The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming

I saw first saw this movie when I was in the sixth grade. In the middle of the Cold War, just the title was a scary thing for a kid. I sat through it twice before leaving the theater. It not only was hilarious, but eased my mind about that time of world crisis. Seeing it again was so much fun and I wonder if such a movie could be made in this time of war and crisis in the world.

This movie is a true classic. A cold war movie before there were cold war movies, it is both funny and poignant from beginning to end (mostly funny). The cast is top notch hollywood and television stars (Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, etc. etc. the list goes on and on. AND Alan Arkin is the greatest!

So you don't understand the 1960s international context that motivates this video?.... Not to worry! Are you skeptical that humor on film could have such an extended shelf life?...No concern! Perhaps you're not familiar with the somewhat twisted path taken by the fertile mind of Carl Reiner?...Now there's something you need to change!

"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" tugs on the viewer with a combination of mini-projectiles of finely-nuanced verbal and visual humor, an improbable (although entirely possible) interplay of chance events, the tension of sleepy small-town lethargy being challenged by large outside forces, and the skillful (and often amusing) development of the characters by an array of presenters in a variety of roles.

Slightly-skewed intellectual humor makes this video work; just when you begin to think you're ahead of it, the ambush comes. "Muriel, Muriel!"... "Yes, we are Norviegans!"..."Whittaker Walt...". Connect your sensory apparatus up to this one and life will never be the same.

Funny, a real delight of what could happen when two groups of people who do not get along find humor and that their differences are non existant.

In the midst of the Cold War, two significant events occured which threatened to defuse tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union.

One was the Harlem Globetrotters, America's basketball team, who toured the globe, executing fantastic plays, such as kicking a field goal into the basket from the other end of the court and the tall guy sticking his hand up through the basket to catch the ball to prevent a score. The antics of the Globetrotters kept the referees in apoplexy and the crowd in stitches. The Globetrotter's skill was unbelievable!

The other was this movie. A Russian submarine captain is so engrossed in looking at America through his periscope as he passes by the Atlantic coast that he ignores his officers and runs the sub aground on an island. Unable to pull the sub off, he sends a team ashore to borrow a boat to pull them free.

What is about to happen is anybody's guess. The word passes through the gossip line and expands to the rise of the local millitia (anyone who has a pistol, shotgun, or rifle), which meets in the local bar, the American Legionaire with his ceremonial sword who tries to take command, the local police chief who laughs at him. Soon the word is that the Russians are taking the airport, then paratroopers have landed, a full invasion is in force. Finally someone thinks to call Washington.

The poor Russians just want to get their sub ungrounded, the residents want to stop the invasion, the police chief wants everyone to go home, the local drunk chases his horse throughou the entire movie, the telephone operator is having a heyday spreading the exaggerated news.

The plot comes to a climax as the life of a child is threatened. Shortly after, US jet aircraft fly over and report the strangest observation. Backgound music by Russian chorus (Its a long, long way to Tipperary, etc). A million laughs. Will have you in stiches from beginning to end of a full length color movie, the kind you will pull out again and again - just for laughs!