, Pier 5, Havana falls into that harmless class of wishy-washy films I rate a 5/10. It's enjoyable enough, but nothing to really get overly excited about. Some of the pro-Castro sentiments in the film are incredibly interesting. Also, some of the street scenes filmed in and around Havana and the aerial shots of downtown Havana are truly special. This is a film that could only have been made at this exact time in history.

As for the movie, like I said, it's okay. Most of the plot is interesting enough (helped by a very short 67 minute runtime), the action works, and Mitchell comes out looking fine. The movie also has a noirish quality to it that i really enjoyed. As for what didn't work quite as well, I'll start with Hayes. In a word, she's awful. Several of her scenes with Eduardo Noriega are cringe-inducing they're so bad. And even though I enjoyed the plot, I admit it is a bit uneven and predictable. Still, despite the faults, I'm glad I finally got around to watching this one.

5/10

This is one of three low-budget programmers made by Cameron Mitchell for director Edward L. Cahn and the same production company (all UA releases) in 1959-60, all of which are worth seeing. Living in Miami, small businessman Cameron Mitchell comes to post-revolution Havana to find an old friend who was going to come and work for him, but never arrived and seems to have vanished. Although Mitchell's character is not a detective, this plays a lot like a detective film, and director Cahn is a master at pacing, so despite the miniscule budget (Havana is evoked by a few small sets and a few California exteriors with Spanish-language signs on them!), the film plays like a good little paperback-original mystery novel--especially so since Mitchell provides voice-over narration here and there to speed things along and to mention things that would be too expensive to show on camera. As always, Mitchell treats the role with the greatest respect, digging into the character and turning what could have been a generic role into someone the viewer cares about and roots for. Michael Granger is also excellent as the honest, professional Cuban police investigator who stays on the case himself and keeps running into Mitchell along the way. The film also features legendary 50s leading lady Allison Hayes (Gunslinger, The Unearthly, Attack of the 50 ft. Woman)as a woman who once knew Mitchell and was married to the missing man. Although a low-budget programmer that is only 67 minutes long and was no doubt made in a few weeks, PIER 5, HAVANA provides good, honest, hard-boiled entertainment and plays like a good 1950s detective TV show. Director Edward L. Cahn was the best kind of journeyman director, a true pro who could take a talented cast, a few small sets, and a genre-based script, and turn it all into a solid, unpretentious feature film that still entertains and engages decades after it was made. If you come to this film with enough willing suspension of disbelief, it won't matter that the punches thrown in the fight scenes miss by at least eight inches--the sound effects are synched accurately so you THINK the punch must have landed, and the scene has moved on before you have time to analyze it. I'll take honest entertainment like this over CGI effects any day of the week. This film was probably made for less than the bottled water budget on the last Eddie Murphy film. Bravo to director Cahn and star Cameron Mitchell!

I saw this movie way back when, 1959, in fact, and could not believe my ears. Several of us, classmates in college, went and after a half hour or so found that we were able to predict the dialog we were hearing after just a word or two. When the protagonist looks down at the dock he's standing on and sees a ring caught in a crack. we all said in chorus with him "IT WAS HANK'S RING". And that was a high point. We stayed to the end, as I recal. We were young and stupid.

I'm sure it's not the worst movie ever made but it is the rock bottom worst I've ever sat through.

TCM aired this movie the other morning. For around 45 years,this film has not shown up an the TV or released on DVD or video. Filmed in Havana,Cuba in 1959,this film makes mention on how the United States helped Fidel Castro and his followers oust the Batista government and put Castro in power. As it turned out,that was a big mistake for the United States. Rumours circulated that the U.S. government purchased all the copies of this film and destroyed them. Well,not true. Turners classic movies has a copy. As for the film,their in nothing really interesting to see. Other than Cameron Mitchel,and lessor known actress,Allison Hayes,this film was filmed on a cheap budget.

Well the revolutions did end in 1959 when castro took over Havana and it is sureal to see hollywood root for castro then batista in this melodrama. The film is very cliche and you get to see how cuba was like in this year because this was the last year cuba was free. I recognized some of the places in this film cause coincidentally I have been to cuba before. I recognized the nacional hotel. The plot of the film caught me off guard and thought that his soilder body was part of the bay of pigs invasion but no that wouldnt come till next year. This fillm is a skip unless ur into cuba and cuba-usa history. Viva cuba!!!!!

Steve Dagget (Cameron Mitchell) goes to Havana to find out what happened to his friend from Miami, Hank Miller (Logan Field). The overthrow of Batista had just occurred and is the background for this story, wherein Dagget tries to find Miller but runs into ex flame Monica (Allison Hayes) who is now a night club singer and is being taken care of by a wealthy Cuban Fernando Ricard (Eduardo Noriega). Dagget's search for Miller gets him involved with the police who apparently now are defending the new government from being overthrown and retaken by the old order. This is all fairly interesting because at the time this film was made Castro had not yet been declared enemy number 1 by the US. Poor Dagget just wants to find his friend, but Miller had been used by the loyalists because he had expertise they needed, and now that they were done with him, he needed to be liquidated. Miller shows up one evening as night is closing in in a Havana beach house and Dagget, Monica, and him relive there old times together back in Miami. The film seems too stagey at first and would be easy to just turn off, but given a good half an hour to develop, it kicks into gear later. Directed by the super prolific Edward Cahn, none of whose movies I've ever seen before, but the titles sound pretty good.

Story-line is fresh, even after all these years. Mitchell is OK, the lady is not too good, the bad-guy 'Fernando' is well acted. Set construction is B-grade, with several goofs. Script and dialog are a little better than you would expect. Simple action scenes are on par for this kind of movie. Overall production is about what you would expect for a B-grade movie. Some real shots in/near Havana add a special touch to the film. Trying to protect Castro from pro-Baustista forces seems a bit odd these days, but probably spot-on for 1959. The cast all seemed to work together well.

Good, rainy-day film.