The Major and the Minor (1942)

It is a performances centric movie

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

An adorable screwball comedy with a sitcom premise that involves Ginger Rogers having to pose as a teenager firstly in order to afford train fare back to her Iowa home and secondly to protect the reputation of a military man she meets on the way and falls for. The man is played by Ray Milland, and he displays some real comic chops as well as a lot of chemistry with Rogers. As films like this always do, it goes around the world and back again to justify the joke at its center, and you can probably guess even without watching it how realistic it is that so many people would actually believe that Ginger Rogers is a fourteen-year-old girl. But suspending disbelief is what movies like this are made for, and to resist its charms is to resist a delightful comedy.Grade: A

The Major and the Minor is the film that me fall in love with Ginger Rogers, turning me into the obsessive fan I am now. Miss Rogers is Susan "Susu" Applegate, who transforms her 30 year old body into that of a 12 year old and does so completely convincingly and in my view gives the finest performance of her career. I question how many actresses would have the ability to do such a feat. Being a super fan I would say that she should have won an Oscar for this acting marvel but I doubt the Academy would pay much attention to a weird little irrational comedy like this. Oh yes, weird, that is our key word here. If the premise of a 30 year old disguise as a 12 year old in order to get half fare on a train ticket doesn't have you raising an eyebrow then how about throwing her into a military academy with 300 male pre teen cadets. The whole family can enjoy The Major and the Minor, the kids can enjoy the smart alecky humor and the adults can enjoy the sexual innuendo....centered around children. That's one of the things that makes this movie great, it's so wrong on many levels (yet feels so right, or something like that) but contains that kind of innocence and naivety that only classic Hollywood can pull off. The British Board of Film Classification gives the film a current rating of "U" with the description, "contains very mild sex references", although I believe that's a gross understatement. Imagine if Lolita was a screwball comedy, you would have a result somewhere along the lines of The Major and the Minor.Ray Milland is an excellent leading man, well a leading man to a character whom he thinks is a child (yes this movie becomes more wrong the further I analyse it). I wonder how must have felt delivering such lines as "You like boys Susu?, 300 of them, all they're all yours". The ending of The Major and the Minor itself is disturbing on a number of levels. When Major Kirby discovers Susu is actually an adult and they presumably now fall in love as seen in the final scene, is he going to fantasize that he's going out with the 12 year old Susu? My other favourite cast member here is Diana Lynn as an intellectual child planning to become a scientist. This kid is so bad ass, I'm actually quote jealous of her. Normally kids in movies tend to get on my nerves, but not when they're able to outwit the adults, as seen here.The Major and the Minor was Billy Wilder's American directorial debut and already he has made the first in a long line of masterpieces. Exploring his films (including those he has written) I feel has been a journey for me through the annals of classic Hollywood and for helping to shape my sense of humour. The Major and the Minor marks another milestone in that journey.

For those who can't see the humor in this film, it might help to recall the Hans Christian Andersen tale, "The Emperor's New Clothes." Of course the 31-year-old Ginger Rogers, playing an early 20s Susan Applegate, couldn't pass herself off as a 12-year-old – even a taller, more mature looking 12-year-old. That is part of the hilarity of "The Major and the Minor." The obvious charade to viewers was shared by most of the characters in the film who first met Su-Su. When Susan scrubs the makeup off her face, and changes her hair, clothes, walking and talking, she does appear younger. But certainly not 12. And who really believed she was 12? Or, more to the point, if anyone didn't believe her, what would or could they do about it? The train conductors didn't believe she was 12. But were they going to search her for her real ID? Were they going to toss her off the train? It's a little different take on "The Emperor's New Clothes," but one can see the pickle people were in who refused to believe Su-Su (the young Ginger/Susan) when she said she was 12. So, the conclusion of most was suspension of their disbelief and just acceptance that she was an older 12-year-old than any other they had known. And, with that quandary understood, viewers can go on and enjoy this movie. And what a wonderful comedy it is. I agree with the several reviewers who saw the great chemistry between Rogers and Ray Milland, as Major Kirby. I think they and the entire cast and crew of this film were having loads of fun making this movie. I can imagine cast members not being able to keep a straight face for some of the scenes. Or the crew cracking up with laughter at some scenes. Every thing about this film is excellent. The cast are all very good. The directing, editing, scoring, writing, camera work and all technical aspects are spot-on. But the winning combo of Rogers and Milland is what ultimately makes "The Major and Minor" a huge success. The performances of the two leads are outstanding. Their expressions, glances, and mannerisms are right on target funny for the various scenes. This is one hugely entertaining and funny movie. It was made when the U.S. was less than a year into WW II. Its time was before the war, as Maj. Kirby talks about war being imminent. It was great entertainment for people on the home front then, and it's every bit as funny and enjoyable today. It's a wonderful movie for the whole family.

The set-up is a comic spin on the romantic longings of older men pining for little girls; and for young boys longing for older women. It's amazing that some of this made it past the censors.The scene where Miss Rogers' character is passionately kissed by an underage boy; and the earlier scene where Mr. Milland's character comforts her in bed on the train and how he begins to admit he is developing feelings for what he believes to be an 11 year old girl, is depraved. The film subverts wholesome values with a story that is heavy on the Freud mumbo jumbo and too clever and too ridiculous for its own good.Again how did some of this material make it past the censors? Is it because the elements are presented in the guise of a comedy, and that comedies are not supposed to be taken seriously?