The Mouse That Roared (1959) - film review

Nestled in the Alps between France and Switzerland, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick is the smallest country in the world.  The economy of this proud yet backward nation is entirely dependent on exports of its wine to America.  So, when a Californian wine producer floods the market with a cheap imitation, the country faces bankruptcy.  The Prime Minister, Count Rupert Mountjoy, tells his sovereign, Duchess Gloriana XII, that there is only one solution: Grand Fenwick must declare war on the United States.  Since his country’s army consists of a handful of men armed only with longbows and led by the inept Tully Bascomb, Mountjoy is confident that the war will be over in a matter of hours.  America will then show a victor’s magnanimity by showering the country with much-needed hard currency.  The scheme cannot fail.  Unfortunately, Mountjoy has badly underestimated Tully’s capacity for messing things up.  When they land in New York, Tully and his men are surprised to find the city deserted.  What they do not know is that an air raid drill is in progress, and the city’s inhabitants are taking refuge in underground shelters.  As they explore the empty streets trying to find someone to surrender to, Tully and his men come across a nuclear physicist who had just primed the Q-Bomb, a device that has the power to destroy the world.  Tully has an idea...

What presumably began as a respectable Cold War satire ended up as a too-silly-by-half farce which even a comic performer of the calibre Peter Sellers had a hard time trying to salvage.  Based on the stories by Leonard Wibberley, The Mouse That Roared has the feel of an uninspired Ealing Comedy, with an implausible plot propelled by comic book humour that rapidly becomes stale and predictable.  The film was directed by Jack Arnold, a pretty dismal effort after his previous sci-fi achievements Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).

The film’s one saving grace is the spirited turn from Peter Sellers, playing three characters as he would later do to greater effect in the vastly superior Cold War satire Dr Strangelove (1964).  Sellers’ enthusiasm is not matched by the rest of the cast, who are clearly just going through the motions.  Jean Seberg looks terminally bored and appears to be reading lines off an auto-cue whilst William Hartnell is on auto-pilot, playing the bullying sergeant major for the umpteenth time.   The Mouse That Roared may appeal to children but it would be stretching it to say that it qualifies as entertainment for an adult audience.

© Derek Adamson 2010

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