At 11:26 AM 9/17/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>"Baardwijk, J. van DTO/SLBD/BGM/SVM/SGM" wrote:
> >
> > > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> > > Van: Dan Minette [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > > Verzonden: Saturday, September 15, 2001 2:30 AM
> > > Aan: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > Onderwerp: Re: Preparations
> >
> > > > What do you intend to do once you have annihilated an entire country?
> > > > Split it up between the neighbouring countries? Keep it for
> > > > yourselves and call it the 51st State of the United States of
> > > >America?
> > >
> > > See the Mouse that Roared for the answer. :-)
> >
> > See WHO?
>
>It was a novel and a movie (I don't know in what order). I haven't seen
>the movie or read the book, but I could probably get my hands on a copy
>of the book. I don't know when I'd be able to get to reading it to be
>able to provide a summary or anything, though; maybe Dan could explain
>what happened, and enlighten us both.
>
> Julia
First the novel, then the movie. I read the book long ago (it was on a
summer HS reading list) and have seen the movie a few times. Peter Sellers
is in it, playing at least 2 characters, and is hilarious as usual.
Briefly, the story is about the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, whose sole export
is a particular wine. When a California winery starts to produce its own
version, Grand Fenwick's leaders panic. Without the revenues from the wine,
the country is broke. So, they decide to declare war on the US, using the
California company's winemaking as an excuse. The plan is to invade New
York and immediately surrender, becoming eligible for massive Marshall Plan
type aid. The first thing that goes wrong is that Grand Fenwick's ultimatum
ends up in a State Department functionary's in basket and becomes lost. The
next that happens is that the Grand Fenwick army finds itself in New York
during an air raid. The city is deserted. The soldiers come across a
professor, who has just built the Q bomb, and some NYC cops. Because the
soldiers have the Q bomb, the professor, his daughter and the cops are
taken prisoner. When the US Government discovers what has happened, they
immediately surrender to Grand Fenwick. There's quite a few satirical
references to Cold War politics, etc, and later viewers may not get them
all. But it's a delightful little movie and has some important things to
say about the (then) current state of world affairs.
Then there's The Mouse on the Moon, but that's a different post.
john
