The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming

''The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming'' is a 1966 American comedy film directed and produced by Norman Jewison for United Artists. The satirical story depicts the chaos following the grounding of the Soviet submarine ''СпруT'' (“SpruT”, pronounced "sproot" and meaning "octopus") off a small New England island. The film stars Alan Arkin in his first major film role, Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Brian Keith, Theodore Bikel, Jonathan Winters, John Phillip Law, Tessie O'Shea, and Paul Ford.

The screenplay is based on the 1961 Nathaniel Benchley novel ''The Off-Islanders'', and was adapted for the screen by William Rose. The title alludes to Paul Revere's midnight ride, as does the subplot in which the town drunk ( Ben Blue) rides his horse to warn people of the "invasion".

The film premiered on May 25, 1966, and was a widespread critical and commercial success. At the 39th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Alan Arkin. It also won two Golden Globes, for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Arkin.

Plot

One September morning, the Soviet Navy submarine ''Sprut'' draws too close to the New England coast when its captain wants to see North America and runs aground on a sandbar near Gloucester Island, off the New England coast, with a population of about 200 people. Rather than radio for help and risk an embarrassing international incident, the captain sends a nine-man landing party, headed by his '' zampolit'' Lieutenant Yuri Rozanov, to find a motor launch to help free the submarine. The men arrive at the house of Walt Whittaker, a vacationing playwright from New York City. Whittaker is eager to get his wife Elspeth and children, Pete and Annie, off the island now that summer is over.

Pete tells his disbelieving dad that armed Russians are near the house, but Walt is soon met by Rozanov and one of his men, Alexei Kolchin, who identify themselves as strangers on the island and ask if there are any boats available. Walt is skeptical and asks if they are armed Russians. Startled, Rozanov admits that they are and pulls a gun on Walt. Rozanov promises no harm to the Whittakers if they surrender their station wagon. Elspeth provides the car keys, but before the Russians depart, Rozanov orders Alexei to prevent the Whittakers from fleeing.

The station wagon quickly runs out of gasoline, forcing the Russians to walk. They steal an old sedan from Muriel Everett, the postmistress; she calls Alice Foss, the gossipy telephone switchboard operator, and soon, rumors about Russian parachutists and an air assault on the airport throw the island into confusion. Police Chief Link Mattocks and his assistant Norman Jonas try to squelch a citizens' militia led by retired veteran Fendall Hawkins.

Meanwhile, Walt, Elspeth and Pete gradually draw the story of what is happening out of Alexei, and manage to overpower him when Alison Palmer, a college-aged neighbor and Annie's babysitter, arrives, giving Walt an opening to grab the gun. Alexei flees, but when Walt, Elspeth, and Pete leave to find help, he returns to retrieve his weapon from the house, where only Alison and Annie remain. Despite wanting no fighting, Alexei must obey his superiors in guarding the residence. He promises not to harm anyone and offers to surrender his gun as proof. Alison trusts him and does not want his firearm. Allison treats Alexei's injury from when Walt jumped him, and the young Russian reveals he is more frightened than dangerous, causing Allison to warm up to him.

After making it to the harbor and futilely trying to alert the authorities, who are overwhelmed chasing panicked reports of Russians all over the island, Walt is recaptured by the Russians in the telephone central office. After subduing Mrs. Foss, tying Walt and her together, and disabling the island's telephone switchboard, Rozanov and Walt, both thoroughly exasperated, banter back and forth before Walt gives them the idea of sending some of the Russians to shoot off their guns on the other side of the harbor to distract the militia, thus enabling them to steal a boat. Taking up the idea, Five of the Russians appropriate civilian clothes from a dry cleaner's to enable them to sneak away unnoticed and fire their machine guns into the air, which succeeds in drawing the guards away. The remaining two Russians steal a cabin cruiser, pick up the men who served as the distraction, and head to the submarine, while Rozanov steals another car and returns to the Whittaker house to retrieve Alexei.

Back at the Whittaker house, Alexei and Alison play with the Whittaker's toddler Annie on the beach, as the two talk, kiss, and fall in love, Alexei saying he does not subscribe to the Soviet political education telling him to hate the capitalist west: he does not wish to hate anyone. Meanwhile, a number of the town militia chase the stolen yacht, taking wild pot-shots at it from the shore.

At the phone exchange, Walt and Mrs. Foss manage to rather comically escape the telephone exchange while still tied up. They are eventually discovered by Elspeth and Pete, who untie them, upon which they realize Alexei—and his gun—are still at the house. Racing back to the house and finding Rozanov armed and no sign of his daughter, Walt shoots at and almost kills Rozanov in panic. Alerted by the sound of shooting, Alexei, Allison, and Annie run back from the beach as Rozanov and Walt have a heart-to-heart. With the misunderstandings cleared up, the Whittakers, Rozanov, and Alexei decide to head into town together to explain to everyone what is happening.

As the tide rises, the sub floats off the sandbar without the help of the stolen yacht, and proceeds on the surface to the island's main harbor, whereupon the captain demands the return of his "missing" Crewmen. Chief Mattocks, having investigated and debunked the rumor of an aerial assault, returns to town with the civilian militia. With Rozanov acting as translator, the Russian captain threatens to open fire on the town unless the seven missing sailors are returned to him, which Mattocks effectively challenges him to put up or shut up, and both sides draw and aim their respective weapons: the Submarine's deck cannon and machine guns squaring off against the more numerous hunting rifles, shotguns and WWII surplus rifles of the militia.

Two small boys eventually climb up to the church steeple to see better and one slips and falls, but his belt catches on a gutter, leaving him hanging several stories high in the air. All tension broken by the sudden risk to the child's safety, the American islanders and the Russian submariners unite to form a human pyramid and rescue him.

Although this joint effort establishes peace between the two parties, we learn that Hawkins has snuck off during the confrontation to contact the Air Force by radio, unawares of the rescue and easing of tensions. At Elspeth's suggestion, the submarine leaves the harbor with villagers in boats protecting it. Alexei says goodbye to Alison. The stolen boat with the missing Russians meets the sub, which they board, before two Air Force jets arrive. The jets, however, break off after seeing the escorting flotilla of small craft. The ''Sprut'' is free to proceed to deep water and safety.

Cast

The Islanders

The Russians

Production

Although set on the fictional "Gloucester Island" off the coast of Massachusetts, the movie was filmed on the coast of Northern California, mainly in Mendocino. The harbor scenes were filmed in Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, California, about 7 miles (11 km) north of Mendocino. Because of the filming location on the West Coast, the dawn scene at the beginning of the film was actually filmed at dusk through a pink filter.

The submarine used was a fabrication. The United States Navy refused to lend one for the production, so the producers asked the Russian Embassy for a Soviet submarine, which was similarly refused. The Mirisch Company rented a mockup of a submarine that had been used in the 1965 film '' Morituri''.

The planes used were actual F-101 Voodoo jets from the 84th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, located at the nearby Hamilton Air Force Base. They were the only Air Force planes that were based near the location of the supposed island.

The title alludes to Paul Revere's midnight ride, as does the subplot in which the town drunk ( Ben Blue) rides his horse to warn people of the "invasion".

Pablo Ferro created the main title sequence, using the American flag's red, white, and blue colors and the Soviet hammer and sickle as transitional elements, zooming into each to create a montage, which ultimately worked to establish the tone of the film. The music in the sequence alternates between the American " Yankee Doodle" march and a combination of the Russian songs " Polyushko Pole" (Полюшко Поле, usually "Meadowlands" in English) and the " Song of the Volga Boatmen".

Much of the dialog was spoken by the Russian characters, played by American actors at a time when few American actors were adept at Russian accents. Musician and character actor Leon Belasco — who was born in Russia, spoke fluent Russian and specialized in foreign accents during his 60-year career — was the dialog director. Alan Arkin extensively studied Russian in preparation for his role as Lt. Rozanov. As of 2017, he could still remember his Russian lines from the film. Theodore Bikel was able to pronounce Russian so well (he had taken a few classes, but was not at all fluent in the language) that he won the role of the submarine captain. Alex Hassilev, of The Limeliters, also spoke fluent Russian and played the sailor Hrushevsky. John Phillip Law's incorrect pronunciation of difficult English phonemes, most notably in Alison Palmer's name ("ah-LYEE-sown PAHL-myerr"), was unusually authentic by the standards of the day. Brian Keith, who also spoke fluent Russian, did not do so in the film.

Musical score and soundtrack

The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Johnny Mandel and the soundtrack album was released on the United Artists label in 1966.Iván, Santiago-Mercado
The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography's Picture Gallery: Movie Soundtracks
accessed August 11, 2015 '' Film Score Monthly'' reviewed Mandel's soundtrack in their liner notes for their reissue of the score, noting the presence of Russian folk songs, writing that "These pre-existing melodies mix with original Mandel compositions, including a Russian choral anthem, a humorous march theme for the island residents' quasi-military response to the Soviet incursion, and a tender love theme...".Film Score Monthly: The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
accessed August 11, 2015 "The Shining Sea" was sung on the soundtrack by Irene Kral, although it had featured as an instrumental in the film itself. The lyrics to "The Shining Sea" were written by Peggy Lee, who was contractually bound to Capitol Records, and so unable to appear on the soundtrack album. The line "His hands, his strong brown hands" was believed by Lee's friends to be a reference to Quincy Jones with whom she had a brief affair. Lee herself later recorded "The Shining Sea" with her lyrics on May 21, 1966. Mandel had played the music for "The Shining Sea" to Lee, and had asked her to "paint a word picture" of what she had heard. Lee's lyrics, by coincidence, exactly matched the action on the screen of the two lovers on the beach, which astonished Mandel, who had not shown her the film.

Track listing

''All compositions by Johnny Mandel unless otherwise indicated''

# "The Russians Are Coming...The Russians Are Coming" - 01:37
# "The Shining Sea" (lyrics by Peggy Lee) - 02:42
# "Hop Along" - 02:25
# " Volga Boat Song" (arranged by Mandel) - 01:22
# "Escorts Away (The Russians Are Coming)" - 03:45
# "The Shining Sea" - 03:14
# "Sailor's Chorus" (Bonia Shur, Mandel) - 02:45
# " Tipperary" (Harry J. Williams, Jack Judge) - 00:32
# "The Airport" - 02:14
# "The Russians Are Coming...The Russians Are Coming" - 02:09

Reception

Robert Alden of ''The New York Times'' called it "a rousingly funny – and perceptive – motion picture about a desperately unfunny world situation." Arthur D. Murphy of '' Variety'' declared it "an outstanding cold-war comedy," adding that Jewison "has made expert use of all types of comedy technique, scripted and acted in excellent fashion by both pros and some talented newcomers to pix."

Philip K. Scheuer of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote, "Considering that it is made up of variations on a single theme, the picture is astonishingly inventive. And considering that it was never done as a play on the stage (where laughs can be pre-tested and rough spots ironed out) it racks up a high average indeed, though it has its lapses and some of its points are forced—over-milked, as they say in the trade." Richard L. Coe of ''The Washington Post'' called it "a refreshingly witty topical comedy ... Some exceptionally skilled comics, familiar and unfamiliar, are extremely amusing." '' The Monthly Film Bulletin'' wrote that the film "almost falls flat when it indulges in sententious philosophising about the need for Russians and Americans to live peacefully together," but is "considerably helped by an amiable script (by former Ealing writer William Rose) which often manages to invest the film with the high farce of the best of the Ealing comedies." Brendan Gill of ''The New Yorker'' called it "an unfunny big farce  ... The heavy-handed producer and director of the picture, Norman Jewison, has permitted nearly every moment of it to become twice as brightly colored, twice as noisy, and twice as frantic as it needed to be; this is all the more a pity, because the cast includes a number of excellent comic actors."

According to Norman Jewison, the film — released at the height of the Cold War — had considerable impact in both Washington and Moscow. It was one of the few American films of the time to portray the Russians in a positive light. Senator Ernest Gruening mentioned the film in a speech in Congress, and a copy of it was screened in the Kremlin. According to Jewison, when screened at the Soviet film writers' union, Sergei Bondarchuk was moved to tears."The Russians Are Coming to Hollywood", (DVD featurette), 2002. Jewison, in an interview, also stated that not only were the Russians thrilled with the movie, they were a little disappointed they hadn't thought of the plot first.

Awards and honors

See also

* List of American films of 1966
* The Russians are coming
* '' Russkies''
* Soviet submarine S-363

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming, The
1966 films
1966 comedy films
American comedy films
American political satire films
Best Musical or Comedy Picture Golden Globe winners
Cold War submarine films
Films based on American novels
Films based on works by Nathaniel Benchley
Films directed by Norman Jewison
Films featuring a Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe winning performance
Films scored by Johnny Mandel
Films shot in California
Films set in Massachusetts
Military comedy films
United Artists films
Cold War films
Photoplay Awards film of the year winners
Soviet submarine accidents
Films about World War III
1960s English-language films
1960s American films
Films produced by Norman Jewison