Feature Film | Comedy | UK/USA | English | 1h23m
Dir: Jack Arnold | Scr: Roger MacDougall & Stanley Mann | Novel: Leonard Wibberley | DP: John Wilcox | Prod: Walter Shenson | Mus: Edwin Astley | Ed: Raymond Poulton Cast: Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg, William Hartnell, David Kossoff, Leo McKern, MacDonald Parke, Austin Willis, Timothy Bateson, Monty Landis
When its sole export loses its lucrative American market to a cheap Californian imitator, Grand Fenwick, the smallest country in the world, quickly bankrupted by said turn of events, declares war on the USA in order to receive financial aid upon its inevitable defeat, in Arnold’s cheaply if solidly crafted, generally well-acted, and for-the-most-part hugely entertaining satirical comedy, which runs out of steam a little towards the end whilst desperately searching for a satisfactory conclusion. Unfortunately, for the residents of the tiny English speaking European country, their seemingly sound plan comes to naught, when, thanks to a great deal of good luck (or bad luck, if you like) they somehow manage, upon their half-hearted invasion of New York, to actually win the war by capturing the country’s brand-spanking new Q-Bomb, an explosive 100 times more powerful than its H-equivalent. With Grand Fenwick now essentially the most powerful country in the world, though still without a pot to piddle in, the country’s leaders look for some way to cash in on their perilous situation, whilst the world’s superpowers look on impotently. However, love somehow blossoms, and world peace beckons, anyway.
