THE MOUSE ON THE MOON—-droll and silly, frequently laugh-out-loud funny, this 1963 farce sees the ‘Duchy of Grand Fenwick’ enter the Space Race, after conniving loans from both the USA and the USSR.

There are misses, and its once-sprightly topicality has faded over the decades, but it still provides tickles with glib observations of International Bull and send-ups of dry twitdom in the script by Michael Pertwee, and in the fun setups from director Richard Lester.

The players are a delightful collection of Britain’s best masters of the high sly: Bernard Cribbins, David Kossoff, Ron Moody, Terry-Thomas, John LeMesurier and the great Dame Margaret Rutherford as the Duchess.  At 82 cute minutes, it’s a follow-up to 1959s The Mouse That Roared. Box office in the States was minuscule, 129th for 1963.

 With Roddy McMillan, June Ritchie, Michael Trubshawe, Tom Aldredge and Allan Cuthbertson.  On the strength of this, director Lester was given the reins to some other good-natured, outer-bound pranksters intent on having A Hard Days Night.