A Warm Cold War Comedy: ‘The Russians Are Coming!’

A bittersweet moment with Alan Arkin, Eva Marie Saint, & Carl Reiner near the finale of 1966's "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! was released in 1966, at the height of the cold war. The Norman Jewison directed comedy, about chaos caused by a Russian sub that runs aground near a small New England town, was notable for its even-handed treatment of both Russian and American characters. At the time, it was a huge commercial hit and received four Oscar nominations.

I find it odd that there's some derision directed at The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! because it was so successful in its time. And yet classic movie fans fall all over the marathon farce It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Russians may seem quaint by modern movies’ in your face style, but the humor is still most apt and the cast is mostly terrific. Also, the humor of Russians is more character-driven than Mad World. I've always been allergic to the heavy-handed slapstick of Mad, and I think Jewison is a far more skilled and subtle director than Stanley Kramer, whose style was pedantic.

Cantankerous Carl Reiner warms up to adorable Eva Marie Saint in 1966's
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

And while The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! indeed feels like an elevated and elongated sitcom, satirizing American hysteria is still pertinent today. Also, I'm really surprised that Carl Reiner didn't have a hand in writing this, because his and Saint’s characters remind me a bit of Reiner’s creations, Rob and Laura Petrie from The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Hilarious physical comedy in "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

I love Carl Reiner and his natural comic abilities save his performance as playwright Walt Whittaker, such as his tied up scene with the local telephone operator, played by Tessie O’Shea. But his comic sour puss persona wears thin fast as a lead, that's why he was so much better as the side character Alan Brady on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Watch Reiner as Rob Petrie in the pilot that was later re-tooled for Dick Van Dyke to much greater effect and you’ll see the difference.

Eva Marie Saint's level-headed wife tries to explain all the chaos in 1966's
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

Eva Marie Saint is a fine straight woman and quite appealing as Ellie Whittaker. Saint looks lovely here in her early 40’s, she’s both subtly sexy and the patient wife to bombastic Reiner’s husband. I always liked Saint’s simple style, which didn’t date her to later audiences. In this film, Eva Marie looks timeless.

Alan Arkin's Russian asks Carl Reiner's writer to please not try to kill him again!
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

Alan Arkin is charismatic and funny as the Russian Lt. Rozanov. Arkin's grand-parents were Russian Jews and he spoke Russian fluently. Here, he gets to fracture English to comic effect. This was the actor’s first major role and he got raves and an Oscar nomination. Arkin is hilarious but has authority, believability, and warmth. With those dark expressive eyes and sly smile, Alan could have played more romantic leads in a later era.

John Phillip Law is the shy Russian officer in 1966's "The Russians Are Coming!
The Russians Are Coming!"

John Phillip Law, often considered wooden, is sweet here and those blue-grey eyes are riveting. As Alexei, the 6 ft. 5 Law is a gentle giant. Remembering him from this and a few international movies, I assumed Law was European, probably German, like Horst Bucholz. I was surprised to find that he was born in California and grew up around the movie business! He’s quite endearing here and I had also forgotten that he passed away in 2008, at just age 70, of pancreatic cancer.

Brian Keith as the exasperated sheriff, with Dick Schaal & Jonathan Winters
in 1966's "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"
Keith's bangs are really his mussed up comb-over!

What a great cast of character actors in The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! Some you will just recognize by their familiar faces, others are well-known names like Theodore Bikel, Paul Ford, Jonathan Winters, and Brian Keith. They are all totally believable as small town archetypes. Aside from Reiner's occasionally grating performance, the other dud is Sheldon Collins as son Pete, who is directed to be the big mouth "cute" kid. Highly annoying!

Sheldon Collins as the highly irritating son of the Whittakers in 1966's
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

Joseph Biroc’s cinematography is beautiful and stylish; Johnny Mandel's warm, funny score is a big plus. The visuals are very strong, making great use of the locations, blending them in with the story, though the New England coastal community was actually shot along the Pacific coast. A few of such scenes: Ben Blue as he chases a horse around an open field in attempt to make like Paul Revere; Carl Reiner as he wobbly rides a small bike down a rural road; and the overhead shots of the small American boats acting as a flotilla for the Russian sub.

America's favorite past-time, mass hysteria, in 1966's "The Russians Are Coming!
The Russians Are Coming!"

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! is slightly overlong at two hours and five minutes, but it’s not elephantine like the three and a half hour Mad World. The finale is a bit forced, with future Family Affair star Johnny Whitaker dangling from a church steeple, which brings the Americans and Russians together to his rescue. But Russians is a comedy, not a hard-hitting social drama, and the ending with the locals escorting the Russian sub to safety is an appropriately feel-good moment that’s not totally out of place. Enjoy this stylish, sometimes silly, comedy with its stellar cast and good-hearted satire.

The locals give the Russians and their sub a send-off in 1966's
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

Here’s my tribute to Eva Marie Saint, a most intriguing Hitchcock blonde: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2019/07/eva-marie-saint-secret-weapon-of-north.html

Theodore Bikel's Russian ship commander offers a wave goodbye in 1966's 
"The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

 

‘North by Northwest’ 1959

Cary Grant & Eva Marie Saint get a "rush" of a cliffhanger in this Alfred Hitchcock classic.

The Alfred Hitchcock catch me if you can classic, North by Northwest, was the film forerunner to the modern summer blockbuster.

North by Northwest was a distinctly commercial venture after Vertigo. Hitchcock had received some criticism in the ‘50s as too smoothly commercial, with his Grace Kelly movies, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and 1959’s North by Northwest. 1960’s Psycho would be his answer to THAT criticism!

Cary Grant spends the entire time in 'North By Northwest' on the run!

Here’s the complicated plot of NBNW in a nutshell: Devil-may-care ad man Roger Thornhill is abducted by henchmen and taken to spy Philip Vandamm. He is convinced that Roger is an undercover agent. They then engage in a cross-country game of cat/mouse, when a cool blonde enters into the mix of this smart suspense thriller. The deeper Roger gets entangled into this espionage web, the more he realizes there’s a thin line between the good guys and bad guys.

Alfred Hitchcock, master of suspense AND master showman, promoting 'NBNW.'

North by Northwest was Hitch's double whammy with the plot device he called the “MacGuffin.” This was an inconsequential object of a story that sets everything in motion. While the MacGuffin here is microfilm hidden in an antique, I think that George Caplan, a non-existent person who Cary Grant's ad man is mistaken for, is the real MacGuffin here.

The microfilm revealed late in 'NBNW' may be the official 'MacGuffin,' but for me,
Grant's Roger Thornhill mistaken for George Caplan is the REAL MacGuffin!

NBNW is the epitome of a mid-century movie: sophisticated yet totally entertaining; a clever plot and plenty of action; sexy yet classy; a star and director's vehicle. North by Northwest’s story takes the audience across the much of the United States, from NYC to Mount Rushmore. This suspense film is what summer blockbusters call a "thrill ride." Unlike many modern versions, North by Northwest was meticulously thought out and filmed, with director Hitchcock at his height of storytelling talents.

Cary Grant, the essence of movie star cool, and IMO, Hitchcock's best movie hero.

Roger Thornhill was Cary Grant's last great role, though he appeared in several more popular movies before making a graceful film farewell in 1966. At 55, Cary looks like a million and deserved every cent he demanded. Perhaps the healthiest and best-preserved male movie star of his generation, Grant is stylish, sexy, fit, graceful, and charming—a total catch for any leading lady. Also, Cary’s droll humor is also on full display. Though his role resembles the government agent he played for Hitch over a dozen years earlier in Notorious, Cary is less moody here. Grant is great with a funny line, whether broad or sly, and his body language is fantastic, when playing drunk or playing the fool at an art auction. North by Northwest also demonstrates that had he been a decade or so younger, what a great James Bond he would have made in the coming decade. 

At 55, Cary Grant is still in fine form, and aged better than any of his fellow male stars.

I've written how understated Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall is the secret weapon of North by Northwest, which you can read here:
https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2019/07/eva-marie-saint-secret-weapon-of-north.html

Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and the red & black cocktail dress.

I’ll recap that Eva brought her acting talent and sly sex appeal to the role of Eve. Saint had a great rapport with Grant and Alfred Hitchcock. I’m always a bit puzzled why Hitch didn’t use Eva Marie Saint again, in some of his ‘60s films.

Cary Grant & James Mason as hero & villain: Mason's persona makes me think of a dark side version of Grant.

"You have to choose ONE of us, Mister!" Martin Landau, James Mason's "loyal" henchman.

James Mason, who I always thought of as a mortal version of Cary Grant, is a wonderful villain in North by Northwest. Silky would be the cliché adjective to describe his Phillip Vandamm, but damn, Mason is silky and sexy. He's intelligent yet intimidating, charming yet creepy, cool but with an underlying attitude of sadness—an update of Claude Rains’ cuckold character in Notorious. It's a great role for James Mason and his ambiguous attitude toward Eve and henchman Leonard is fascinating. Martin Landau, tall and ominous—a handsome Lurch—those glaring ice blue eyes, is smartly sinister as Leonard. His attitude toward Eve and a few key lines makes it very apparent that Leonard is not just a villain, but also just a jealous guy, as John Lennon once sang.

Left: Jessie Royce Landis, amusing as Grant's exasperated mother, asking these thugs
if they're really trying to kill her son!

A fine supporting cast goes far in making North by Northwest a smooth ride: Jessie Royce Landis as Grant’s mother; Leo G. Carroll, as the FBI “good guy;” Josephine Hutchinson as “Mrs. Townsend;” and Philip Ober as Lester Townsend; Ernest Anderson as the train porter, and Ned Glass as the station ticket master who’s on to Grant are welcome familiar faces.

Eye-catching Saul Bass titles & Bernard Herrmann's score get 'NBNW' off to a rousing start!

Ernest Lehman wrote one of the wittiest Hitchcock screenplays ever in NBNW. The classic opening credits by Saul Bass, paid homage to in Mad Men, still stuns on each viewing. The energetic and slightly exotic score by Bernard Herrmann is one of his best. One of Hitchcock’s favorite cinematographers, Robert Burks was up to the challenge of framing the thrilling set pieces. Perhaps that’s why Burks shot 12 films for Hitchcock. And for a ‘50s movie, the Mount Rushmore mock ups look pretty damn good. Hitch's love of rear projection, matte work, and actual location shooting is mixed just about perfectly in NBNW.

There’s the villain’s heavenly hideout home, even though it’s just a set and a mural/miniature. How amusing that Hitchcock has the villain live in a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque house that’s located next door to Mount Rushmore—totally inconspicuous, right?

Where else would a spy's hideout be located, but in a Frank Lloyd Wright-style mansion
next door to Mount Rushmore? Talk about hiding in plain sight!

At 2 ¼ hours, my one “nay” about North by Northwest is that it’s a tad overlong. Studio era movies could be deliberate in their storytelling set up, especially to today’s attention span deprived eyes. And this was especially true of Hitch. I recall at a retrospective showing of Rear Window, there were signs of audience restlessness during the opening scenes. In NBNW, Roger Thornhill’s kidnapping, induced drinking, drunken car ride, and subsequent arrest could be much shorter. Drunk scenes for laughs don’t play well today, and it doesn’t advance the movie much, except to show Grant’s comedic skills, and Hitch’s sometimes heavy-handed humor. By contrast, the near-silent crop duster scene hasn’t a wasted moment.

As with Alfred Hitchcock’s work, North by Northwest can be enjoyed multiple times. There are so many layers to Hitch’s storytelling and he utilizes all the top notch production elements to the fullest. NBNW is a film journey I love to re-visit.

FYI: I put all the movie overflow on my public FB  movie page.

Check it out & join!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/178488909366865/

This Julius Kroll promotional caricature captures all the elements of Hitchcock's 'NBNW.'

Eva Marie Saint: Secret Weapon of ‘North by Northwest’ 1959

Eva Marie Saint as mystery woman Eve Kendall, subtle & seductive in 'North by Northwest.'

North by Northwest is one of my all-time favorites, yet I hesitated to write about this cinema chase classic. What else is there to say about the famed Hitchcock film?

As I watched North by Northwest again, I realized the secret weapon is Eva Marie Saint, as mystery woman Eve Kendall. It also happens that Eva Marie Saint turns 96 on July 4, so it seems fitting to pay tribute to the actress’ talents in the Hitchcock classic. FYI, North by Northwest premiered 61 years ago, July 1, 1959, which made me want to write about this gem even more!

Eva Marie Saint paid tribute to that gorgeous red dress at a recent Oscars appearance, still looking stylish!

Like fellow movie star Audrey Hepburn and television’s Mary Tyler Moore, Eva Marie Saint was the thinking man’s sex symbol of her era: smart, charismatic, fun, good-hearted, and lovely in a non-stereotypical way.

'North by Northwest' played up both the suspense and sex angles of this Hitchcock classic.

Hitchcock found his ideal film blonde in Grace Kelly, starring in three of his films. Then Grace retired from the screen, going from movie queen to real life princess. The Wrong Man starred his next muse, Vera Miles, who inconveniently kept having babies. Next, Kim Novak starred in Vertigo, whose vulnerabilities made her perfect casting as the enigmatic blonde. After Saint in North by Northwest came Janet Leigh’s sympathetic, brisk presence in Psycho, and finally, Hitch’s protégé Tippi Hedren, who had the look but neither the talent nor charisma to be the next Hitchcock blonde. From the mid-1960s on, audiences no longer found cool blondes teasing fire beneath the surface enthralling. Evaluating the actresses, Miles has yet to receive revision, Psycho is one of Leigh’s key roles, and Novak and Hedren now have their defenders.

As elusive Eve Kendall, Eva Marie Saint got a chance to play someone other than a nice girl.

What about Eva Marie Saint? In her day, Saint was well-liked by fans and critics, and well-received as a Hitchcock blonde. But between Kelly’s iconic legacy and the latter day evaluation of Novak and Hedren, Saint’s been a bit overshadowed. I think that Eva Marie Saint is a bit like Dorothy McGuire, both of whom were lovely in an accessible way, skilled, effortless, and naturalistic. Both Eva and Dorothy had more of a foot in modern day acting than their contemporaries. They had quiet personal lives as well, not for public display, and have since been a bit overlooked and underestimated as actors and stars.

Saint's Eve and Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill weren't strangers on a train for long!

What Eva brought to North by Northwest, encouraged by Hitchcock, was an understated, confident, smart sex appeal. Brains and beauty were a hallmark of the Hitchcock blonde. After playing several sweet young things, Eva got to play the bad girl/good girl role as Eve Kendall. Eva’s Eve initiates an introduction to Cary Grant’s man on the lam, while aboard the 20^th Century Limited. Sparks and risqué repartee fly with Eve and Grant’s Roger Thornhill, but many twists and turns follow their further meet ups. Saint’s subtle changes in Eve’s supposed character benefited from her Actors Studio training, and was visually enhanced by Saint’s smooth makeover, guided by Hitchcock. North by Northwest presented her as a subtle siren who lures Cary Grant’s leading man. The scenario of the ambiguous female and the distrustful male, by the way, was reminiscent of the roles Grant and Ingrid Bergman played in Notorious.

However, romancing Eve isn't as easy as it seems!

As Eve, Eva Marie Saint skillfully goes from a seductive stranger on a train to two-timing traitor to redeemed heroine, performed in a stylish but straightforward way. North by Northwest was the twilight of an era when actors still acted in elevated studio system style, such as Lana Turner in the same year’s Imitation of Life. Eva acts with panache, but not with quotation marks.

Eva Marie Saint, as Eve, heading toward the film's famed climactic sequence.

In one of Pauline Kael’s essays on classic films, the famously cranky critic took a swipe at Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest, writing that Eva looked embalmed. Since Kael was not a Hitchcock fan, this isn’t surprising. Still, I take exception to that evaluation. Hair and makeup were cartoonish on nearly all the ‘50s female stars. In contrast, Eva’s sleek, simple hairstyle and sophisticated but subtle makeup brings out her best qualities, including those huge blue eyes. Her whole look is sleek, including the lovely clothes Eva and Hitch picked from pricey NYC stores. That includes the striking black frock with red overlay flowers that is proper in the front and party in nearly backless back!

The famous red and black dress, from a NYC shopping trip with Hitch & Eva Marie Saint.

The dress symbolized Hitch's preference for sexy to be subtle.

Despite the difference in their training, Saint from the Actors’ Studio and Grant from the Hollywood studio system, Eva and Cary got on quite well. Cary Grant was generous to her, with his star perks. Grant made sure that the lighting flattered fair Eva as well as tan Cary, and that when he approved publicity photos, they favored both of them.

As a relative newcomer to films, established star Cary Grant had Eva Marie Saint's back.

Saint has commented that her character comes into the story a bit late, something I noticed too, in this enthralling but tad overlong film. Eva as Eve comes in at the 45 minute mark of the 130 minute film. At the time, Saint’s husband told her to consider the script as a whole, not just the size of her role. Janet Leigh found that out she took her part in Psycho, despite the character getting dispatched less than half way through.

Eva Marie Saint performs the role of Eve with style, without falling into the era's outdated acting style.

Once Eva’s character is introduced, Eve Kendall and Roger Thornhill zigzag around each other, which added a genuine romantic tension on top of the espionage thriller’s stakes. Eve Kendall is a forerunner to the modern movie heroine and benefits greatly from having a multi-faceted performer like Eva Marie Saint to essay her.

FYI: I put all the movie overflow on my public FB  movie page. 

Check it out & join!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/178488909366865/