The Mouse on the Moon (1963)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- The natives are growing restless in the tiny country of Grand Fenwick! There’s no indoor plumbing, no money to pay for it and no one’s had a hot bath in ages! Facing a winter without warm water, the conniving Prime Minister (Ron Moody) convinces the U.S. Government to give him a million-dollar grant by promising to use it for Grand Fenwick’s Space Program. There’s just one pesky problem: Grand Fenwick doesn’t have a space program! But when a local crackpot professor discovers that the region’s wine makes radical rocket fuel, the little nation determines to blast its way into the space race...and land on the moon before the U.S., Russia or anyone else!
- Actors:
- Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Bernard Cribbins, David Kossoff, Terry-Thomas, June Ritchie, John Le Mesurier, John Phillips, Eric Barker, Roddy McMillan, Tom Aldredge, Michael Trubshawe, Peter Sallis, Clive Dunn, Hugh Lloyd, Graham Stark, Mario Fabrizi, Jan Conrad, John Bluthal, Archie Duncan
- Directors:
- Richard Lester
- Producers:
- Walter Shenson
- Writers:
- Leonard Wibberley, Michael Pertwee
- Genres:
- Comedy, Romance
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like: A Hard Day's Night, People of the Pictures, Remembering Bernard Cribbins
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Reviews (1) of The Mouse on the Moon
Satirical Comedy. - The Mouse on the Moon review by Steve
For the sequel to The Mouse that Roared, almost all the cast and crew were replaced. Which means no Peter Sellers in multiple roles. Ron Moody substitutes effectively as the PM of a tiny European state, though Margaret Rutherford has little to do as the Grand Duchess.
Only David Kossoff returns as the lugubrious, whimsical nuclear scientist, and he steals every scene. This time he plans to land a rocket on the moon using a volatile local wine as fuel while the Soviets and Americans get snagged up in the vortex of inspired absurdity.
While the film satirises the space race, it acutely sends up convoluted cold war politics and espionage. This time around, Grand Fenwick more obviously stands in for the diminished status of Britain after WWII. And it's even funnier than the original, with the comic lunacy almost always on target.
Richard Lester directs the energetic farce with gusto and the sets of the obscure medieval city state are pretty good for a low budget comedy. Bernard Cribbins' usual schtick as a bumbling halfwit gets tiresome, but that may be a matter of taste. This is a genuinely hilarious, irreverant comedy, with a brain.