A Russian submarine runs aground off the American coastline and becomes stranded near Cape Cod. A nine-man team commanded by Lieutenant Rozanov (Alan Arkin) goes ashore to search for a motorboat to release the sub and to allay any alarm with English phrases like “please keep absolutely good behave”.
The team arrive at the summer house of holidaying New York writer Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner), who is spending the weekend with his family on the picturesque (and fictional) Gloucester Island.
When he realises the interlopers are Russians, he believes it is an invasion. Soon, the information leaks, leading to hysteria and paranoia among the inhabitants of the small New England village.
Brian Keith plays Link Mattocks, the local chief constable, a stay-cool sourpuss whose idea of coping with the crisis is to give the submarine a parking ticket like any other out-of-bounds vehicle.
War veteran Fendall Hawkins (Paul Ford) forms a civil militia to march on the airport, and Link goes with him, leaving assistant chief Norman Jonas (Jonathan Winters) in confused command.
Surprisingly believable is an un-Cold War puppy love romance between a shy Russian sailor (John Phillip Law) and a blonde Cape Cod babysitter (Andrea Dromm).
Finally, both sides line up to face each other at gunpoint while Lieutenant Rozanov blandly passes on American threats of annihilation to his captain (Theodore Bikel).
But all differences are forgotten in the scramble to rescue a rubber-necking small boy trapped on a church roof. It is a Russian who eventually carries him to safety.
In return, the Americans launch their own Dunkirk-style fleet of little boats to escort the submarine back out to the open sea.
The film was adapted from the novel The Off-Islanders by Nathaniel Benchley.
The US Navy refused to provide a real submarine for the production on the grounds that it would not allow one of its vessels to fly the Soviet flag.
Walt Whittaker
Carl Reiner Elspeth Whittaker
Eva Marie Saint Lieutenant Rozanov
Alan Arkin Link Mattocks
Brian Keith Norman Jonas
Jonathan Winters Fendall Hawkins
Paul Ford Captain
Theodore Bikel Alice Foss
Tessie O’Shea Alexei Kolchin
John Phillip Law Luther Grilk
Ben Blue Alison Palmer
Andrea Dromm Pete Whittaker
Sheldon Collins Lester Tilly
Guy Raymond Charlie Hinkson
Cliff Norton Oscar Maxwell
Richard Schaal Mr Porter
Philip Coolidge Irving Christiansen
Don Keefer Annie Whittaker
Cindy Putnam Mr Everett
Parker Fennelly Muriel Everett
Doro Merande Mr Bell
Vaughn Taylor Jerry Maxwell
Johnny Whitaker Polsky
Danny Klega Brodsky
Ray Baxter Maliavin
Paul Verdier Gromolsky
Nikita Knatz Vasilov
Constantine Baksheef Hrushevsky
Alex Hassilev Lysenko
Milos Milos Kregitkin
Gino Gottarelli
Director
Norman Jewison
Video
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When he realises the interlopers are Russians, he believes it is an invasion. Soon, the information leaks, leading to hysteria and paranoia among the inhabitants of the small New England village.
