The Mouse That Roared

Rating:
Summary: What is it Bo-Bo?
Review: One of the best Peter Sellers movies. I grew up watching this, and about a week ago I watched it again. And I finally got all of the jokes. I remember watching this when I was at least 7 years old. It's not something you'd hide from kids. There wasn't any corse remarks in it and that's good. Peter Sellers actually plays three people in this movie and does a good job at it. I'm sure you'll find this movie intertaining and fun when you watch it, so WATCH IT!

Rating:
Summary: forgotten classic
Review: Sadly Leonard Wibberley's hilarious satire, The Mouse that Roared seems to be making the slow sad transit from wildly popular bestseller and hit
movie in the 50s and 60s to cult classic in the 70s and 80s to largely forgotten in the 90s and 00s. The book, which was originally serialized in the
Saturday Evening Post from December 1954 to January 1955 as The Day New York Was Invaded, is no longer in print--despite the fact that the
tattered copy I'm holding is something like the 30th printing. And the film does not seem to have been transferred to DVD, though I did find a copy
of the equally funny sequel, The Mouse on the Moon. Our growing amnesia is unfortunate, both because this is just a funny story, and also because
current events reveal it to still be timely.

The tale concerns the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, a tiny European nation which "lies in a precipitous fold of the northern Alps." It was founded in
1370 by British soldier of fortune Roger Fenwick, under not altogether honorable circumstances. Practically the only thing that is produced there,
and the only reason anyone has ever heard of it, is a fine wine called Pinot Grand Fenwick. Other than this one export, the nation remains happily
isolated, a medieval remnant in the modern world, ruled over by Duchess Gloriana XII--"a pretty girl of twenty-two" in the book, a more matronly
woman in the film, so that Peter Sellers can play her--and her prime minister, the Count of Mountjoy (also played by Peter Sellers).

As the story begins, crisis has descended upon the Grand Duchy in the form of revenue shortfalls. It is determined that the most effective way of
raising money is to declare war on the United States, the pretext for which is the introduction of a San Rafael, California winery of a wine called
Pinot Grand Enwick, a provocation that can not be allowed to stand. As Gloriana explains the aims of the war :

All in all, as I said before, there is no more profitable and sound step for a nation without money or credit to take, than declare war
on the United States and suffer a total defeat.

It's easy to see why the fortunes of this story changed over the years; written just a few years after the Marshall Plan, it resonated in an America that
had won WWII and rebuilt its enemies. But in the late 60s and early 70s, the Left determined that America was evil and that there was nothing
honorable nor humorous about the Cold War, Vietnam, or any of the other seemingly benign extensions of American power. Wibberley's witty
insight must have seemed the stuff of delusions or insidious propaganda to folks who had convinced themselves that we were really an imperialist
nation. But now that the "blame America first" crowd has been routed, you can read that speech above, or watch the movie, and hear the eerie
echoes coming from Afghanistan. What might Mr. Wibberley have made of the absurd notion that at the same we were bombing the Taliban and Al
Qaeda we were bombing the rest of the Afghanis with food supplies? And the rest of the war has played out exactly as the Duchess Gloriana would
have predicted--the Taliban had no sooner been routed than we started pouring in money and rebuilding that broken nation. You could read through
thousands of pages of anti-American screeds by Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, Barbara Kingsolver, and their ilk, without increasing your
understanding of the world by one iota. But in that one speech, Leonard Wibberley basically explains the entire 20th (or American) Century.

At any rate, Tully Bascombe, chief forest ranger of the Duchy (again played by Sellers in the film), and twenty longbowmen charter a boat and
invade Manhattan, intending to surrender as quickly as possible. But by happy coincidence, the whole city is underground for an air raid test, and
when first Tully and his chain mail clad "army" are mistaken for aliens and then they capture a scientist, Dr. Kokintz, and his super-lethal quadium
(or Q) bomb, Grand Fenwick ends up winning the war. Armed with the Q bomb, Fenwick forms a League of Little Nations and dictates its own
peace terms and blackmails the U.S. and Russia into a general nuclear disarmament.

Tully, hero of Fenwick's great victory, of course gets the girl--Dr. Kokintz's daughter in the film; the Duchess herself in the novel. This gives Mr.
Wibberley one last opportunity for a very amusing, though thoroughly politically incorrect, observation, as Mountjoy tries to convince the Duchess
that she must take a husband :

'I hope,' said Gloriana warily, 'that you are not going to suggest that I marry the American minister because I won't do it.
I've been reading about the Americans in a women's magazine and they're all cruel to their wives,'

'Cruel to their wives?' echoed the count.

'Precisely. They treat them as equals. They refuse to make any decisions without consulting them. They load them up with
worries they should keep to themselves. And when there isn't enough money, they send them out to work instead of earning
more by their own efforts. Some of them even make their wives work so they can go to college. They are not men at all.
They are men-women. And their wives are women-men. If I am to marry, I want a husband who will be a man and let me
be a woman. I'll be able to handle him better that way.'

Of course, the ultimate truth of this sharp observation lies in the final line, Gloriana's certainty that theoretical "equality" is unnecessary for her to
actually control a husband.

Both book and movie are a great deal of fun. They are well worth seeking out. That their satire is once again applicable to the events of the day
should be reason enough for a revival.

GRADE : A

Rating:
Summary: Funny story, but bad DVD
Review: The Mouse That Roared is a funny satire that is boosted by the excellent performances of Peter Sellers. Set in the fictional country of Grand Fenwick, the story tells of their plans to invade America, lose the war, and then reap the benefits as the USA tries to rebuild their country just like after WWII with the Marshall Plan. Unfortunately, the whole plan goes awry setting the whole story into motion. This is a funny movie but there is nothing here that is great humor. The idea of it all is pretty good, but the story never really takes off.

Peter Sellers is great as the Duchess of Grand Fenwick, the Prime Minister of Grand Fenwick, and also the Field Marshall of Grand Fenwick. He has most of the good lines in the movie although even he is not at his best. The film also stars Joan Seberg as the daughter of a doctor that the Field Marshall falls in love with. The DVD does offer widescreen presentation and several theatrical trailers but there is a problem here. Maybe its just my own DVD but the sound is off so that when people talk their mouths move a second or two after the actual dialogue has been spoken. This may just be my DVD, but it is distracting nonetheless and very obvious. The Mouse that Roared is still a funny movie with three good performances by Peter Sellers.

Rating:
Summary: Funny story, but bad DVD
Review: The Mouse That Roared is a funny satire that is boosted by the excellent performances of Peter Sellers. Set in the fictional country of Grand Fenwick, the story tells of their plans to invade America, lose the war, and then reap the benefits as the USA tries to rebuild their country just like after WWII with the Marshall Plan. Unfortunately, the whole plan goes awry setting the whole story into motion. This is a funny movie but there is nothing here that is great humor. The idea of it all is pretty good, but the story never really takes off.

Peter Sellers is great as the Duchess of Grand Fenwick, the Prime Minister of Grand Fenwick, and also the Field Marshall of Grand Fenwick. He has most of the good lines in the movie although even he is not at his best. The film also stars Joan Seberg as the daughter of a doctor that the Field Marshall falls in love with. The DVD does offer widescreen presentation and several theatrical trailers but there is a problem here. Maybe its just my own DVD but the sound is off so that when people talk their mouths move a second or two after the actual dialogue has been spoken. This may just be my DVD, but it is distracting nonetheless and very obvious. The Mouse that Roared is still a funny movie with three good performances by Peter Sellers.

Rating:
Summary: Funny Cold War Satire
Review: This is not the funniest vehicle for Peter Sellers, but it was the first film to demonstrate his versatility to worldwide audiences. In this film he plays three roles and he does reasonably well in all of them. Basically this film is a gentle tweaking of the post World War II-Cold War politics of the day and as a time capsule this film holds up rather well. An interesting double-bill for this film would be with Dr. Strangelove.

Rating:
Summary: This movie is one of the best movies of all time
Review: This movie is excellent. This movie is extremely well written and directed. Peter Sellers displays great acting and comedic skills. It is a great parody on the cold war. I would highly recommend this movie to those people who are not too shallow to appreciate it.

Rating:
Summary: OK But Not As Good As Its Sequel
Review: Though still very funny in spots the film loses it satiric bite halfway in. The superior seuqel "The Mouse On The Moon" (never on video) directed by Richard Lester did a much better job of spoofing cold war politics and was far zanier. Though usually great at muliple roles Peter Sellers' 3 performances here fall flat. The seuqel featured a much funnier Margaret Rutherford as the Queen and the hilarious Ron Moody a manic Prime Minister Bobo. Lets hope MGM/UA will finally release "The Mouse On The Moon" soon.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: To save its failed economy, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick declares war on the United States with the intention of losing and receiving millions of dollars in aid. Unfortunately, Grand Fenwick's invasion force accidentally wins by seizing control of the experimental Q-bomb.

The premise of this cold war farce is funnier than its execution. Jack Arnold's direction is uninspired and the whole enterprise creaks along rather mechanically. Peter Sellars appears in three different roles, but he seems to be holding back. Although I found the film clever at times, I did not find one genuine laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: To save its failed economy, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick declares war on the United States with the intention of losing and receiving millions of dollars in aid. Unfortunately, Grand Fenwick's invasion force accidentally wins by seizing control of the experimental Q-bomb.

The premise of this cold war farce is funnier than its execution. Jack Arnold's direction is uninspired and the whole enterprise creaks along rather mechanically. Peter Sellars appears in three different roles, but he seems to be holding back. Although I found the film clever at times, I did not find one genuine laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Forty years later, this film lacks an edge
Review: When "The Mouse That Roared" appeared in U.S. theatres forty years ago it was a kind of cult classic, a bit hip, a bit continental in perspective, definitely offbeat, and even a bit subversive in its good-natured skewering of cold war tensions. It also showcased the considerable talents of Peter Sellers, who appears in multiple roles.

Whereas some political films, including the classic "Dr. Strangelove," can retain their satirical edge many years after their initial release, this film does not. There is an overall naivité in the film's portrayal of the alleged generosity and goodness of the United States government. Certainly world events over the past generation have proven that going to war with the U.S. is anything but a pathway to future prosperity. Overall, the film accepts the mythologies of American cold war culture and foreign policy more than it penetrates and satirizes them. Moreover, the patronizing sexism demonstrated in the "love interest" angle associated with the character played by Jean Seberg is downright embarrassing from today's standpoint.

I loved this film when it was new, but viewing it recently showed me that indeed, sometimes you can't go home again.