The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming

Delightful entertainment with a good message. Holds up well over the decades. Every character was really well done, lots of mahem but it held together in a delightful mess. You don't have to understand the Russian dialogue scenes because their body language communicates so well. Reminiscent of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, but even better. I don't understand how the one-star reviewers could have missed how funny this movie is.

Not quite as funny as I remember it, but still worth watching. My wife had never seen it and thought it very funny.

I feel really old when I realize that I saw this film in a movie theater when it first came out. At that time, Carl Reiner was well-known from the Sid Caesar Show and the Dick Van Dyke Show, and Alan Arkin had made a big comic splash in "Enter Laughing" and was considered a rising star (somehow he never achieved full stardom and wound up doing odd character roles). Eva Marie Saint was a powerhouse dramatic actress ("On The Waterfront") doing a politically-incorrect simpering housewife role. Paul Ford was known for playing the colonel on the Phil Silvers "Sergeant Bilko" series. John Philip Law was the hunk du jour (and whatever happened to him?)and Andrea Dromm, the other half of the love story, apparently played out her entire movie career in this one film.Initially, I was disappointed in the film because I'd read Nathaniel Benchley's novel, "The Off-Islanders," which was a much richer and more subtle story. In time, the movie won me over and I still love watching it. Most of the deliberately "comic" set pieces misfire--many of the routines go on too long (the blustery tension between Paul Ford's obsessed veteran and Brian Keith's put-upon police chief, for example)and Jewison, a good director in other respects, has no sense of comic timing.I do laugh, though, at the silly bit where Reiner and Tessie O'Shea are tied up face to face and attempt to get down a steep flight of stairs. This is funny mostly because of Reiner's own timing. Overall, the film could benefit by a cut of about 10-15 minutes.What does keep me coming back is the warm, layered characterization of Alan Arkin's lieutenant and the journey of Carl Reiner's musical comedy writer from terrified schnook to murderous family man to chastened and maturing citizen.Reiner is actually scary when he fires a shotgun through the window of the car Arkin is driving. He's been pushed to the edge by his obnoxious son's goading and by the frightening threats to his family.The scene where he looks into the window of the crashed car and tries to apologize to the even-more-frightened Arkin is delicate and charmingly funny.Arkin seems to be in another film most of the time. His character is richly detailed and subtle. He is clearly a better sailor than his stubborn captain (Theodore Bikel), and his repressed fury at the captain's stupidity is a character study in itself. He portrays fear, determination, resourcefulness, tenderness, and exasperation, all without pushing or overacting (the same can't be said for some of the other principals, notably Jonathan Winters, who never succeeds in a scripted part).There is gentle satire in the portrayal of the easily duped and insular residents of Gloucester Island (Arkin's attempt to pronounce this name from a map is a gem in itself), though silent movie star Ben Blue wildly overacts. Brian Keith captures the weariness of a small town police chief's life, and his personal best moment comes when he faces the Soviet sub, guns trained on his town, and whips out his citation book to write out a ticket.The mandatory romance isn't too annoying since Law and Dromm play it low-key and have some genuine charm. The two children are dreadfully annoying, though the boy is meant to be that way. Reiner's cry to his wife, "Hit him!" as he drives away, will definitely draw a sympathetic laugh.The other unfortunate note (aside from the romance)is the Hollywood ending. The sub captain is bluffing the townspeople, thinking his men are being held (they aren't; they've commandeered a speedboat which unaccountably missed seeing the sub sail into the harbor). He threatens to blow up the town in one minute. The townspeople, in a wonderful shot, take aim with their hunting rifles and pistols, terror showing in their eyes. The captain is also terrified. The standoff has real tension, but it's solved by the awful gimmick of having a little boy (who to this point has played no part in the film) dangle from a church tower. Naturally, the Russian sailors scramble from the sub to help and everyone is now consumed with a spirit of detente. It leaves a bad taste, made worse by Saint's suggestion that the townspeople escort the sub safely out of the harbor (no doubt they will all face intense grilling by our government, and possibly jail time).However, I always recover from that lapse and the movie leaves me feeling mostly charmed and happy. I find myself reciting "Egermecy--everybody to get from street!" at odd times, and I realize that this film makes me nostalgic for a time when movie comedies did not have to be vicious or filthy or both.

The movie is very predictable, but a fun old one. We enjoyed!

I first saw this movie in 1970, and at the time I found it mildly amusing. From then until now, a lot has happened in my life. Most notably for the purpose of this interview, for the last nine years I have been living and working in the former Soviet Union. My office manager is a young Ukrainian woman, and when I told her about this movie she asked me to get it for her. She has shared it with other Russian and Ukrainian people we work with, meaning that in a vicarious way I have been able to watch it through their eyes. Their reaction has convinced me that this is an under-rated masterpiece.The movie, of course, is a comedy about a misunderstanding. The captain (Theodor Bikel) of a Soviet submarine (`Sprut', which means octopus in Russian) wants to see the United States through his periscope, comes too close to the shore, and runs aground in `Glocester' Island, which is supposed to be like Martha's Vineyard. Two of the crew, Lieutenant Rozanov (Alan Arkin) and Andrei Kolchin (John Phillips Law) can speak English, so they are dispatched with seven others to find a boat to pull the submarine off the reef. All they want is someone to help them get their submarine off the reef. But in a comic parody of cold war paranoia, the islanders believe they are the first victim of a Soviet attack against the United States. Each side fears the other, each misinterprets the other's intentions, and from that premise the comedy develops.When I saw the movie the first time, I enjoyed the acting of Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, and Paul Ford, all great American actors. I did not appreciate the other side. Now I know better. I work with many senior officers who are like the Soviet captain, many junior officers who are just trying to do the best they can with what they have like Lieutenant Rozanov, and many simple, good hearted soldiers like Kolchin. Considering how little contact there was between Soviet and American people at that time, I am deeply impressed by how well the national characteristics of the two sides (exaggerated, of course, for comic effect) are portrayed.None of the `Soviet' characters in this movie was a native Russian speaker, but none of my Russian or Ukrainian friends has found any flaw in the way they render their Russian-language lines. All my friends found the `Emergency! Everybody to get from street!' scene hilarious, because they have to struggle to learn proper English and they make the same mistakes made by those hapless sailors.I don't want to spoil the ending for readers who have never seen the movie, but after a seemingly hopeless confrontation between the islanders, armed to the teeth, and the submarine, the plot is resolved in a very simple yet beautiful way. The resolution of the standoff results from a trait that Russians and Americans share - they both love and indulge their children. I have read that when this movie was screened in Moscow, the Soviet film director Sergei Bondarchuk was in tears upon seeing how sweetly this movie ends. So were my friends over here.Ronald Reagan believed that if an ordinary Russian couple were to meet an ordinary American couple, with the language barriers removed, they would discuss their children, their homes, and would make plans for dinner. This movie makes the same point. Russians and Americans are two peoples divided by the fact that they know so little about each other. Movies like this show that they are more alike than they realize.

This little Cold War comedy is a real blast from the past. It's entertaining, it has a few real laugh out loud moments (Muriel tied up in her kitchen is my favourite), but it's decidedly of its time. Which is the 1960s. Anybody born after the end of the cold war may not find the premise of the film all that funny, but those who remember the constant paranoia about Russia attacking America will chuckle about the embarrassed Russian sailors who want nothing more than get out of America with their disabled submarine and the American islanders getting their knickers in a twist over the Russian "invasion".The Russians are unexpectedly likable, Eva Marie Saint is very lovely, the precocious young boy is suitably irritating even though he is always right (or maybe just because he is always right), and Carl Reiner's writer on a retreat on the island is hilariously idiotic. It's mostly situation comedy with a bit of witty dialogue. Nice that any Russian dialogue is spoken in proper Russian, presumably dubbed by native speakers (and subtitled in English). Great film to while away a long wet Sunday afternoon.The picture and sound quality of the DVD is surprisingly good for a film from the time. English subtitles are availabe for those who may need them.

I really enjoyed watching this dvd. Very funny. Good cast including Jonathan winters and Alan arkin.

Great direction and acting with bold, clear, imagery make this a must-view film. In general the transfer to Blu-ray is good but there appears to be a flaw in the equipment used. There are some pixels across the top centre of the frame that appear lighter than the background in bright frames. Once you are aware of them you keep checking to see if they stay there! An annoying 'feature' of this disc which could have been avoided.

While the timing and language - as much as the clothes - give this film a vintage feel, the topic of how to handle an encounter with 'the enemy' is still pretty up to date. A Soviet submarine goes aground, early in the Cold War, near a small American coastal town and the Russians' ingenious attempts to escape bring them into growing friction with the locals. Humanity wins out in the end over suspicion, as you might expect from a film that plays it mostly for laughs. If the pace is sometime slow, the twists are clever, Alan Arkin is amusing as the main Russian 'fixer', and John Philip Law is nice to look at as a young sailor even if his love-interest theme is a bit icky.

Cold war comedy that never fails to get a laugh. A quote to set the scene:"Don't tell them anything! He hasn't even tortured you yet!""Muriel said the Russians have landed, whatever that means, Chief. And she said they were attacking her personally!""Remember last time, when she called about that Peeping Tom - you know who that was, don't you? It was that Luther Grilk's horse."