The Great Mouse Detective (1966 film)

The Great Mouse Detective (Cantonese: 神探妙鼠 Jyutping: san4 taam3 miu6 syu2) is a 1966 Hong Kong mystery adventure puppet film written by Tso Kea, produced by Sze-Ma Yim-Lung and directed by. The film's main characters are all mice and rats living in.

Based on the children's book series by  and, it draws heavily on the tradition of Sherlock Holmes with a heroic mouse who consciously emulates the detective. Titus named the main character after actor Basil Rathbone, who is best remembered for playing Holmes in film (and whose voice, sampled from a 1966 reading of "The Red-Headed League" was the voice of Holmes in this film). Sherlock Holmes also mentions "Basil" as one of his aliases in the Arthur Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of Black Peter".

Produced by Wing Daat Film Company (now known as Reg, Louie & Braulia Films Ltd.) and Ying Long Film Company, the film premiered in London and Madrid on 20 and 25 June 1966 respectively, and was released in Hong Kong by on 2 July 1966. It drew a lukewarm public response and became a financial success.

Plot
In London in June 1897, a young mouse named Olivia Flaversham is celebrating her birthday with her widowed toymaker father, Hiram. Suddenly, a bat with a crippled wing and a peg leg burst into Flaversham's workshop, kidnapping Mr. Flaversham. Olivia searches to find the famed Great Mouse Detective named Basil of Baker Street but gets lost. A surgeon named Dr. David Q. Dawson, who has just returned from a lengthy service of the Mouse Queen's 66th Regiment in Afghanistan, meets Olivia and escorts her to Basil's residence. Upon their arrival, Basil is initially indifferent, but when Olivia mentions the bat that abducted her father, Basil realizes that Olivia saw Fidget, the assistant of Professor Ratigan, a villain that Basil has attempted to arrest for years. It is then revealed that Ratigan kidnapped Hiram to create a clockwork robot, which mimics the Queen of the Mice so that Ratigan can rule England. Flaversham initially refuses to participate in the scheme but capitulates when Ratigan threatens to harm Olivia. Ratigan plans to usurp the Queen and become "supreme ruler of all mousedom."

Meanwhile, Fidget appears through the window, and they attempt to chase him. Basil, along with Dawson and Olivia, take Toby, Sherlock Holmes' pet Basset Hound, to track down Fidget's scent, where they locate him in a toyshop stealing clockwork mechanisms and toy soldiers' uniforms. Fidget ambushes Olivia and captures her. Basil and Dawson pursue Fidget but are easily outsmarted. While searching the shop, Dawson discovers Fidget's checklist, to which Basil does some chemical tests to discover the list came from a riverfront near the Thames. Basil and Dawson disguise themselves as sailors and head to a tavern called the "Rat Trap." They find Fidget and follow him to Ratigan's headquarters but are caught in an ambush by Ratigan. Ratigan has them tied to a spring-loaded mousetrap connected with a Rube Goldberg machine laid out to kill them both. Ratigan sets out for Buckingham Palace, where his henchmen hijack the royal guards' roles and kidnap the Queen. Basil deduces the trap's weakness and escapes along with Dawson and Olivia just in time.

At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan forces Flaversham to operate the toy Queen, while the real one is taken to be fed to Felicia, Ratigan's pet cat. The toy Queen declares Ratigan the ruler of all Mousedom, and he announces his dictatorial plans for his new "subjects." After Basil, Dawson, and Olivia save Flaversham and the real Queen, they restrain Fidget and Ratigan's other henchmen, while Toby chases Felicia, leading to Felicia, thinking she escaped Toby by jumping onto a high stone fence, to be mauled by the royal guard dogs waiting on the other side. Basil seizes control of the mechanical queen, making it denounce Ratigan as a fraud while breaking it into pieces. The crowd, enraged by Ratigan's treason, turns on him, and he escapes on his dirigible with Fidget, holding Olivia hostage. Basil, Dawson, and Flaversham create their craft with a matchbox and some small helium-filled balloons, held together by the Union Jack. Ratigan tosses Fidget overboard to lighten the load, and he attempts to drive the dirigible himself. Basil jumps onto the dirigible to confront Ratigan, causing it to crash straight into the Big Ben clocktower.

Inside the clocktower, where Ratigan still holds Olivia hostage, Basil manages to get Ratigan's cape stuck on some gears. He rescues Olivia and safely delivers her to Flaversham. Ratigan breaks free and attacks Basil, eventually knocking him to the dirigible. When the clock strikes 10:00, the bell hits for the loudest sound, causing Ratigan to fall to his death, taking Basil with him. However, Basil grabs a part of Ratigan's dirigible and saves himself. Back at Baker Street, Basil and Dawson recount their adventures. After the Flavershams leave the house, a distraught new client arrives and solicits Basil and Dawson's help, with Basil noting that Dawson is his trusted associate, prompting Dawson to remain and assist Basil.

Voice cast

 * as Basil, a mouse detective.
 * as Professor Ratigan, Basil's nemesis. He and Basil are long-established arch-enemies.
 * as Major Dr. David Q. Dawson, previously of the Queen's 66th Regiment in Afghanistan. He eventually becomes Basil's associate, friend, and personal biographer. Dawson also serves as the film's narrator.
 * Nancy Tso as Olivia Flaversham, an eight-year-old Scottish mouse who seeks Basil's help in finding her toymaker father.
 * Alvin Ko as Fidget, Ratigan's bumbling bat right-hand henchman. He has a crippled wing and a peg leg, and, as a result of the former, he cannot fly. During the final battle, Ratigan betrays Fidget by throwing him off the side of his flying machine and he falls into the Thames.
 * as Hiram Flaversham, Olivia's affectionate Scottish father. He works as a toymaker and is kidnapped by Fidget to make the Queen Mousetoria robot for the evil Ratigan.
 * as Mrs. Judson, Basil's housekeeper. She adores Basil but gets very annoyed when he mistreats her good pillows by shooting them with a pistol.
 * as Queen Mousetoria, the mouse Queen of the United Kingdom, whom Ratigan attempts to depose.
 * as, the famous human detective who lives above Basil. His voice is taken from the 1966 Caedmon Records recording of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-Headed League".
 * as, the medical associate/partner of Sherlock Holmes, who also lives above Basil. Unlike Rathbone, voice samples of were not used for the voice of Watson as he had died in 1953.