Pier 5, Havana

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!!!!!

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 History was moving very fast back in this time in Cuba and within days this item was quickly withdrawn from circulation.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.

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.

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.

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.