I have to admit I’ve never actually seen “The Mouse That Roared,” one of Peter Sellers’ comedy classics, but I read the book, and several of its sequels, when I was a teenager, and loved them all. It’s high time for some sort of remake, maybe as a TV movie.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story, it concerns the tiny (and mythical) duchy of Grand Fenwick, tucked in somewhere between France and Switzerland. The country has fallen on hard times and comes up with an ingenious plan. The rulers notice that the USA often spends huge amounts of money to rebuild its vanquished enemies (the original book, by Leonard Wibberley, was written in 1955). They decide to declare war on the U.S., lose as quickly and painlessly as possible, and then wait for the relief dollars to roll in.

However, they don’t reveal the whole plan to the slow-witted but highly-patriotic young man whom they appoint to lead the invasion force. He takes his job seriously, but he and his comrades, armed with the nation’s traditional bow and arrow, arrive in New York City and can’t seem to get anyone to take them seriously.

They wander onto the campus of Columbia University and, by sheer dumb luck, into the laboratory of a kindly old professor (of Fenwickian blood, no less!) who has developed a super-weapon. They take him prisoner …. and the U.S. surrenders.

It’s all great fun. As I say, I’ve never seen the movie. I do know of one difference between the two versions — in the book, the Duchess who rules Grand Fenwick is a young woman, while in the movie she’s a dowager (one of multiple characters portrayed by Sellers).

Worth checking out, especially since TCM is presenting it as one of “The Essentials,” hosted by Robert Osborne and Alec Baldwin.