The Major and the Minor (1942)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

The Worst Film Ever

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I cannot claim this as among the great comedy films which would come later for Wilder (I'm thinking Some Like It Hot Kiss Me Stupid and The Front Page) this is certainly very good. Ginger Rogers looks glossy and glamorous in the opening shot and is in the last shot too, giving an excellent performance in a part which could easily have fallen flat on its face. In this she is helped along by Ray Milland who gets every little thing right in another performance which could easily have fallen on its nose. There are plenty of plot twists and turns. The plot ground covered is unusual. A nice touch is that Ginger Rogers' mother is played and very well by her real-life mother.

The set-up is a comic spin on the romantic longings of older men pining for little girls; and for young boys longing for older women. It's amazing that some of this made it past the censors.The scene where Miss Rogers' character is passionately kissed by an underage boy; and the earlier scene where Mr. Milland's character comforts her in bed on the train and how he begins to admit he is developing feelings for what he believes to be an 11 year old girl, is depraved. The film subverts wholesome values with a story that is heavy on the Freud mumbo jumbo and too clever and too ridiculous for its own good.Again how did some of this material make it past the censors? Is it because the elements are presented in the guise of a comedy, and that comedies are not supposed to be taken seriously?

This was one funny film. Ginger Rogers is just a delight as a comedienne. Her films of the 40's were fantastically funny.The supporting cast, especially the Cadet's at the military academy, really compliment this little gem of a film. Ray Milland is sorta ho-hum but he plays his role well.What's a lot of fun about this film is when Ginger Rogers transforms herself into a 12 year old girl. You get to see, shockingly, Ms. Rogers without any makeup throughout most of the film. She does such a great job in this one I was smiling from ear to ear at the end of this.Just a sweet/fun little romantic comedy. It will certainly brighten your day. It did mine.

Okay, the audience is supposed to accept that Ginger Rogers, aged 31 at the time, is posing at an adolescent! This is patently ridiculous and if anyone could possibly pull this off, Miss Rogers was NOT the one! Had the film starred a very young-looking and less developed lady (such as Leslie Caron or Audrey Hepburn circa 1952), perhaps it wouldn't have seemed so ridiculous, but here it just makes the common-sense part of me want to scream. I just hate films with bad premises and bad casting--and I am not sure ANY actress could make this premise work. Oddly, this dopey plot was repeated a decade later when Jerry Lewis took on this same role--and he was 29 at the time! While Billy Wilder is a now huge name in directing, at the time he had no reputation in Hollywood so he was stuck with this utterly stupid casting decision. Had he been given this assignment later in his illustrious assume he would have likely refused such a ridiculous premise!The silly plot occurs because Ginger is trying to buy a train ticket but the rate has recently changed. However, the child fare is half-price and so she decides to pose as a kid!! On board, the conductors naturally assume she's an adult but oddly, Ray Milland is an apparent idiot and has no idea she's NOT a child!!!! So, since he's a gullible idiot, Ginger hangs out in his private room during the entire trip. However, when Milland's fiancée sees Ginger in his room later, she naturally assumes that this 31 year-old woman is a 31 year-old woman!! But, to convince his fiancée and future father-in-law that she is only a child and nothing inappropriate occurred, he brings Ginger with him to meet them at the military school. And, oddly, when they meet Ginger, they immediately assume that she is 12!!! This is dumb AND creepy--after all, it's better that she's a 31 year-old than a pre-pubescent female riding with a strange man!!! Now whether or not this is a watchable film just depends on how a able you will be to accept the premise. If you can somehow manage to not only believe the plot but also ignore all the creepy implications, the film is a lot of fun...and even romantic (especially at the end). I guess I just couldn't do this and the movie, despite its pluses, just didn't work for me. I couldn't get past Ginger's casting, her ridiculous impersonation of a child (calling it 'broad' or a 'burlesque' is way too charitable) and that Milland's character might just be a pedophile--a very problematic plot to say the least!