This is my favorite military / nuclear war satire as well as my favorite Peter Sellers film. People who are fans of this kind of movie know that in 1964 Dr. Strangelove, another nuclear war satire, had Peter Sellers playing multiple roles. But five years earlier in 1959 Sellers also played multiple (and similar) roles in The Mouse That Roared. The film was made during the height of the cold war when nuclear bombs, air raid drills and possible invasions were a part of American life. The smallest country in the world, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, has one means of income and that is a wine called Pinot Grand Fenwick sold chiefly to the United States. When a California wine maker puts out an imitation and calls it Pinot Grand Enwick the Duchy is on the edge of financial ruin. Protests to the U.S. government are ignored. However, the Duchy has also taken notice that whenever a country loses a war with the United States, the American government sends financial aid to rebuild the country which they have defeated. Duchess Gloriana (Peter Sellers) explains 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 to declare war on the Unites States and suffer a total defeat. The Duchy of Grand Fenwick then declares war on the United States. Chief forest ranger Tully Bascombe (again Peter Sellers) gathers an army of about twenty longbowmen, charters a tugboat, and they invade New York City intending to surrender as quickly as possible. As luck would have it the entire city is deserted and everyone is underground for an air raid test because nuclear scientist Dr Kokintz has his new secret weapon, the Q-bomb, within city limits. The army wanders around the city looking for someone to surrender to when they are spotted by a civil defense team that mistakes them for aliens from outer space due to their 14th century uniforms. They end up at the New York Institute for Advanced Physics where Professor Kokintz has built a working model of the Q-bomb. The Grand Fenwick army captures the professor, his daughter, the Q-bomb, a U.S. army general and four New York Policemen. When they arrive back at Grand Fenwick and inform the government that they won the war instead of losing it, the heads of government panic and resign and Tully Bascombe is made Prime Minister. They form a League of Little Nations and every small neutral country offers to protect Fenwick against any attacks. To resolve the matter the United States surrenders and they hold talks. The imitation wine will be taken off the market and Grand Fenwick demands a million dollars but the U.S. negotiator insists they may have to take a billion. Grand Fenwick also demands that they keep the Q-bomb and that the U.S. and Russia have a general disarmament supervised by the small neutral nations of the world. If that doesn't happen they threaten to explode the bomb. The President of the U.S. asks his Secretary of War Do you believe they'd really explode the bomb? The Secretary answers Would you have believed they would invade the Unites States with twenty longbowmen, landing in Manhattan off a chartered sailing vessel? The movie is a clever satire about war and also has many little comparisons about life with and without the bomb. There is also a great understanding of human nature depicted in many characters, particularly at the end when Duchess Gloriana refuses to marry the American Minister because, she states, Americans are cruel to their wives. They treat them as equals. They refuse to make any decision 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. 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. The Mouse That Roared is every bit as much of a satire as Dr Strangelove but it is far more lighthearted and good family entertainment. Peter Sellers is excellent and the movie is not only still funny but it's also still relevant even in the 21st century. One of my all time favorites, indeed.