Cold War Cleanup: Soviet agent Elizaveta Mukasei used a vacuum for more than just housework

James Bond's arsenal of missile-firing Aston Martins, exploding attaché cases, and other spyware might not have included a vacuum cleaner, but this utilitarian tool has played a prominent role in the undercover adventures of some real-life covert agents.

Former Soviet agent Elizaveta Mukasei, who recently died at 97, apparently hid a radio transmitter in a vacuum as she and her husband, Mikhail, searched Los Angeles for secrets at the outset of World War II, according to her September 30 obituary in The Wall Street Journal. Even as the clandestine couple sucked up to tinsel-town glitterati of the day, including Charlie Chaplin and conductor Leopold Stokowski, the Soviet duo spied for Stalin. (The Mukaseis are shown below.)

Vacuums have played a leading role in fictional spy capers, too. In Our Man In Havana—a 1959 classic film based on the novel by Graham Greene—Alec Guinness' character James Wormold, a vacuum-cleaner salesman, leads a double life as a British spy in pre-Castro Cuba. (Watch the video here.) Stuck for any useful leads for Her Majesty's Secret Service, Wormold instead sends sketches of vacuum-cleaner parts he purports to be a secret military installation. Directed by Oscar winner Carol Reed, the film also featured Maureen O'Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noel Coward, Burl Ives, and Sir Ralph Richardson.

Even if you don't particularly care about vacuum cleaners, be sure to watch Our Man In Havana. It's a captivating film, and at the very least, you'll get to see what Sir Alec did long before he played Jedi knight Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977's Star Wars. 

If you are in the market for a new vacuum, check out our ratings of upright and canister models (available to subscribers), along with fall-cleanup tips that can make housework a little less sinister.—Bob Markovich | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Read our October 2009 report on vacuums to get the latest news on these appliances.