Mani sulla luna

Follow-up to 1959's MOUSE THAT ROARED is also based on a Leonard Wibberly novel is mildly amusing in spots. Peter Sellers is gone and the Queen is now played by Margaret Rutherford. This time Grand Fenwick is out to bamboozle both the Soviets and the USA by playing them off against each other over the space race.

Directed by Richard Lester (HARD DAY'S NIGHT), it takes a while before it truly gets off the....er...ground. Once in space it gets funnier. You have German scientists in both the U. S. and USSR giving the Heil Hitler! Salute a full 7 months before Sellers did so in DR. STRANGELOVE. Space trash is already an issue: "Wherever civilization goes, garbage is sure to follow!". On the moon a cosmonaut sneaks off to start constructing something leading to this speculation: "(he's) Building a wall!" It's all silly fun, but, it's not surprising that this was the end of the Mouse series on screen. (there were three other novels)

The DVD box claims that this mild comedy is 'hilarious' are somewhat inflated. Okay, the box copy on any comedy tends to exaggerate its hilarity, so we won't hold such hyperbole too strongly against it. That said, this modest sequel to The Mouse That Roared manages to entertain as what it is: a low key family comedy of moderate charms.

The idiot locals of the tiny and pastoral Grand Duchy of Fenwick return, this time with a scam to get Uncle Sugar to pay to restore the place's ancient plumbing by way of a 'technology loan'. Wink, wink. When U.S. inspectors arrive to view the results of Fenwick's space program, the locals scramble to keep them off-balance while enlisting the aid of an eccentric old professor to build them a REAL moon rocket. And it just so happens he has been working on that very thing.

There are the usual farcical runnings around and the presence of the quirky Terry-Thomas is always welcome in this sort of exercise, but the whole thing is less clever and less fun than the original or the many Ealing Studios caper movies from which it clearly draws inspiration. The look is good, the characters all have their modest individual charms and everything turns out nifty in the end, aww, but don't expect anything overly inspired. There isn't a lot of real cinematic cleverness here, just good, competent old-fashioned movie entertainment. As that it works just fine. Enjoy.

Few people are even aware that "Richard Lester" (as he was then billed) made this sequel to 'The Mouse That Roared" (his first film in colour) between his two pop quickies 'It's Trad, Dad!' and 'A Hard Day's Night'.

Scripted with his usual good-natured cynicism by Michael Pertwee, there are shafts of genial satire, like the description of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick in the opening narration as "the smallest and least progressive country in the entire world" and the use in the space race of former Nazis by both the Russians and Uncle Sam.

David Kossoff returns from the original; while the three roles played in the original by Peter Sellers are here split between Margaret Rutherford (who gets top billing), Ron Moody and Bernard Cribbins; with June Ritchie a fetching young beatnik.

There could do with some watching of films such as this in high offices in the US or indeed, in many other "world powers".

Pragmatism and a certain amount of humility might be learnt by those watching and a realisation that acts of domination aren't necessarily a good thing nor will they end in their intended way; are the basic premise of this film.

What it lacks in subtle finesse, it makes up for in it's universal humour and it's now poignant reminder that we can all be fools when we think first of ourselves and only later of the consequences for others.

A film made in 1963, more than 40 years old, still has a message for us today, a message that it seems many need reminding of.

Splendid farce and superb comedy moments and a jolly gripping tale to boot.

I'll drink champagne to that!

The Mouse That Roared was an amazingly original and funny movie. This follow-up picture tries to capture the magic of the first but just can't. The ideas that made the original movie so different now just seem silly in this sequel.

The biggest problem, for me, is that Peter Sellars who was SO IMPORTANT to the original (playing a multitude of roles) isn't in this movie and so there are NO familiar faces. Margaret Rutherford is now the queen (and Peter Sellars made a much prettier queen), and Ron Moody and so many others take on most of the other roles from the original.

My attitude is that if you CAN'T get the original cast, don't bother. This is a fair movie but can't hold a candle to the original.