The Mouse That Roared, a short novel by Leonard Wibberly (made into an appalling movie - dont waste your time on it), about the smallest country in Europe, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, that declares war on the US over wine (the country's only export and now threatened by a winery in California bottling something called "Grand Enwick"). The Duchy knows it will lose, but that's the idea: if they lose, the US will send millions in "reconstruction funds".
So the Grand Fenwick army is sent to NY to invade the US (they get there by hiring a Portughese fishing boat), and instead of losing (like they're supposed to), they capture a scientist and his work in process, a bomb capable of destroying at a far greater degree than anything nuclear ever could. To great hosannas, the army returns, presents their captive and the bomb to the horrified royalty, who suddenly realize that, with this one munition, Grand Fenwick is now the most powerful country on earth.
The US responds by trying to buy the bomb back, by sending the country's ruler (an 18-year-old blond bombshell herself) a dozen full length mink coats, a whole raft of other bribes -- none of which works: Grand Fenwick decides to keep the bomb, for the moment.
Madness ensues. It's a charming little book, and has enormous potential for a musical. I worked with a friend on one version of it about ten years ago, and we both realized that, while the possibility is there, we simply weren't up to the task. But in the right hands...
"That duck was a sexual toy, and it was on display!" -- an unknown Nashville town leader
