The Mouse That Roared

1959 satiric comedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: It's poor economic times for the dinky Duchy of Grand Fenwick. For those of you with no map of imaginary lands, that's a tiny country somewhere in France. It's probably the only country in the Europe mainland that is English speaking. The duchess (Peter Sellers) is convinced by the prime minister (Peter Sellers) to send a small army of men with trusty longbows (an army led a third Peter Sellers character) to invade the United States, surrender quickly, and then watch the foreign roll in. The fatal flaw in that brilliant scheme? They might arrive during a air-raid drill, accidentally kidnap a guy with a dangerous bomb, and win the war instead. Oh, snap!

Dr. Strangelove it ain't, but this is pretty clever satire and worth watching. It's not uproariously funny and actually gets tiresome before it's sub-ninety minutes are up. There's a clunky subplot involving romance. Very Britishy.