Review of The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966) by Morgan R — 01 Feb 2011

Directed by Norman Jewison, (off In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and based on the novel The Off-Islanders by Nathaniel Benchley. This is an amusing little film, but a bit dated now, though it sags in the middle.

It has a Russian submarine crew running aground off the coast of the island of Cape Ann, Gloucester in Massachusetts. The crew, which consists of the captain (Theodore Bikel) and his second in command Lieutenant Yuri Rozanov (Alan Arkin) go onto land and have a look around, and they end up at the house of playwright Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner) and his family.

The crew claim to be Norwegian, but the family suss them out, and the whole community finds them out. Soon, unrest grows amongst the locals, and Police Chief Link Mattocks (Brian Keith) tries to keep the peace, but after the Russians steal a boat and they don't intend any harm or malice, but their methods are questionable, which is causing the locals to go up in arms, and it pushes both sides close to war.

It's quite dated now, as people aren't affaid of Russians now. It all comes together at the end, after episodic exploits between the Russians and the townspeople having run ins.