I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Ginger Rogers was lucky in that she wasn't pigeonholed into being a specific type of character and that she can play a variety of characters in different roles. She demonstrated a real knack for comedy here, in Billy Wilder's first job of direction. Ginger Rogers can't afford an adult train fare to Iowa, so she disguises herself as a pre-teen, and from there the film progresses into one long funny con-game.I loved watching Ginger assemble her little girl outfit in the bathroom of the train station. Granted, even without makeup and with her hair in pigtails, Rogers does not look 12. However, that is also part of the comedy of the film. Co-star Ray Milland's character has poor eyesight in one eye and as a result, he cannot tell that she simply looks too old to be 12. I thought Rogers looked very pretty with just minimal makeup and with the darker hair.Milland's character's fiancee's sister, Lucy, was hilarious and she was the one person who called Rogers out on her farce right away. Lucy is the real brains in the film and she actually says what the audience is thinking: "She doesn't look 12!" I loved how she blackmailed Rogers into helping out Milland whom Lucy seems to genuinely care about. She does not like her sister. And good for Rogers for being a 20-something ( actually a 30-something) who could still fit into a teenager's clothes! The squeaky voiced cadets at the school were funny with them all having the same pickup line about Sudan. I especially liked the cadet who thought he was more sophisticated because he was from New York. The actor played Nancy Drew's boyfriend Ted Nickerson (Ned Nickerson in the books) in the "Nancy Drew" films with Bonita Granville.Robert Benchley was great as Rogers' old customer who by sheer coincidence is the father of the New York cadet. He always did the befuddled sophisticate very well and with great dry humor.There were many things in this film that I recognized from I Love Lucy. 1) Rogers' hair treatment on Benchley with the oil, eggs and painful massage is similar to Lucy's scalp treatment on Ricky when he thinks he's losing is hair. 2) The cadets sing "Sweet Sue" on the way to picking up Rogers. That song was the song that the Ricardos and Mertzes sing in the "Breaking the Lease" episode. 3) Benchley's character's wife played Mrs. Benson in the episode where Lucy and Ricky moved into the 2-bedroom apartment.What was so interesting was the whole angle of an adult pretending to be a child who is falling in love with an adult who thinks she's a child. I thought it was strange when Milland complimented "12 year old" Rogers on her legs saying that they were a "nice shape" (or something like that). That seems like a strange comment to make toward a child. It's not something you'd see today in film.I liked that Milland's character kept meeting Rogers at all these different ages: 12, 20s, presumably 40s-50s and didn't really seem to question it, only that it was remarkable how all these ladies look so much alike.I saw this on the Universal DVD (although it's actually a Paramount film) the other night, and Robert Osborne's introduction is great, but it is a bit sad seeing him looking so hearty and strong in this eight year old DVD release versus the downturn his health has taken recently.

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.

A thirty-something Ginger Rogers has the impossible task of fooling all other characters in this film into believing she is a twelve-year-old kid. She gives a good performance and carries the film effortlessly, but you'd have to be blind to believe she was a pre-pubescent child. Some may get a kick out of seeing a grown woman wearing knee-high socks while carrying a balloon, but in this day and age they'll probably find more graphic ways of feeding their fetish.The script gets her into kids clothes by raising the cost of her train fare back home so that she can't afford the cost. Ginger hits on the idea of passing herself off as a kid so that she can travel half-price, but army Major Ray Milland takes her under his wing when she sneaks into his compartment to hide from suspicious conductors. The film starts pretty brightly with some amusing gags, but unaccountably loses its way once Ray and Ginger disembark from the train and the action is transferred to the military college at which he's stationed.This must have been pretty risky subject matter back in 1942, a fact borne out by the way that Milland's incipient attraction to 12-year-old Ginger is explained away by his 'bum eye.' At the end of the film he doesn't seem even remotely surprised to discover that the person he'd though was a gawky little girl is in truth a lush, full-bodied woman. Couldn't believe his luck, probably

Paramount Pictures finally gave Billy Wilder a chance to direct his own material with The Major And The Minor. This rather interesting comedy depends a great deal not on just Wilder's writing and directing, but on the considerable comedy talents of Ginger Rogers to put it over. It's not easy for an actress in the full flower of maturity to pretend to be an adolescent, but Rogers was certainly up to the task.Rogers plays Susan Applegate from Stevenson, Iowa who has had just about enough of New York. After trying several professions and making no headway in any of them, she's ready to cash it in and go back to Stevenson, maybe marry a local guy there. But cash is the problem when she comes up just short of the fare from New York to Stevenson. What to do, but pretend she's a child and travel for half fare.A rather interesting set of circumstances has her stopping off as a guest of Ray Milland whom she has 'fooled' into thinking she is only an early teen. That doesn't sit well with Milland's fiancée Rita Johnson, a real ice princess who suspects something's up. And Johnson's sister Diana Lynn knows there is, but doesn't care. Milland is an instructor at a boy's military school and the sight of his female guest sends the cadets into hormonal overdrive. Milland's feeling a bit antsy around Rogers though he can't quite figure out why.Wilder showed that even in his first film he was a master at slipping stuff by the censors. In a recent biography of Billy Wilder that was more important on this film than most because the subject matter was weaving dangerously close to pedophilia. Paramount was disposed to let Wilder have this project especially after another of their writers a couple of years earlier showed he had the directing chops. But Preston Sturges was given a tryout in the studio's B picture unit with The Great McGinty. The Major And The Minor was an A film all the way because Wilder was able to sell Ginger Rogers on the story. He also brought the film only slightly over budget which definitely insured he would have a directorial career at Paramount.Robert Benchley is also in the film as a lecherous old goat who is the one who finally sends Rogers packing to Iowa after putting the moves on her while she is trying the profession of masseuse. Wouldn't you know it, he turns out to be the father of a chip off the old block in the person of Cadet Frankie Thomas. Benchley's scenes in the film are precious indeed.The Major And The Minor still holds up very well after over 60 years, no doubt because of the risqué subject matter. It's a film definitely guaranteed to make you a fan of the talents of its director and its stars.