The Major and the Minor Movie Review 1942

Very funny comedy that marked Wilder's directorial debut. Susan Applegate (Rogers) decides she's had it with New York and wants to head home to Iowa, but she only has enough money for a child's half-price train ticket. So she passes herself off as a 12-year-old (!) and then runs into problems when Army major Kirby (Milland), who's traveling to a boys military school, decides to take the child under his protective wing. Soon he's insisting Susan stay at the school until her mother (played by Rogers' mother Lela) can collect her. Potentially risque situations never cross the line into sleaze but remain bright and breezy.

Distribution

Universal Studios Home Video, 100 Universal City Plz., Universal City, CA 91608-9955, Phone: (818)777-1000, Fax: (818)866-1483, URL: http://www.universalstudios.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS
Running time 101 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Screwball Comedy, Not-So-True Identity, School Daze, Trains, Military: Army, Military School

Screenplay

Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett

Cast

Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley, Diana Lynn, Frankie Thomas

Cinematography

Leo Tover

Director

Billy Wilder

Music

Robert Emmett Dolan

Producer

Jr. Arthur Hornblow, Paramount Pictures