RICK'S REAL/REEL LIFE: A Warm Cold War Comedy: ‘The Russians Are Coming!’

Friday, June 30, 2023

A Warm Cold War Comedy: ‘The Russians Are Coming!’

A bittersweet moment with Alan Arkin, Eva Marie Saint, & Carl Reiner near the finale of 1966's "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! was released in 1966, at the height of the cold war. The Norman Jewison directed comedy, about chaos caused by a Russian sub that runs aground near a small New England town, was notable for its even-handed treatment of both Russian and American characters. At the time, it was a huge commercial hit and received four Oscar nominations.

I find it odd that there's some derision directed at The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! because it was so successful in its time. And yet classic movie fans fall all over the marathon farce It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Russians may seem quaint by modern movies’ in your face style, but the humor is still most apt and the cast is mostly terrific. Also, the humor of Russians is more character-driven than Mad World. I've always been allergic to the heavy-handed slapstick of Mad, and I think Jewison is a far more skilled and subtle director than Stanley Kramer, whose style was pedantic.

Cantankerous Carl Reiner warms up to adorable Eva Marie Saint in 1966's
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

And while The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! indeed feels like an elevated and elongated sitcom, satirizing American hysteria is still pertinent today. Also, I'm really surprised that Carl Reiner didn't have a hand in writing this, because his and Saint’s characters remind me a bit of Reiner’s creations, Rob and Laura Petrie from The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Hilarious physical comedy in "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

I love Carl Reiner and his natural comic abilities save his performance as playwright Walt Whittaker, such as his tied up scene with the local telephone operator, played by Tessie O’Shea. But his comic sour puss persona wears thin fast as a lead, that's why he was so much better as the side character Alan Brady on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Watch Reiner as Rob Petrie in the pilot that was later re-tooled for Dick Van Dyke to much greater effect and you’ll see the difference.

Eva Marie Saint's level-headed wife tries to explain all the chaos in 1966's
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

Eva Marie Saint is a fine straight woman and quite appealing as Ellie Whittaker. Saint looks lovely here in her early 40’s, she’s both subtly sexy and the patient wife to bombastic Reiner’s husband. I always liked Saint’s simple style, which didn’t date her to later audiences. In this film, Eva Marie looks timeless.

Alan Arkin's Russian asks Carl Reiner's writer to please not try to kill him again!
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

Alan Arkin is charismatic and funny as the Russian Lt. Rozanov. Arkin's grand-parents were Russian Jews and he spoke Russian fluently. Here, he gets to fracture English to comic effect. This was the actor’s first major role and he got raves and an Oscar nomination. Arkin is hilarious but has authority, believability, and warmth. With those dark expressive eyes and sly smile, Alan could have played more romantic leads in a later era.

John Phillip Law is the shy Russian officer in 1966's "The Russians Are Coming!
The Russians Are Coming!"

John Phillip Law, often considered wooden, is sweet here and those blue-grey eyes are riveting. As Alexei, the 6 ft. 5 Law is a gentle giant. Remembering him from this and a few international movies, I assumed Law was European, probably German, like Horst Bucholz. I was surprised to find that he was born in California and grew up around the movie business! He’s quite endearing here and I had also forgotten that he passed away in 2008, at just age 70, of pancreatic cancer.

Brian Keith as the exasperated sheriff, with Dick Schaal & Jonathan Winters
in 1966's "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"
Keith's bangs are really his mussed up comb-over!

What a great cast of character actors in The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! Some you will just recognize by their familiar faces, others are well-known names like Theodore Bikel, Paul Ford, Jonathan Winters, and Brian Keith. They are all totally believable as small town archetypes. Aside from Reiner's occasionally grating performance, the other dud is Sheldon Collins as son Pete, who is directed to be the big mouth "cute" kid. Highly annoying!

Sheldon Collins as the highly irritating son of the Whittakers in 1966's
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

Joseph Biroc’s cinematography is beautiful and stylish; Johnny Mandel's warm, funny score is a big plus. The visuals are very strong, making great use of the locations, blending them in with the story, though the New England coastal community was actually shot along the Pacific coast. A few of such scenes: Ben Blue as he chases a horse around an open field in attempt to make like Paul Revere; Carl Reiner as he wobbly rides a small bike down a rural road; and the overhead shots of the small American boats acting as a flotilla for the Russian sub.

America's favorite past-time, mass hysteria, in 1966's "The Russians Are Coming!
The Russians Are Coming!"

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! is slightly overlong at two hours and five minutes, but it’s not elephantine like the three and a half hour Mad World. The finale is a bit forced, with future Family Affair star Johnny Whitaker dangling from a church steeple, which brings the Americans and Russians together to his rescue. But Russians is a comedy, not a hard-hitting social drama, and the ending with the locals escorting the Russian sub to safety is an appropriately feel-good moment that’s not totally out of place. Enjoy this stylish, sometimes silly, comedy with its stellar cast and good-hearted satire.