4.0 out of 5 stars
"She looks kind of filled out for twelve."
Reviewed in the United States on 28 May 2008
Lest we forget, Ginger Rogers did have a successful movie career without Fred Astaire. Girl even won a Best Actress Academy Award. Ginger always was a fair hand at her craft, with the acting and the hoofing. She wasn't too shabby with the comedy, either, as this film proves. In 1942, Paramount Pictures released THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, which is delightful and was so well liked that it garnered a remake in 1955, YOU'RE NEVER TOO YOUNG (with Jerry Lewis playing the Ginger Rogers role), which pales in comparison. Note that THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR also launched Billy Wilder's career as a Hollywood director.
This is a starring vehicle for Ginger Rogers who plays Susan Applegate. Susan, after one year and 25 jobs in New York, finally has had enough of the Big Apple and is heading back home to Iowa. At the train station, she finds that she doesn't have enough money to cover her train fare. And the bus line, she learns, is on strike. But then she stumbles on a way around: Children under twelve get their train tickets for half-price. So, a bit of tugging and adjusting and one pilfered balloon later, Susan the scalp massager turns into Su-su, a pig-tailed eleven-year-old girl (but turning twelve, next week).
On the train but fleeing the conductors, she runs into Major Philip Kirby (Ray Milland), a military academy instructor and a concerned citizen, who allows the "lost little girl" to sleep in his room's bottom bunk. During a train delay, a misunderstanding involving Su-su lands Major Kirby in hot soup with his fiancee and her father (who also happens to be his commanding officer). Kirby then asks Su-su to accompany him to the military academy to straighten things out. This isn't the best of ideas...
While I haven't seen too much of her stuff, I do count BACHELOR MOTHER and THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR as two of my favorite Ginger Rogers comedies. I don't know how Billy Wilder pulled it off, but this film ends up a totally enchanting picture. Plenty of innuendo, of disguised salaciousness, but Wilder, very mindful of his American debut status, somehow keeps it all in good taste. It's a sexual farce, yeah, but Wilder mutes it enough that the audience don't squirm outright.
Featuring a sharp script and wonderful turns by Rogers and former child prodigy (pianist) Diana Lynn, this lighthearted comedy showcases several funny sequences, my two favorites being the hilarious Veronica Lake gag and the cadets' persistent "Maginot Line" ploy. Ray Milland is pretty good as the non-plussed Major Kirby, who finds himself at times oddly uneasy in Su-su's presence. Really, his performance can be second-guessed only when one learns that Wilder had had Cary Grant in mind for the Major Kirby role (and how great would that have been?). Ginger Rogers, who was around 30 years old at this time, physically doesn't really pass as a 12-year-old girl, but I'll take a cue from the film's original audience and be forgiving. Let's just say, she's convincing enough and wise enough as an actress that her Su-su doesn't once come off as annoying. Also, Ginger's talent for mimicry is put to very good use, not only with sounding like a child but also with aping a certain fiancee. Ginger and teenager Diana Lynn have some nice scenes together. Ironically, the most perceptive person in the film is Lynn's character, Lucy, who wastes no time in confronting Su-su ("Maybe you can bluff the grown-ups. You can't bluff me.").
For the captains of trivia, know that Ginger Rogers' real life mother pops up in the later scenes to play Ginger's onscreen mom. A lecherous Robert Benchley shows up briefly to inject his wry brand of comedy and to get his scalp treatments. This dvd also offers an introduction by Robert Osborne, host of the awesome Turner Classic Movies channel and fount of cinematic fun facts.
Ginger Rogers counted THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR as a favorite, of the pictures she made; it certainly was a hit with the moviegoers. But films like this - and BACHELOR MOTHER and
Kitty Foyle
- clearly demonstrate that Ginger Rogers did just fine without Fred Astaire.
Ginger Rogers...more than a hoofer.
3 people found this helpful
