The Mouse That Roared

Released Oct 26, 1959

1h 23m

Comedy

List

90%

Tomatometer

21 Reviews

73%

Audience Score

2,500+ Ratings

When the tiny nation of Grand Fenwick's only export, a special wine, begins to be produced in California, their entire economy collapses. Things look dire until Prime Minister Rupert Mountjoy (Peter Sellers) points out that no country that has declared war on the United States has ever gone hungry. When Field Marshall Tully Bascombe (Peter Sellers) and the 23 other men in the Grand Fenwick army invade the United States, their plan to immediately surrender unravels.

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Nell Minow

Movie Mom

Rated: 4/5

Nov 24, 2002

Full Review

Jay Jacobs

The Reporter

It pokes a good deal of fun at a number of aspects of the contemporary scene that the movies have heretofore hardly considered prime material for levity (e.g., the State Department... the arms race, motion-picture audiences, and the movies themselves).

Feb 7, 2022

Full Review

Clyde Gilmour

Maclean's Magazine

Strained though it becomes before the finish, this British comedy is worth seeing.

Oct 31, 2019

Full Review

Isabel Quigly

The Spectator

The Mouse that Roared might be filed away like old Punches to show our grandchildren what Stout Party collapsed at in 1959.

Jul 18, 2018

Full Review

Pablo Villaça

Cinema em Cena

Stira anti-belicista que envelheceu mal e cuja relevncia diz respeito apenas performance de Sellers como a gr-duquesa de Fenwick.

Rated: 2/5

Mar 31, 2008

Full Review

Susan Granger

www.susangranger.com

Rated: 4/5

Nov 9, 2007

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Morgan T

This is one of my all time favorite movies. Peter Sellers plays several of the main characters and brings a strong anti war message through an emphasis on the hypocrisy of wanting peace by preparing for war. The Peter sellers characters are quite hilarious and appropriate. It's an old movie (1959) but let's me laugh at ourselves. Also leaves the doors open for true love to find itself in the strangest of situations.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Dated but a funny cold war satire,

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Liam D

A Wacky over the top movie outside of Jack Arnold's (This Island Earth, High School Confidential!) wheelhouse with Peter Sellers (Never Let Go, The Black Rose) firing at all cylinders

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/22

Full Review

delysid d

it entertained me for one rainy day

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/17/21

Full Review

Audience Member

I was disappointed by the much-hyped "Dr. Strangelove" movie, which I found overlong, dreary, and unrealistic (as mentioned in my review of that movie). However, this movie, which also has Peter Sellers starring in three roles and is themed on the Cold War, is far better and far funnier. A dinky European kingdom needs money, so it decides to send a group of chain-mail armored soldiers, armed with crossbows, on a boat the New York City with the idea that the soldiers would fight with the United States and lose, getting a heap of aid money as a result the way Western Europe did. But the residents of New York City happen to be hiding under the streets as part of a nuclear-attack drill, with only a few people above the streets, scuttling the original plan. On top of that, American scientists have invented a "Q-bomb" which can destroy most of America, and it falls into the invaders' hands. What to do? The story, visuals, and acting are quite humorous, and the movie manages to skewer its targets. Definitely the better of the Cold War movie satires.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Joel K

I saw this movie 60 years ago and just watched it again because my local library started to stock the DVD. The premise of a tiny obscure European country finding a reason to declare war on the US in order to get benefits after surrendering. That premise is outstanding. But the script and dialogue lack any real imagination resulting in a movie that lost the opportunity to be a genuinely outstanding comedy. Very few laughs are found within.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/21

Full Review

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Jack Arnold

Director

Peter Sellers

Grand Duchess Gloriana XII

Jean Seberg

Helen Kokintz

David Kossoff

Professor Alfred Kokintz

William Hartnell

Will Buckley

Timothy Bateson

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Synopsis

When the tiny nation of Grand Fenwick's only export, a special wine, begins to be produced in California, their entire economy collapses. Things look dire until Prime Minister Rupert Mountjoy (Peter Sellers) points out that no country that has declared war on the United States has ever gone hungry. When Field Marshall Tully Bascombe (Peter Sellers) and the 23 other men in the Grand Fenwick army invade the United States, their plan to immediately surrender unravels.

Director: Jack Arnold
Screenwriter: Leonard Wibberley, Roger MacDougall, Stanley Mann
Distributor: RCA/Columbia, Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Open Road
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 26, 1959, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 16, 2012
Runtime: 1h 23m
Sound Mix: Mono

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