The Russians are Coming... (1966)

It is always a pleasure to come back to this comedy which is so redolent of the Cold War paranoia of its period.  Set on an island off the coast of Massachusetts where Carl Reiner (more remembered as a writer-director and father of Rob) and his wife Eva Marie Saint are about to leave their summer rental, a Russian submarine has just been grounded on a sandbar.  The captain played by that wonderful folksinger and occasional actor Theodore Bikel, who unfortunately has little to do here, was anxious to have a look at America and foundered the vessel.  He sends a party ashore led by nearly-English speakers Alan Arkin and John Phillip Law to find a small craft to get them afloat.  Although determined in their mission, they are basically kindly, but they are perceived by the locals they encounter as the foreruuners of the doom-mongers' promised war.  As rumours about them grow more and more outlandish amongst the locals, the police chief played by Brian Keith (the middle generation of three fine actors) must face off against retired military nutter Paul Ford who is trying to galvanize the islanders.  Further great support comes from the island's telephone operator, a rare screen performance by "two-ton" Tessie O'Shea.  Finally we have a drunken Ben Blue attempting to catch and mount his horse, so that he can, a la Paul Revere, ride through the island to announce that "the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming".  When all is said and done, this is an amusing reminder of an earlier mindset; unfortunately the world has found new "villains" nowadays.