I made this GORGEOUS compilation from a website called FYEAHMOVIES or something like that. I mucked around with clips from The Russians are Coming (ditto), then found this trove of eight fleeting moments, and strung them together. Very high quality for mere gifs. Russians aged even more poorly than the '80s movies I wrote about, with a long string of very unfunny sight gags that went on and on. It actually became dull. Arkin was his usual devastatingly charming self, and his Russian accent was to die for. The thing had a great cast, Eva Marie Saint, Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters, even Theodore Bikel (the only cast member who actually spoke Russian, though Arkin was pretty convincing), but even at that, it was so over the top I just couldn't enjoy it. Jokes don't have to be pounded into your skull, we get it the first time. Everyone remembers this as a classic and a screamingly funny comedy that transcends its era, but it isn't. Cute and cuddly Russians who were really nice guys under the surface. . . OK then! This was a kind of Cold War panacea, I guess, a way to reduce the fear that the Russians were going to nuke us into oblivion. Hell, Arkin could nuke ME into oblivion, and I'd love every minute of it. I find him sexy in a way I can't even describe. It just jumps out at you from the screen. I couldn't find a clip of this, but there's a moment when Arkin kisses Eva Marie's hand, and she almost gasps, completely taken aback and taken over by his personal charm. I mean, who kisses a woman's hand, these days? He could kiss any part of me he wanted. I mean it, he could.
