"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" (1966)

 

“I thought all the nuts went home on Labor Day.”   Police Chief Mattocks (Brian Keith), assessing the madness, in “The Russians are Coming…”

“The Russians Are Coming, The Russian Are Coming” is a hilarious satire that pokes fun at American and Russian bluster and mistrust during the 1960s Cold War.  It boasts a large cast, and a script that intercuts many amusing subplots. It all happens on a chaotic Sunday in a small New England town. “The Russians are Coming…”  is a silly, witty, raucous, sentimental, ultimately pointed barb at American foibles. 

It is expertly directed and energetically performed, with sly commentary served up with every laugh.  The movie glides by, carrying us along on a madcap spree, reflecting with laugh-out-loud understanding (and gentle embarrassment) our national character.

Given the perspective of history, and a rising political intrigue between America and Russia that may be more dangerous than before, the film seems almost naïve, a period-piece, an easy, sitcom-like pipe-dream of peaceful coexistence. 

Ultimately, the film distills all of the wild misunderstandings into a cliffhanger of a climax, a scene that plays like a metaphor for the impossibility of finding agreement until the most vulnerable among us face a tragic outcome.

The film is like a Hit-Parade of great actors and comedians of the era:  Carl Reiner plays the hapless writer who almost starts World War 3; Eva Marie Saint is his practical wife who winds up saving the day; Brian Keith portrays the grumbly, no-nonsense Sheriff; Jonathan Winters is a disorganized deputy with a large family; and Paul Ford does his typical routine, playing a blowhard ex-military general with a pathetic memorial sword.

Alan Arkin, in his film debut, is the Russian soldier who is desperate to do what’s right, but panics with comic results.  Arkin is marvelous, speaking flawless Russian, and slowly coming undone under a deadpan façade. Theodore Bikel is convincing as the buffoonish submarine captain.

Director Norman Jewison handles the logistics of the complex plot with ease. It’s a conventional-looking comedy, but he and his editor, Hal Ashby, introduce some subversive, New Wave techniques (Russian dialog delivered without subtitles; scenes cut in mid-sentence; a contemporary, French-style soft-focus for a romantic interlude).  

Johnny Mandel’s score is fun, blending Russian themes and a satiric military march with fifes and whistles.

I won’t try to describe the entire plot, but here’s a summary:

A blustery Russian submarine captain brings his boat too close to the sleepy fishing village of Gloucester Island, and runs it aground.  A group of Russian sailors enters the town to find a motorboat to help move their sub back to sea. Then the mayhem begins.  

Arkin and his crew meet Reiner and his family, struggle to find car keys, and almost destroy the house. They encounter an old woman (who despite her age can deliver a fierce kick) and her oblivious husband;  tie up a gossipy telephone operator (who later gets tied up to the writer in the movies funniest scene); and evade the skeptical town sheriff and his motley crew of deputies; 

The town drunk scurries to mount his reluctant horse, Beatrice, so he can warn the  residents of an invasion a-la Paul Revere. 

The Russians borrow a station wagon that runs out of gas; rummage through a dry-cleaning shop for everyday American "disguises"; and conduct a quick English lesson to try to pass as locals. 

A young Russian sailor, ordered to guard the writer’s family, has his gun stolen in a melee, and later falls in love with the family’s babysitter.

Gossip, misinformation, and misguided fear escalate the situation out of control like the old game of “telephone”. What started as an accident has blown up into the takeover of the country by Russian parachutists, who have landed at the small airport.  The other residents of the island are driven into a panic of comic misunderstanding.

Armed with guns and weapons of all sorts, the villagers amass at the harbor to confront the self-important submarine commander, who orders the ship's big guns directed at the gathered crowd.  Two young boys climb up the church steeple to get a better look, and observe as the townspeople and the Russian sailors, all of them nervous and frightened, freeze in a standoff, ready but unwilling to face the carnage of a gunfight.  

This sudden life-or-death crisis makes us hold our breath; the camera slowly moves over the crowd with weapons drawn.  It is a protracted sequence that doesn’t seem to end.

And then, something happens that horrifies the townspeople and the Russians, creating a new, more urgent crisis: one of the boys up on the church steeple is in mortal danger.  To resolve it, both sides must forget their differences.

The scene’s most obvious parallel for today's audience is the standoff between Russian bureaucrats, who hope to misinform us and throw our election, and American voters.  

But the more intriguing parallel suggested by this standoff is the unfortunate stalemate between those Americans who accept mask-wearing and following safety protocols during the pandemic; and those who steadfastly align themselves against all of that, thinking that to do so makes them look weak (ironically, the law-and-order crowd.)

As characters from America and Russia came together in a human pyramid in this scene, I had an unfortunate thought about vulnerable people, especially children, who are suffering and dying because of stubbornness.  I wondered: if this scene took place during our current polarization over the politics of mask-wearing, would some people be so busy holding to their position that they wouldn't care what happened to that child?

“The Russians are Coming…”, reminds us of our ignorance, our lack of understanding, and our arrogance.  We seem to thrive on chaos, the movie says with a laugh, until chaos brings us to a deadly moment of truth.

Watching this movie today, where even solutions to ending a deadly pandemic are dividing us, “The Russians are Coming…” gives us reason to pause, and think about how maddening our divisiveness is, as well as the idiocy of equating safety with the loss of Liberty.  

There’s plenty of folly to go around, and we all can see ourselves in some of the characters in this movie.  I suspect that only those who share a certain political viewpoint could laugh at themselves here; others would take offense to the humor, or just won’t get the joke.