Ginger Rogers passes herself off as a 12-year-old.
“The Major and the Minor” (1942) marked Billy Wilder’s debut as Hollywood director after writing many screenplays with partner Charles Brackett. A comedy that begins with disenchantment and leads to a masquerade and eventual complications, it stars Ginger Rogers as strong-willed Susan Applegate and Ray Milland as Major Philip Kirby.<br /><br />Susan is sick and tired of being pawed and sexually harassed by lecherous men in her job as a professional scalp massager in New York City, and decides to head home to Stevenson, Iowa. Finding herself without enough money for the adult fare, she heads to the ladies room, scrubs off her make-up, puts her hair in pigtails, changes clothes, and emerges as what she hopes will pass for a 12-year-old so she can buy a child’s ticket.<br /><br />The ruse works, but on board she faces the suspicions of a couple of conductors. Darting through the train to escape them, she ducks into the unlocked stateroom of Major Philip Kirby. Susan’s disguise and her childlike manner of speaking convince him that she is a frightened child, and he lets her stay with him until they reach his stop.<br /><br />Philip’s fiancee, Pamela Hill (Rita Johnson), and her father, his commanding officer at the military academy where Philip teaches, learn that his train has been halted by flooding on the tracks. They drive out to meet him, and Pamela discovers Susan sleeping in the lower berth of his compartment and imagines the worst. She accuses Philip of being unfaithful and tells her father.<br />Partly to ensure the safety of the “child” and partly to erase all suspicion, Philip brings her to the academy, where her mother can retrieve her and he can show his commanding officer that Susan is only 12 years old. Convinced, Pamela and her father agree to let Susan stay with them. Everyone falls for the masquerade except Pamela’s young sister, Lucy (Diana Lynn), who has reasons of her own not to blow Susan’s cover and becomes a kind of confidante and co-conspirator.<br /><br />The film’s premise might appear pretty far-fetched, since Rogers was 31 at the time. The viewer has to accept that everyone except Lucy sees through Susan’s 12-year-old alter-ego, which isn’t that convincing. Eventually we go along with the premise and enjoy seeing how an adult passing as a child negotiates the world of grownups.<br /><br />“The Major and the Minor,” co-written with Charles Brackett as well as directed by Wilder, is overshadowed by Wilder’s subsequent films, such as “The Lost Weekend,” “Double Indemnity,” “Sunset Boulevard,” and “Some Like It Hot.” In its time, however, it was a box office success. Previously, Wilder had written many top-quality scripts and was upset by how directors changed them. He longed to direct primarily to protect his scripts from tampering. In “The Major and the Minor,” there’s the same type of madcap fun that he employed to great effect in “Some Like It Hot,” with Susan leading a pair of conductors on a frenzied chase through several train cars. The train, in fact, is a story element that Wilder used again in “Some Like It Hot.” In both films, the protagonists are escaping from an unpleasant situation and the revelation is saved until late in the movie.<br />Rogers was Wilder’s first choice to play Susan. Though she’s best known today for the series of musicals she made with Fred Astaire, she turned to dramatic and comedy roles in the 1940s and won a Best Actress Oscar for “Kitty Foyle.” She’s a perfect choice for Susan in terms of star power, charisma, beauty, and comic timing. Though never convincing us she’s a 12-year-old, her attempts to capture the mannerisms of a child are often hilarious, sometimes coming off more like those of a 6-year-old than a preteen. Not only does she impersonate a child, at various points in the film she mimics Pamela’s voice and pretends to be her own mother. Rogers gives the film a lighthearted touch and adds considerably to its charm.<br /><br />Wilder’s first choice for the male lead was Cary Grant, but Paramount contract star Ray Milland ultimately got the role. Milland could play straight dramatic parts and comedy roles equally well. His distinctive voice and easygoing manner synch nicely with the rhythm of the film. The script is sure to have him repeat the word “child” over and over with regard to Susan to make clear that he is totally taken in by her disguise.<br /><br />It would be impossible to make a film like this today, since the idea of pedophilia would get in the way and audiences wouldn’t accept that a person could be totally fooled by Susan’s disguise (Wilder attempted to explain this away by showing that Major Kirby is crosseyed). Beneath the comedy is a significant theme. Susan is constantly suffering predatory advances whether as an adult or as a child, underscoring the fact that females are sexualized and preyed upon at any age. The movie was remade in 1955 as “You’re Never Too Young,” a comedy starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.<br /><br /> Bonus materials on the unrated Blu-ray release include an audio commentary, video appreciation, archival interview with Ray Milland, radio drama, image gallery, original trailer, booklet, and reversible sleeve.
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 {"Genre": "Comedy", "Format": "NTSC", "Contributor": "Ray Milland, Ginger Rogers, Rita Johnson, Billy Wilder", "Language": "English", "Runtime": "1 hour and 40 minutes", "Product Dimensions": "0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 3.53 Ounces", "Director": "Billy Wilder", "Media Format": "NTSC", "Run time": "1 hour and 40 minutes", "Release date": "September 24, 2019", "Actors": "Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson", "Studio": "Arrow Video", "Country of Origin": "USA", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : From one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed auteurs, Billy Wilder (.