Customer Reviews

Major and the Minor

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4 star:		(4)
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This is a cute classic romantic comedy with a solid script and great actors playing the various characters contained therein. As other reviewers have noted, you have to be able to put aside the notion that the "girl" Ginger Rogers portrays manages to pull the wool over almost everyone's eyes in the movie with respect to her age. If you can do that then you will have a treat watching this film.

I bought this movie based upon the reviews I had read and was not disappointed this time around. This is a keeper.

Ray Milland plays an extremely nearsighted "Major" in the Army. There is a war on and his goal is to get in on it before it is over. He is engaged to a Colonel's daughter Pamela Hill (Rita Johnson.) Her goal is to keep him at a cadet academy and become a surrogate father figure.

Susan Kathleen 'Su-Su' Applegate (Ginger Rogers) finds it too expensive to make a living in the big city and intends to return home. To her surprise the train fair is now double what she planned on. Her only hope is to pretend she is a "minor" to travel at half fare.

On the train the path of the "Major" and "Minor" cross and the fun begins.

Will Su-Su get home?

Will the Major get what he wants?

And what becomes of the major's fianc'?

The answer is there are the big Maginot line and the small Maginot line ...

attached. I was pleasantly surprised by this excellent first time comendy directed by Billy Wilder. Some of the outside scenes were set at St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin.
The dialogue is smart & mature enough to hold up well 60 years later. Ginger disguies herself as a 12 yearold to get half fare on a train taking her home to Iowa from NYC.Anyone who cannot see that she is a sexy, beautiful, full grown women is an idiot. But she fools the Major played by Ray Milland. She stumbles into his private compartment, fleeing the conductors. They bond, in a way that wold get him arrested today as a pervert. But it's all innocent & hilarious in 1942. He becomes Uncle Phil & falls in love with her, uncomfortable with the fact that he thinks she is 12 year old "Zue Sue".
The scenes of her being pursued & kissed by eager, unknowing cadets half her age, are kind of 'corny' especially the seduction scene when she breaks out in a brief tap dance.
This is my second Ray Milland film in as many weeks. It could not be more different than his role as a drunk in "Lost Weekend" only several years later. I'm becoming a "late" fan of Milland & Ginger sans Fred.

who says this movie isn't classic? it's one of the funniest. Ginger somehow manages to be a surprisingly good little girl. (if not 12, then 14 maybe, but who cares?) she should have been nominated for an oscar at least. i don't know how this one made it past the censors untouched! on the train, when Ginger wakes because of the lightning, and Ray MIlland comes down to comfort her in her bed (he doesn't know she's really an adult) we can only imaginge what's going through her mind! and when she presse her cheek against his chest? HOLY MACKERAL! He thinks she's shaking because of the lightning, but we know better, heh heh...
Ginger is also Hilarious with all the looks and wisecracks that she gives. One of the best lines she has is, after being compared to a lightbulb (moths like lightbulbs) when Ray sees a cadet smooch her. He explains ( in another risque conversation!) that she should be careful around the boys, becase they're attracted to her. She replies: I'll try to be a well behaved lightbulb! Also watch for a little tap-dancing on her part, brings back memories of the thirties. But this movie is definately one of my favories dancing or no.

Last night (040404) I couldn't stop watching this movie, although I hadn't planned on it. Ginger may have gotten her Oscar for the unworthy Kitty Foyle, but she deserved a nomination for this first directing effort by Billy Wilder.
Just think of all the great acting and dancing Ginger has recorded! Awesome.

This movie was pretty funny, and I really enjoyed it, but the whole thing about a 12-year-old and a full grown man was a little... weird. Still, it's a lot of fun to watch, and I recommend it!

Even if it's not a "classic," it's funny. Maybe it's not terribly believable to those who know what 12-year-olds are like, but even so, it's hilarious. Rolling on the floor, side-splitting laughter type funny. Suspend disbelief, forget how silly the whole thing is, and just watch.

This is a fantastic movie. Even though it is Wilder's first film as a director (in Hollywood) it is very much his film. Wilder and Brackett's script is perfect. I've always thought that Ray Milland was a bit of a wet rag, but under the direction of Wilder both in this film and "The Lost Weekend," Milland comes to life. He seems capable of anything. Ginger Rogers sizzles. I highly recommend this film!

This film has raised a few eyebrows over the years, since the subject matter is of a grown man falling in love with a woman pretending to be a twelve year old girl. However, upon viewing, you will discover that this comedy presents the material in such an innocent way, you simply have to suspend disbelief and enjoy the complications that ensue. Ginger Rogers is the woman/girl who pretends to be the child to get the child's fare on the train since she is short on cash, and Ray Milland is the officer she meets on the train who takes care of her. She ends up at the military school where he works, and she causes quite a sensation amongst the young cadets. But more than that, she stirs up things in the relationship between Milland and his fiancee. Rogers does as well as anyone could playing a twelve year old in pigtails, making it almost believable that she could fool everyone. She's a lot of fun and well matched by Milland. Diana Lynn is terrific as Milland's fiancee's young sister, the only one who sees through Rogers' masquerade. There's a number of really funny moments, such as Rogers fending off the juvenile advances of the young cadets, and the hair "epidemic" of the girls at the dance (I don't want to give the funny visual away). Billy Wilder's clever dialogue is a treat to listen to (as usual) and deceptively adult. If you accept the premise of the film at face value, you'll find a number of laugh-out-loud moments and endearing characters in this comedy that is one of my favourites from the early Forties.

What a wonderful film! Billy Wilder has directed a cute and wonderful film that is timeless! When Susan Applegate (Ginger Rogers) has had it with the big city (New York) she discovers that while she was trying to build a career that her train fare has increased. The laughs begin there as she adapts her wardrobe to become a 12 year old half-fare customer. The suspecting conductors chase "Sue-Sue" as she hides and meets Major Phillip Kirby (Ray Milland). Major Kirby takes "Sue-Sue" to the home of his fiancée (Rita Johnson) and her 12-year-old sister (Diana Lynn). She is the talk of the cadets at the boys school, and causes a very lighthearted stir. Sue-Sue's relationship with the young girl (Diana Lynn) is impressive as is the insight of the young girl. This film is truly a classic!