The Mouse That Roared (1959)

Director:

Jack Arnold

Writers:

Roger MacDougall (writer)
Stanley Mann (writer)

Release Date:

26 October 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | War

Tagline:

The Hilarous Story of How the Duchy of Grand Fenwick Waged War on the U.S. - and Won

Plot:

An impoverished backward nation declares a war on the United States of America, hoping to lose.

Plot Keywords:

Haystack | Duchy Of Grand Fenwick | Animated Title Sequence | Archery | Armor

Cast

Peter Sellers	...	Grand Duchess Gloriana XII / Prime Minister Count Rupert Mountjoy / Tully Bascombe
Jean Seberg	...	Helen Kokintz
William Hartnell	...	Will Buckley
David Kossoff	...	Professor Alfred Kokintz
Leo McKern	...	Benter
MacDonald Parke	...	General Snippet
Austin Willis	...	United States Secretary of Defense
Timothy Bateson	...	Roger
Monte Landis	...	Cobbley
Alan Gifford
Colin Gordon	...	BBC Announcer
Harold Kasket	...	Pedro

Also Known As:

The Day New York Was Invaded (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Finland:K-8 | UK:U | USA:Unrated | West Germany:12 | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Open Road

Trivia:

The Marseilles and New York harbor sequences were filmed in Southampton, UK. The presence of the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner there was a lucky coincidence.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the Queen Elizabeth encounters the ship carrying the Grand Fenwick troops returning from New York, the ship's officer calls "ship off the port bow." In the next shot, the troop ship is shown off the Queen Elizabeth's starboard bow.

Quotes:

[There is an explosion and we see a huge mushroom cloud on the horizon]
Narrator: Ladies and gentlemen, this is not the end of the film. However, something like this might easily happen, and we thought we should put you in the proper mood. And now, back to our story.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)

A good, trim, well paced satire brimming with irony

This little satire of the cold war has none of the smug reactionary stances that the original novel had. It takes aim at great powers and small no-powers, it skewers democracies (like the US and Britain) and aristocracies (like the grand duchy of Fenwick and Britain) and shows absolutely no mercy.

Done when Peter Sellers was in his "fat boy" period, this well cut little movie has to be placed in context in order to be appreciated fully. 40 years ago the world was quite different, and this movie reminds you of it. See something totally different from the same period, like Rear Window by Hitchcock to get you in the spirit of the times.