The Mouse on the Moon DVD Review
Michael Pertwee’s screenplay has a touch of (most welcome) satire spread thinly among the more idiotic and slapstick antics of this basic political spoof, but the movie would have been much richer had he been able to be a trifle less silly and a bit more biting in his observations of U.S.-Soviet relations, British complacency, and Grand Fenwick’s complete incompetence at the top. The movie also wastes the potential brilliance of the great comic actress Margaret Rutherford as the Grand Duchess Gloriana (Peter Sellers in drag was the ruler in the original film) by giving her next to nothing to do throughout the movie. She’s top-billed, but has by far the least amount to do except be in a state of almost constant total confusion during the three or four scenes she’s been inserted into. And Richard Lester’s direction is much more dampened here than it would be the next year with A Hard Day’s Night and many other subsequent comedies. Instead, there are extended scenes with Terry-Thomas as the bumbling spy sent by the British to Grand Fenwick to see what’s really going on, and a climactic scene on the moon with the three international space pioneer nations vying for supremacy which shows up the film’s tiny budget since weightlessness is a state rarely considered in the actions of the actors present.
Ron Moody and Terry-Thomas each earn a fair share of laughs as respectively the crooked head of Fenwick out only for his own creature comforts and a spy who’s not trained well enough to keep his identity secret. There’s a tentative love story between Bernard Cribbins’ Vincent and June Ritchie’s Cynthia, but not enough time is devoted to it for it to matter to the casual viewer. David Kossoff gets to toss off a few droll remarks as the Fenwick scientist, one of the few residents with a seeming brain in his head. John LeMesurier as the British ambassador and Peter Sallis as the Russian diplomat each get some amusing moments before the camera.
After getting the best of the United States in The Mouse That Roared, the tiny duchy of Grand Fenwick takes a second bite at the apple in Richard Lester’s The Mouse on the Moon. With a new array of stars and a new director at the helm, there’s a somewhat different feel this time out, and while the movie certainly has both its funny and its silly passages, it’s not quite the satirical plum the first movie was.
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Fox
Video Resolution and Encode: 480P/MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English 2.0 DD
Subtitles: None
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 25 Min.
Package Includes: DVD
Amaray caseDisc Type: DVD-R
Region: 1
Release Date: 01/15/2015
MSRP: $19.98
The Production Rating: 3/5
Michael Pertwee’s screenplay has a touch of (most welcome) satire spread thinly among the more idiotic and slapstick antics of this basic political spoof, but the movie would have been much richer had he been able to be a trifle less silly and a bit more biting in his observations of U.S.-Soviet relations, British complacency, and Grand Fenwick’s complete incompetence at the top. The movie also wastes the potential brilliance of the great comic actress Margaret Rutherford as the Grand Duchess Gloriana (Peter Sellers in drag was the ruler in the original film) by giving her next to nothing to do throughout the movie. She’s top-billed, but has by far the least amount to do except be in a state of almost constant total confusion during the three or four scenes she’s been inserted into. And Richard Lester’s direction is much more dampened here than it would be the next year with A Hard Day’s Night and many other subsequent comedies. Instead, there are extended scenes with Terry-Thomas as the bumbling spy sent by the British to Grand Fenwick to see what’s really going on, and a climactic scene on the moon with the three international space pioneer nations vying for supremacy which shows up the film’s tiny budget since weightlessness is a state rarely considered in the actions of the actors present.
Ron Moody and Terry-Thomas each earn a fair share of laughs as respectively the crooked head of Fenwick out only for his own creature comforts and a spy who’s not trained well enough to keep his identity secret. There’s a tentative love story between Bernard Cribbins’ Vincent and June Ritchie’s Cynthia, but not enough time is devoted to it for it to matter to the casual viewer. David Kossoff gets to toss off a few droll remarks as the Fenwick scientist, one of the few residents with a seeming brain in his head. John LeMesurier as the British ambassador and Peter Sallis as the Russian diplomat each get some amusing moments before the camera.
Video Rating: 3.5/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 3/5
Special Features Rating: 0/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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