Explosion in Cuba

According to the Citadel Film series book on Sean Connery, Sean violated a rule that both he and Charlton Heston normally follow, never take an assignment on an unfinished script. The cameras were rolling on the players before the final script was done and the results clearly show it.

Cuba as a film certainly had potential, but it's not realized in this story. Sean Connery plays a British mercenary who is going to go to work for the tottering Batista regime. He's being hired on the strength of good work he did in Malaya where the British did successfully quell a Communist insurgency in the Fifties.

Connery's got a lot of reservations when he sees the quality of the troops that Batista has. But that's not what's totally occupying his mind. He's found an old flame in Brooke Adams who is married to wealthy Cuban cigar factory owner Chris Sarandon.

As a film Cuba veers back and forth between an action adventure, a political tract, and a romance novel, never really settling in any one category. Best performance in the film is that of Jack Weston who plays the archetypal ugly American.

It's a sad film Cuba, because it had the potential to be a whole lot better.