Brian Keith as the sheriff is perfect in the role. One of the funniest people ever, Jonothan Winters, is hilarious -- he putters around the kitchen with his hearing aid turned off while his wife tries to get his attention, tied to a chair hung up on the wall, is one of the great comedy scenes of all times. He's oblivious, she's frantic, and it just gets funnier and funnier. Michael J Pollard is funny in his extremely odd way. Paul Ford as the VFW guy is side-splittingly funny. Alan Arkin is great. Theodore Bikel is excellent. Carl Reiner as "Whittaker Walt" is great; the guy who plays Alexei and the woman who plays Allison are as good as they can be -- what ever happened to them? The scene at the end where the jets fly over -- well, my eyes are tearing as I type this. This is one of my top 10 all time movies.
The dialogue is clever as it can be, the situations are funny (the Russian sailors walking through town wearing thrift store trenchcoats, shouting, "E-Mare-Jen-See, E-Mare-Jen-See, all the pipples to get from strits!"), the message is terrific, and was much needed at the time, which is that beneath all the sputtering and fear are PEOPLE who forget all the conflict when innocent lives are in danger.
The dialogue is clever as it can be, the situations are funny (the Russian sailors walking through town wearing thrift store trenchcoats, shouting, "E-Mare-Jen-See, E-Mare-Jen-See, all the pipples to get from strits!"), the message is terrific, and was much needed at the time, which is that beneath all the sputtering and fear are PEOPLE who forget all the conflict when innocent lives are in danger.