Pier 5, Havana (1959)

Good concept, poorly executed.

A Disappointing Continuation

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Some writer and independent producer got the bright idea that with the revolution in Cuba pulling out one regime and putting in another was great timing for a political thriller on the subject. What they don't have is a story, basically just expressing an opinion without allowing the dust to settle. It's a formulaic political thriller with over the action narration by Cameron Mitchell, going to Havana to search for his friend, and finding dangers, not really by the Castro regime, but the supporters of the previous regime under Batista. Mitchell runs into old flame Alison Hayes, his friend's wife, and suspects her of being involved in the disappearances. This is basically a rather violent TV drama that got a release simply out of the exploitation of a real international crisis, with busty Hayes a rather clichéd femme fatale, maybe not fifty feet here, but seemingly telling a lot of tall tales. Certain details, such as bomb fuses identified on the crates in English (and allegedly supposed to be chocolate), and a villain who seems more out of an anti-Nazi film than a anti-communist film. The cheapness of the film and its political agenda are obvious, even to me who knew very little about pre-Castro era Cuba. I'd get more truth and information from watching old newsreels than this Z grade nonsense that has no real Cuban feel to it at all, let alone anything of a Latin culture. Then, as you begin to think it's over (about 50 minutes into the film), a twist comes out of the blue that takes it over the top, and even with an action packed finale, the whole movie ends up a ridiculous carbon copy of the type of propaganda film that was popular at the bottom of the bill during World War II.

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.

**SPOILERS** With his arrival to Havana just days after Cuban Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, known to his many followers as "El Beardo", and his man took over the city American businessman Steve Daggett, Cameron Mitchell, tries to find his good friend and army buddy, who saved his life in Korea, Hank Miller, Logan Field. Having dropped out of sight and very possibly into the Caribbean Sea after one of his drunken binges, that he's become famous for, Hank has been given up by everyone, except Steve, for deadGetting in touch with the newly installed, by Castro, Havana police chief Let. Garcia, Michael Granger, Steve is introduced to Hank's grieving wife Monica played by the statuesque 5 foot 7 inch tall Allison Hayes. This a year after Allison achieved motion picture immortality playing the part of Nancy Archer in "The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman". As we soon see Steve and, even though she refuses to acknowledge it, Monica have been lover from way back before she dropped him for his friend the helplessly alcoholic Hank Miller. It's when Lt. Garcia enlightens Monica with that fact, by showing Monica a photo of her Hank and Steve together, that she grudgingly admits that she and Steve have known each other for a number of years. All this soon becomes moot a minute later when it's brought out that Monica is now married to the handsome Cuban speed boat enthusiast and millionaire tobacco farmer Fernando Ricardo, Eduardo Noriaga.As it soon turns out Hank a cracker-jack airplane and speed boat mechanic somehow got involved with a gang of Batista, the Cuban dictator whom Castro ousted from power, supporters who want him to convert a number of outdated transport planes into fighter-bombers. These out of power gangsters, courtesy of the Castro Revoluton, are now planning to get their boy-Batista-back in power by any means possible! Even if they have to carpet bomb Havana to do it! Steve who never expected any of this cloak and dagger stuff has now, by his friendship with the missing Hank Miller, become the target of the Cuban Police in trying to overthrow the Castro Regime.The action gets hot and heavy with Steve trying to prevent a "Bay of Pigs", two years before it actually happened, like assault on Castro's Cuba from the air not, like the "Bay of Pigs" itself, the sea. It doesn't help Steve that much when the missing and reportedly dead Hank Miller shows up, drunk as usual, to make things even worse, for Steve and his ex-wife Monica, then they already were!It's just when the pro-Batista men were about to execute their devious plan, the bombing of Havana, that the police lead by Let. Garcia got the drop on them having them scurry for safety, as well as their lives, out of Cuba. Steve himself played no favorites between the two sides, Castro and Batista, now has a score to settle with the man, the the leader of Castro guy group, who not only kidnapped and later had his good friend Hank Miller murdered but ordered one of his goons, who was more then happy to do it, to try to assault Monica! This attempted rape on his, the goons, part failed miserably when Steve came to Monica's rescue and judo-chopped him to death!It's surreal to see an American made motion picture released in 1959 that actually championed Fidel Castro and his Marxist Regime in Cuba as the good guys in the movie! It was a year later that the US Government started through its CIA and Miami based Free Castro Cubans volunteers a number of major covert, and in the case of the "Bay of Pigs" overt, military actions to overthrow Castro that has lasted, some 50 years, until he himself voluntarily resigned from office because of ill health! Not because of any of the extensive military economic as well as political, in forcing country's to boycott trade with the Cuban Government, pressures put on him by the United States Government!

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!