The Mouse That Roared (1959) on Netflix
Bankrupt, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick declares war on the United States, planning to lose and collect American aid. Field Marshal Tully Bascombe leads twenty longbowmen into an empty New York.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.9/1010,289 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Duchy of Grand Fenwick, tucked in the French Alps, lives off a single export: its Pinot Grand Fenwick wine. When a California company sells a cheaper imitation, the country slides toward bankruptcy and three protests to Washington go unanswered. Prime Minister Count Rupert Mountjoy proposes a scheme: declare war on the United States, lose quickly, and accept the aid America has historically given its defeated enemies. Duchess Gloriana XII agrees. Grand Fenwick's game warden, Tully Bascombe, is named Field Marshal and sails for New York with twenty soldiers in chain mail, armed with longbows. An air-raid drill has emptied the streets, and the soldiers find no one to surrender to.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Mabel Etheringtonas Ada - Lady in Waiting (uncredited)
- Muriel Greensladeas Lady in Waiting (uncredited)
- Juba Kennerleyas Maybury (uncredited)
- George Margoas O'Hara (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Mouse That Roared (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While filming Grand Fenwick's arrival by tugboat, director Jack Arnold spotted the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth steaming into Southampton, told his captain to pull alongside, and had the soldiers fire arrows at her, with three cameras on the boat catching the sequence.
- Jack Arnold's only objection to his cast was Columbia insisting he use American actress Jean Seberg, just off Saint Joan and Bonjour Tristesse; he said Otto Preminger had worked her into hysterics before turning the camera on, and his own no-yelling manner was new to her.
- Peter Sellers, who played three roles, was unheard of in the United States apart from radio's The Goon Show and the West End; director Jack Arnold said The Mouse That Roared was the first movie that made him a star.
- Director Jack Arnold and titles designer Maurice Binder spoofed Columbia's Torch Lady logo so she lifts her gown, sees a mouse and flees her pedestal; producers Carl Foreman and Walter Shenson approved it without telling Columbia's chiefs, technically violating the studio's own trademark.
- The novel's Duchess Gloriana XII was an attractive young royal in the manner of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Grace, but Peter Sellers played her as an elderly Queen Victoria who thinks the US president is Calvin Coolidge, and played Mountjoy as a Benjamin Disraeli parody.
- Carl Foreman, just off The Key and beginning pre-production on The Guns of Navarone, conceived The Mouse That Roared as a low-budget project expected to absorb office expenses for that far bigger production.
