The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming
Tags: comedy

Plot synopsis:
A Russian submarine called Спрут ("Octopus") draws too close to the New England coast one morning when its captain (Theodore Bikel) wants to take a good look at America and runs aground on a sandbar near the fictional Gloucester Island, which, from other references in the movie, is located off the coast of Cape Ann or Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and has a significant population of summer visitors. Rather than radio for help and risk an embarrassing international incident, the captain sends a nine-man landing party, headed by his zampolit (Political Officer) Lieutenant Yuri Rozanov (Alan Arkin), to find a motor launch to help free the submarine from the bar. The men arrive at the house of Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner), a vacationing playwright from New York City. Whittaker is eager to get his wife Elspeth (Eva Marie Saint) and two children, obnoxious but precocious nine and half-year-old Pete (Sheldon Collins) and three-year-old Annie (Cindy Putnam), off the island now that summer is over.
Pete tells his dad that "Russians with machine guns" dressed in black uniforms are near the house, but Walt is met by the men who identify themselves as Norwegian fishermen. Walt buys this, and to teach Pete a lesson about judging others, asks if they are "Russians with machine guns", which startles Rozanov into admitting that they are Russians and pulling a gun on Walt. Rozanov promises no harm to the Whittakers if they hand over their station wagon and provide information on the military and police forces of their island. Although Walt and Elspeth provides the keys, the sailors are perplexed as to why there are no military personnel on the island, and only a small police force. Before the Russians depart, Rozanov orders one of the sailors, Alexei Kolchin (John Phillip Law), to prevent the Whittakers from fleeing. An attractive 18-year-old neighbor, Alison Palmer (Andrea Dromm), who works as a babysitter for Annie, expected to work that day and finds herself captive as well.
The Whittakers' station wagon quickly runs out of gasoline, forcing the Russians to walk. They steal an old sedan from Muriel Everett (Doro Merande), the postmistress; she calls Alice Foss (Tessie O'Shea), the gossipy telephone switchboard operator, and before long, wild rumors about Russian parachutists and an air assault on the airport throw the entire island into confusion. As level-headed Police Chief Link Mattocks (Brian Keith) and his bumbling assistant Norman Jonas (Jonathan Winters) try to squelch an inept citizens' militia led by the blustering Fendall Hawkins (Paul Ford), Walt, accompanied by Elspeth, manages to overpower Kolchin, because the Russian is reluctant to hurt anyone. During the commotion Kolchin flees, but when Walt and Elspeth leave to find help, he reappears to the house, where only Alison and Annie remain. Alexei says that although he does not want any fighting, he must obey his superiors in guarding the residence. He promises he will not harm anyone and offers to surrender his submachine gun as proof. Alison tells him that she trusts him and does not need to hand over his firearm. Alexei and Alison become attracted to each other, taking a walk along the beach with Annie, and finding commonality despite their different cultures and the Cold War hostility between their countries.
Trying to find the Russians on his own, Walt is re-captured by them in the telephone central office. After subduing Mrs. Foss and disabling the island's telephone switchboard, seven of the Russians appropriate civilian clothes from the dry cleaners, manage to steal a cabin cruiser, and head to the submarine, still aground on the sandbar. Back at the Whittaker house, Kolchin is by now falling in love with Alison. At the phone exchange, Walt manages to free himself. He and Elspeth return to the house and almost shoot Rozanov, who arrives there just before they do. With the misunderstandings cleared up, the Whittakers, Rozanov, and Kolchin decide to head into town together to explain to everyone just what is going on.
As the tide rises, the sub floats off the sandbar and proceeds on the surface to the island's main harbor. Chief Mattocks, having investigated and debunked the rumor of an aerial assault, arrives back in town with the militia force, the men armed with everything from a harpoon and a bow and arrows to antique flintlock rifles, .22 caliber plinkers, Winchester lever actions, .38 Special revolvers, 12 gauge shotguns, and military surplus rifles. With Political Officer Rozanov acting as translator, the Russian captain threatens to open fire on the town with his deck gun and machine guns unless the seven missing sailors are returned to him, his crew facing upwards of a hundred armed, apprehensive, but determined townspeople. Chief Mattocks warns the Soviet officer, "You come in here scaring people half to death, you steal cars and motorboats, and you cause damage to private property and you threaten the whole community with grievous bodily harm and maybe murder. Now, we ain't going to take any more of that, see? We may be scared, but maybe we ain't so scared as you think we are, see? Now you say you're going to blow up the town, huh? Well, I say, all right! You start shooting, and see what happens!"
As the Captain and Chief Mattocks glare at each other, two small boys go up in the church steeple to see better. With tension approaching the breaking point, one of the boys (Johnny Whitaker) slips and falls from the steeple, but his belt catches on a gutter, leaving him precariously hanging forty feet in the air. Immediately uniting to save the child, the American islanders and the Russian submariners form a human pyramid and Kolchin rescues him.
Peace and harmony is established between the two parties, but unfortunately the over-eager Hawkins has contacted the Air Force by radio. In a joint decision, the submarine heads out of the harbor with a convoy of villagers in small boats protecting it. Kolchin says goodbye to Alison, the stolen boat with the missing Russian sailors aboard intercepts the group shortly thereafter, and the seven board the submarine, just before two Air Force F-101B Voodoo jets arrive. They break off after seeing the escorting flotilla of small craft, and the Octopus is free to proceed to deep water and safety.

Review: Carl Reiner's Masterpiece!A small New England island town is visited by the crew of a Russian submarine.
But, once even the tiniest unverifiable report gets out that the Russians have "invaded", the townspeople just flip.What was especially funny about "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming" was the way that every time someone spread the news that the Soviet Union was "taking over", the story got mangled, getting blown out of proportion every time!
Alan Arkin does a great job as Rozanov (I can't believe that he still hasn't won an Oscar after all these years), along with great performances by Carl Reiner and Eva Marie Saint as Walt and Elspeth Whittaker (listen to what Rozanov does with Walt's name), and Jonathan Winters as a cop (uh-oh).
Often during an everyday event something will remind us of scenes in the movie and I'll comment, "Ethel, what are you doing up there?" or "Don't do it again." Arkin was so right for the part he played and the submarine Captain came across as a tough guy who really was a softie.
Alan Arkin is brilliant, and the cast as a whole is full of good people, and it's the little things that make the movie great--which is why even with the long running time it doesn't drag.
Alan Arkin is spectacular as the XO of a Russian Sub that has accidentally beached on an island off the New England coast, and the supporting cast of Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters, Brien Keith and Eve Marie Saint is superb.Beware, there are lines in this film that that you may never forget, most notably "emergency - everybody to get from street".The best place to see this movie is on TCM, because Robert Osborn interviewed director Norman Jewison at length about this film and together they reveal some fascinating insights, including the story of Jewison's private screening for Kruschev.I must warn you, however, that this film has a happy ending.
In the Cold War, when the captain of a Russian submarine comes too close to the Gloucester Island in Massachusetts to give a look at America, the submarine gets stranded.
A nine-man team commanded by Lieutenant Rozanov (Alan Arkin) goes onshore to search a motor boat to release the submarine and arrives at the summer house of the New Yorker writer Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner) that is spending the weekend with his family in Gloucester.
Soon the information leaks, leading hysteria and paranoia along the inhabitants of the small village."The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming" is a hilarious parody of the America's paranoia in times of Cold War. The situations are extremely funny and despite the dated theme, it is still a great comedy from the 60's.
Even a cartoon like Rocky & Bullwinkle, with the characters Boris and Natasha, was teaching us the Russians were evil and this movie comes around showing they are as human as the rest of us and pokes fun as to the paranoia and suspicion that let's everyone's minds run away from them.I guess I'm old fashioned though because I just don't get today's movies which runs short on a plot and reality and just can't help with all the CGI, massive explosions and massive gunfights..
Those experiences have made me appreciate how perfectly this film captures the cultural characteristics of both the people of the New England shore communities (I was born in Connecticut) and the Russian sailors.
Carl Reiner is the typical American Dad: harried and always in charge..he thinks.Jonathan Winters is exceptional as always and there's a host of splendid characters actors in mayhem most of the time.A 6 out of 10.
One of the funniest people ever, Jonothan Winters, is hilarious -- he putters around the kitchen with his hearing aid turned off while his wife tries to get his attention, tied to a chair hung up on the wall, is one of the great comedy scenes of all times.
This is one of my top 10 all time movies.The dialogue is clever as it can be, the situations are funny (the Russian sailors walking through town wearing thrift store trenchcoats, shouting, "E-Mare-Jen-See, E-Mare-Jen-See, all the pipples to get from strits!"), the message is terrific, and was much needed at the time, which is that beneath all the sputtering and fear are PEOPLE who forget all the conflict when innocent lives are in danger..
Maybe it's just me, but I *still* think it's funny.If you're looking for a pleasant movie the kids can watch, this is a good one..
This movie was the first time I ever thought of The Russians as real humans like me, not some sort of a vague monster race.
Hilarious best describes this 1966 Oscar nominated film for best picture.The laughter actually begins when a Russian submarine, commanded by Theodore Bikel, runs aground off the coast of a small New England town.
Hopelessly lost off the coast of New England, a Russian Sub sets ashore a crew of nautical misfits headed by Alan Arkin to try and find out whats where.
Great performances, smart, funny writing, wonderful balance (Arkin/Reiner/Keith) -- compares very favorably w/ Raising Arizona, Dr. Strangelove, The Court Jester, Moonstruck, Cat Ballou, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek -- these are the funniest movies I can think of!
Several sailors are sent to find a boat powerful enough to tow the sub back into the waters...and soon a little New England fishing village is abuzz with rumors of a Soviet invasion.Alan Arkin's performance, as well as Johnathan Winters' borderline deadpan-manic acting are the gems of this film.
While there are comedic characters in the movie that are silly and shallow - and quite funny like Jonathan Winters - they are balanced by sane, normal well-acted characters, like Brian Keith and Alan Arkin.
While the later is certainly funny, I suspect The Russians is more likely to make you laugh out loud spontaneously because there isn't so much continuous comedy..
I just saw this film for the first time & it is quite funny (i do remember hearing the title of this movie when it was first released in the mid-to-late 60s when i was a teenager).
With its strong comedic cast the viewer gets to see also how an ensemble of good actors can make a comedy shine (reminiscent in some respects of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" only this film here is more focused).
Actors Carl Reiner, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, Paul Ford and Eva Marie Saint all are memorable..
Panic ensues on America's East Coast when a Russian submarine runs aground, giving an unusually strong cast of players the opportunity to ham like crazy.
Alan Arkin, barking orders in Russian, is probably the worst offender (although he did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actor!); Carl Reiner is inept as a family man taken hostage by the Russkies.
I've watched this movie several times over the years and it is ALWAYS, tears-running-out-my-eyes funny.
We are great movie fans and The Russians Are Coming is in the top ten list of classic comedies..
Comedy and Hysteria During the Cold War. As the local sheriff of a small town on an island off the coast of Massachusetts, "Link Mattocks" (Brian Keith) is about as level-headed as they come.
Norman Jewison put together a great cast of scene stealing players and it's great to see these guys try to top each other.A Russian submarine keeping an eye on our naval movements off the American shore runs aground on the shore of eastern Long Island which is quite like it was in 1966, sparsely populated with small towns.
Non speaking English Captain Theodore Bikel sends Lieutenant Alan Arkin ashore with some men including young seaman John Philip Law without any real instructions.People spot these Russian speaking sailors and the panic starts.
Nice piece it is too.Arkin and Reiner are great together, Arkin with his fractured English and Reiner trying to both be civilized and live up to his son's expectations of killing the dirty Reds who've invaded.When word gets out Brian Keith as sheriff and deputy Jonathan Winters have to compete with Paul Ford at his blusteriest who is ready to form a militia on the spot.
It's perhaps a little slow in parts, but maybe because I've grown used to modern, non-stop-wise-cracking comedies.There are some aspects that are remarkably unrealistic: a Russian sub captain wanting to "sneak a peak" at the USA, a Russian Sub captain threatening to shell a town instead of using diplomatic detente (really-- I'm sure ALL the sailors knew how serious the tensions between the two powers were).There are some aspects that are remarkably realistic: how the rumor of invasion grows wings and develops purely invented details, how quickly mob mentality takes over, how everyone thinks they know what's going on but clearly do not (I note that the Russians are maybe more scared than the Americans, as they always seem to be perspiring.) Indeed-- one of the themes of the film seems to be mis-communication, and how quickly misunderstanding can turn into war.I was also thinking about "treason" while watching the film.
By the end of the film I was reminded of that sappy Sting song with the lyric "I'm sure the Russians love their children too"-- clearly the whole town has come to the same conclusion, and decides it's maybe better to be (perhaps) treasonous against their own country than to be (definitely) treasonous against their own humanity.
Well, it's not very funny, or at least I didn't think so, and the fact that it was taken seriously enough to snag four Academy Award nominations (let alone one for Best Picture) mystifies me.Featuring a bunch of recognizable stars who have all done much better elsewhere, like Carl Reiner, Theodore Bikel, Brian Keith, Eva Marie Saint, Paul Ford and, most notably, Alan Arkin, who for what it's worth gives the film whatever chutzpah it has.Grade: C.
The Russians Are Coming!" is a dramedy about a Soviet sub that runs aground off the coast of the fictional Gloucester Island, Massachusetts.
'Gloucester Island' is televisionless and nigh radio-less, just as Nantucket Island was at the time, which facilitates the build-up of confusion.The all-star cast includes Carl Reiner & Eva Marie Saint as the couple who initially meet the Russians.
The movie was a hit critically and commercially, and was even nominated for Best Picture, but this was likely due to the Cold War Zeitgeist.Seeing it today, it was clearly overrated.
The Russian Navy has invaded, Russian paratroopers have seized control of the island airport, and a civilian militia under the leadership of a gung-ho ex soldier named Fendall Hawkins (played by Paul Ford) is formed to take back the island, much to the consternation of police chief Mattocks (Brian Keith), who seems to be the only one not infected by the paranoia.It has potential, and has a great cast (Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin, Jonathon Winters), but just didn't live up to the potential of either the story or the cast.4/10.
Alan Arkin and John Phillip Law (who, disturbingly, was credited WAY down below the "stars" although his character is a major one) are the highlights of this mostly mediocre but watchable satire as the Russians in question.
Norman Jewison directed this cold war comedy about a Russian submarine that accidentally runs aground on a New England coast after they were sightseeing.
So should you skip this one, well I don't know, I did find much of this film very funny including Alan Arkin (still relevant today wow!), but the ending bothered me, maybe you my one reader may feel differently.
It is frequently funny, led by the Oscar-nominated performance by Alan Arkin as a Russian sailor stranded with eight comrades on an island in the Cape Cod area.
An ensemble of comic character actors play the townsfolk with predictable eccentricity - Brian Keith as the flustered police chief, Jonathan Winters as a pompous police officer, Paul Ford as the overly zealous head of the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The 2002 DVD has a couple of solid extras - a funny vintage trailer featuring Reiner and Arkin out of character as an interviewer and a Russian tourist, and a 23-minute making-of featurette produced for the DVD featuring Jewison reminiscing about the production and the positive impact it had on Cold War relations.
Reiner breaks free and and people in town see the Russians and they go crazy and think a war has broken out and several citizens start a militia.
I can see how living through the scare years of the Cold War might've changed that, but I also think (no offense to anyone) that people of that generation seem to have a certain appreciation for a type of humor that seems a little stilted today.
to get organized!"This is the story of a Russian sub running aground somewhere in New England, at the height of the cold war.
The music is good, funny and witty.As with other movies made by Mr. Jewison, this one has a message: people do not want to hate each other; it is a waste of time.
It creates a wonderfully humorous look at the reactions of people in a remote Massachusetts vacation area on the Atlantic Coast (i.e., Martha's Vineyard) when they hear "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming."The movie is based on a 1961 novel by Nathaniel Benchley, "The Off- Islanders." I don't know how much this sticks to the book, but it's a wonderful comedy of situations with the residents of a fictional Gloucester island.
Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, Paul Ford, Theodore Bikel, Tessie O'Shea, and Ben Blue were a sure-fire combination for comedy.
After Walt and Elspeth Whittaker (Carl Reiner and Eva Marie Saint) debate the number of residents of the island, 200 or so, Russian Navy Lt. Rozanov (Alan Arkin) asks, "No matter.
In the case of these Russians whose submarine lands off the New England coast stuck on a sandbar, all they want is help getting unstuck and go on with whatever they were doing prior to the situation that got them there in the first place.
Ben Blue tries vainly while drunk to get on his horse to become a 1960's version of Paul Revere, but it's love at first sight with blonde American Andrea Dromm and the very handsome John Philip Law whose heart seems to be as big as all of the U.S.S.R. combined.Then, there's the law: Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters and Paul Ford, all comically inept, Russian commander Theodore Bikel and Alan Arkin as the head of the land-bound Russians who at one point seems to be gunned down by a hot headed American who shoots first and thinks later.
But it says a great deal about how the power of our leaders messes things up most of the time.If anyone thought that this movie was about Russians only, then they've got a thing or two coming.
The dialogue is mind numbing and repetitive.An annoying aspect of the movie is that the largely California locations look nothing like New England, though Nantucket was one location used.This film is just not funny; that it might once have seemed amusing is a sad commentary on our taste during the sixties..
Canadian director Norman Jewison (MOONSTRUCK, Jesus CRIST SUPERSTAR, THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR) at that time 40 years of age (the Khrushchev era with its freezing cold war fund shortly after J.F.K.s Cuba confrontation) tells in good humour the story of a Russian submarine, that collides with a fishermen island, gets stuck and can't get off the shore again.
Good for the story: About 20 Russian sailors face 50 or more (including beautiful Eva Marie Saint) strangely behaving American New England locals.
His great scene is at the harbour edge when he is trying to arrest Captain Bickel, and lieutenant (Alan Arkin) Rozanov translates into Russia and back into something like English they understand in New England.
A decent time passer but NOT another "Dr. Strangelove"--another picture that was nominated for Best Picture but actually deserved this (and so much more).By the way, although some of the principles in the film (Keith, Arkin, Paul Ford and Carl Reiner) all have good parts and make quite a bit of it, some other folks are totally wasted.
It's no exaggeration that I thought this movie was absolutely funny in every joke,gag & line and in the storyline itself.Starting with:Carl Reiner's attempt to disarm the young Russian.
a gung-ho war veteran.It's really funny when they get to the airport and find 1 mechanic working on a plane and the veteran sees nothing's happened and Brian Keith & his men almost fall over laughing at him.The somewhat more serious & poignant aspects come about in Carl finally giving in to the panic and almost killing Arkin's character himself with an automatic gun.
Or that the film would end with him riding through the town long after the Russians left?What amazes me is that you can watch comedies from the silent era that can blow you away with the inventiveness and creativity of the stunts and situations.
A movie like "The Russians are Coming" doesn't even give it half an effort.
Instead, this is what is supposed to pass for "hilarious" according to reviewers here: townspeople running around while Jonathan Winters with a grimace admonishes "Let's get organized!" And if you found that hilarious, you're in for a treat, because evidently the director found it so funny the bit just HAD to be repeated!Don't get me wrong, I like Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin, Paul Ford, Jonathan Winters, even Brian Keith in some things when the material is good.
Example: toward the end of the film, Sheriff Brian Keith tells the Russian sub commander he is under arrest.
The enormous cast includes Alan Arkin, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, Ben Blue, Theodore Bikel (as the sub captain), John Phillip Law, Tessie O'Shea and Michael J.