The Mouse That Roared

The Mouse That Roared (1959) is Jack Arnold's Cold War comedy, ready to watch online on iFILM. The Duchy of Grand Fenwick, smallest nation in Europe, is going broke after a California winery knocks off its one export.

The prime minister's fix is gloriously stupid: declare war on the United States, lose at once, then live off the aid that always follows a defeat. So an army of chain-mail bowmen sails for New York — and lands in a city emptied by a nuclear air-raid drill. Instead of surrendering, they blunder straight into the world's most powerful bomb. Peter Sellers plays three parts at once: the duchess, the prime minister, and the hapless field commander.

The whole thing runs on one sharp idea: a mouse corners an elephant simply by refusing to behave. Jean Seberg turns up a year before Breathless made her a name. The satire stays gentle but precise, and Sellers' triple turn is an early glimpse of the range he'd later unleash in Dr. Strangelove. Stream The Mouse That Roared (1959) online on iFILM.