Forty years from now, someone’s going to get in trouble for dressing up like a certain on Halloween.
I wouldn’t call it a favorite, but I did enjoy it. Arkin held his own amid an amazing cast of actors.
To me The In-Laws is at least in the top three comedies of all time for me. Maybe #1.
“Emergency! Everybody to get from street!”
Arkin was so damn funny, RIP. He was great.
Always liked Alan Arkin, and recently we just finished watching The Kominsky Method, reminding me all over again how great he was. Now I’ve had to watch the funeral of his fictional character in that show, followed closely by the death of Alan Arkin himself, which is an unpleasant bit of deja vu.
He was also in Glengarry Glen Ross as sad sack George Aranow.
From The Russians Are Coming: “Pay mark to this, Whittaker Walt. We must have boat. Even now may be too late. This is your island; I make your responsibility. You help us get boat quickly, otherwise there is World War III, and everybody is blaming YOU!”
I also liked him in Edward Scissorhands - perfectly played a clueless automaton dad barely existing in suburban life.
For me it was, “Pay mark to this, Whittaker Walt. We must have boat. Even now may be too late. This is your island; I make your responsibility. You help us get boat quickly, otherwise there is World War III, and everybody is blaming YOU!”
ETA: Nuts. Ninjaed.
"‘There, there,’ I said, because I did not know what else to say. ‘There, there.’ ‘There, there. There, there’.”
You sure it wasn’t Theodore? 
I remember watching this back in '78. There was one unintended (I hope) moment of hilarity when Arkin barged onto the bridge of the US ship and spoke in “English–English” instead of “Russian/Lithuanian–English.” A very dramatic scene, but he sounded like one of the Gumbys: “I so happy to BEEE here!”
My brother and I (and probably everybody else watching the show) burst out laughing. We half expected him to say “MY BRAIN HURTS!”
Here’s Arkin in a video excerpt of the Second City sketch (circa 1960), “Football Comes to the U. of Chicago.” He plays a student named Alejandro Pym. Announcer and Morton Throckmorton: Eugene Troobnik. Coach: Andrew Duncan. Morgenstern: Seven Darden.
At the link, listen to the audio of the compete sketch as well as “Museum Piece”, in which Arkin plays a beatnik to Barbara Harris’s museum visitor.
First thing I saw him in was The Rocketeer, as the eccentric tinkerer who acts like — and, well, is — the most sensible guy in the room; he’s like Doc Brown in reverse. And he of course did it perfectly.
(And, like so many other posters here, I was then blown away by The In-Laws.)
I really love that terrible, terrible movie. I honestly did not think of that one when he died. Thank you for reminding me.
How can you not love a movie with dialogue like:
I loved this guy. The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming is a great early movie. Saw The Last of the Red Hot Lovers in a old school theater in a matinee. Etc. The Kominsky Method was a nice almost finale.