I’ve asked the question, “Does anyone in America remember the The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” because that reports that
A neighbor asked Ms. Murphy, who received her M.B.A. from Columbia Business School last month, if she was from Russia, after hearing her accent. Ms. Murphy said that no, she was from Belgium.
Belgium. That’s Belgium, a place nothing like Russia in any way. I’m not sure what’s worse: a Russian spy using that line, or an American falling for it.
In The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, a Soviet submarine accidentally runs aground on a New England island, and the worried Soviet submariners send an officer and sailor (Alan Arkin, John Phillip Law) to find a motorboat to help free the sub before the United States Navy or Coast Guard spots them. Arkin and Law meet an American, his wife, and young son, and try to convince the family that they’re sailors from America’s NATO ally, Norway. Even that’s more plausible that thinking a Russian sounds like someone from Belgium.
Yet, the boy is suspicious of their claims. Here’s that scene, from a series of scenes from that fine, funny film. (The scene with the initial encounter between American citizens and Soviet sailors is at the very beginning of the clip. The father is Carl Reiner, mother is Eva Marie Saint, and son is Sheldon Collins.)
Enjoy.