Of the over 50 movies and television shows filmed along the Mendocino Coast from 1904 to 2001, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming is one of the films shot almost entirely on the coast. The cast included Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin, Eva Marie Saint, Jonathan Winters, Brian Keith, and Ben Blue.
The comedy portrays the aftermath of a Soviet submarine crashing near a small New England town in the 1960s. With the Cold War looming over the characters, the Soviet crew attempts to escape safely, while the Americans believe they’re being invaded. Ben Blue, depicting town drunk Luther Grilk, channels Paul Revere as he attempts to warn his neighbors that the Russians are coming.
The film crew of 150 arrived in September, 1965. Approximately 100 coast residents were hired as extras, in addition to 50 locals who worked behind the camera. Many of the hired extras were children. Dana Hall recalls that one scene with Jonathan Winters took all day to shoot, and Winters would tell jokes to entertain the children between takes. Jone Lemos recalls she and her three sisters got to skip school for a few days. They played townspeople in a scene where a young boy (played by an adult stunt double) had fallen from the church roof while trying to get a better view of the Russian submarine. The boy hung from the gutter by his belt loop, and the people below stared up in horror. Jone remembers the film crew repeated the scene nearly 50 times.
Local papers reported on the filming. News about the submarine was a hot topic. The U.S. Navy and Russian Embassy refused to loan a sub for the movie, so a 140-foot-long plywood sub was rented from Paramount Studios instead. It was sent in pieces on eight semi-trailers to Fort Bragg, where a crew spent two weeks assembling it and making it look more Russian than its original German design. On October 21, the boat was launched in Noyo Bay. The crew hoped that the sub could be “floated to Los Angeles, between two barges” when filming was completed, but inclement weather derailed that plan. Instead, the plywood ship was dismantled and shipped back south in December.
When filming concluded, the Beacon reported “This invasion has been a time of prosperity for the coastal area.” The crew spent an estimated $1.5 million locally during production. In June 1966, Coast Cinemas in Fort Bragg held the West Coast premiere, which sold out each showing, and the film was later nominated for four Academy Awards.
Averee McNear is the curator at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino, Calif.