jbarrow-27014 One of the funniest and most enjoyable movies ever made. Brilliant cast (led by the one and only Alan Arkin), sweet story, eccentric characters, picturesque setting, all in the service of a meaningful message. Definitely one to see.

Wuchak Released in 1966 and directed by Norman Jewison from Nathaniel Benchley's novel, "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" is a dramedy about a Soviet sub that runs aground off the coast of the fictional Gloucester Island, Massachusetts. When a team comes ashore to borrow a boat the small population confuses the situation for an all-out Soviet attack on America. '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. Alan Arkin pretty much steals the show as the leader of the ashore team. Brian Keith appears as the likable level-headed police chief with the bumbling Jonathan Winters as his assistant. Theodore Bikel is on hand as the Russian Captain.The title alludes to Paul Revere's Ride, which is hilariously lampooned at the end in a sequence concerning the town drunk (Ben Blue). The movie was released at the height of the Cold War and had significant effect in both DC and Moscow. It was somewhat revolutionary in that it portrayed the Soviets in a positive light. Alaskan Senator Ernest Gruening mentioned the picture in Congress; and it was even screened in the Kremlin. When shown at the Soviet Film Writers' Union, Sergei Bondarchuk was reportedly moved to tears.If you can ignore the obvious and incongruous geography of the Northern California coast as a stand-in for a Nantucket-like island, this is a somewhat worthwhile political dramedy made by the producers of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," although not as zany. 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 cast is great, but the antics and bickering of the townsfolk is tedious rather than funny. The ending is semi-iconic, but the way someone is rescued is wholly unbelievable – the gutter wouldn't have been able to hold the man's weight, not to mention the all-around unrealistic depiction of the event (no one had a long ladder nearby?). The best subplot is the one with the young Russian (John Phillip Law) romancing an American cutie (Andrea Dromm, who appeared on Star Trek's pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before").The film is a bit overlong at 126 minutes and was shot in Bodega Bay, Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Caspar and Westport, California.GRADE: C+ (5.5/10)

TedMichaelMor What happened to make sixties comedies unpleasant? "The Russians Are Coming" presumably satirizes Cold War hysteria, but this mess does not work. This is not "Doctor Strangelove" and it is most certainly not "The Charge of the Light Brigand". Unlike the makers of those masterwork films,Norman Jewison never attains a plausible sense of the pervading hysteria of the sixties. I do not know why because he directed many excellent films. One would never know that from this movie.Eva Marie Saint is as enchantingly beautiful as she is in other films, but she is wasted here. What made anyone think that Carl Reiner and Jonathan Winters yelling was funny? Both men were said to be comedic geniuses, but here they are not comical. 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.

christhecat I remember watching this as a child with my parents and enjoying it. I watched it again recently and enjoyed it more because I understood a lot of the humor I missed as a child, even laughing out loud in some parts. 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. The idea is brought up at least twice on screen. Carl Reiner's "Whittaker Walt" clearly is just trying to be a good samaritan, and doesn't want to see anybody get hurt, neither Yankee nor Slav. 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. (Besides-- how would it aid the US to go to war over a minor misunderstanding caused by a bumbling sea captain?)