The Mouse That Roared

The Mouse that Roared, a 1959 film starring Peter Sellers, based on the book by Leonard Wibberley, tells the story of the tiny, mostly forgotten country of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.



In the opening segment of the film, the narrator is trying to find the tiny country. Measuring no more than five miles (8 km) long and three miles (5 km) wide, the Duchy and lies in a fold in the Northern Alps, adjacent to France and Switzerland.



In order to resolve a budget deficit, the government of Duchess Gloriana XIII decides to declare war on the United States. They expect to lose of course, but expect their defeat to be followed by millions of dollars in foreign aid.



When the declaration of war is ignored, they send an invasion force to New York.



The filmmakers intersperse the scenes of this journey with map animations of their misadventures at sea. I just had some fun clipping these stills out of the video.



Without rehashing the entire plot, instead of losing, as ordered, the expiditionary force wins the war! Hilarity ensues. While not a map, this scene late in the film also caught my fancy. Regular readers of this blog know of my love for boardgames, so I was tickled by this scene where diplomats from Britain, France, the USSR and the United States, while waiting to cross the border, kill time by playing a boardgame:



The Mouse That Roared is an amusing little farce that showcases Peter Sellers understated comedic talent. Recommended.

Maps in Advertising

As I mentioned in my first post, finding this ad in a magazine really caught my eye:



Obviously, it is not a literal "road map", but the metaphor of a road map is that the customers of this Lexis-Nexis product will be able to find their way through complex information sources, without getting lost. Anyone who has ever used a road map to navigate through unknown territory should be able to relate to this ad, especially if you're the type that doesn't like to ask for directions...

When I saw this ad (1991?) I was not so familiar with the Lexis-Nexis corporation, or Ohio geography. So, I didn't appreciate at the time that they were using an Ohio road map. The floppy disk map includes Dayton where their U.S. corporate headquarters are located.


A map of the world, or a globe, are other common themes for advertising:

I guess it wouldn't be Christmas without a Bacardi drink



Obviously the advertisers are not using the globe as a way to indicate which planet they are on...

CS First Boston is rather transparent in their intentions

Perhaps they want to indicate their "global presence"...

Of course, MCI is now part of Verizon

or that their product is useful to everyone on the planet...

Does mean that CIBA is part of the Flat Earth Society?
and sometimes, it's just silly.

An Everlasting Piece, 2000, directed by Barry Levinson. Has anyone ever seen this film?