Review of Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, The

Introduction

Norman Jewison`s 1966 entry into the comedy-spectacular genre (Great Race, Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, It`s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - that sort of thing). Alan Arkin co-stars (and won an Oscar® nomination) with Carl Reiner, Eva-Marie Saint, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, Paul Ford, John Philip Law and Tessie O`Shea in this Cold War comedy written by Mad Mad World`s William Rose from a novel The Off-Islanders by Nathaniel Benchley.

A Russian submarine runs aground surfacing off Maine. The captain sends out his only English-speaking crewmembers to find a boat capable of freeing the submarine from its predicament. Ideally without causing an international diplomatic incident or triggering dubya-dubya three.

Although Reiner is officially the lead in the movie, it is effectively stolen from him by Arkin as the semi-English-fluent executive officer of the submarine who finds himself at the centre of growing mass hysteria as the sleepy little community thinks it is being invaded by Russia.

Video

Presented in anamorphic widescreen, the movie is in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The transfer has been struck from a less than pristine master and much wear and tear is evident throughout the movie. Colours and contrast are satisfactory.

Audio

The original mono soundtrack is reproduced in Dolby Digital 2.0

Features

Apart from subtitles, there are no extras.

Conclusion

An excellent Cold War satire from Norman Jewison. Although the cast and photography of the movie pitches it as a comedy-spectacular, the overall feel is more akin to pictures like Local Hero or Whisky Galore. If anything the movie is overstretched by its (cinema)scope. Unusually for the period, your sympathies are always with the Russian crew who just want to get the hell away from the US before somebody drops an H-bomb on them.