"
The Major and the Minor"
**** (out of ****)
Billy Wilder's "The Major and the Minor" (1942) is unfortunately one of those films they couldn't make today but its comedic premise - which shares similarities with Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" (1959) - is a piece of comedy inspiration.
It's a shame because "The Major and the Minor", Wilder's American directorial debut, is one of the great neglected screen comedies of the era along with "Nothing Sacred" (1937), "The Guardsman" (1931), and "I Married A Witch" (1942) among others. It's quite a coincidence that each of them deals with deception, identity, and love. "The Major and the Minor" can also add to that list age and wars among its themes.
Ginger Rogers plays Susan Applegate, a working class girl from a small town in Iowa who has had it with the New York male "wolves" she encounters. The straw that breaks the camel's back is her visit to Albert Osborne's (the great Robert Benchley) apartment for a hair scalp treatment. Albert has no interest in his hair but likes to take advantage of his wife's absence, hoping for a fun evening with this working girl. Susan however decides there and then it is time to call it quits and wants to head back to the simple life in Iowa where a dull man is waiting to marry her. It won't be an exciting life but it will be stable.
When trying to buy a train ticket, Susan's plans are derailed. The cost of a one-way ticket has unexpectedly increased. Not being able to afford full price fare, Susan hatches a scheme. She will disguise herself as a 12 year old girl in order to purchase a half-price child's ticket. Susan is able to get pass the ticket booth but has a more difficult time deceiving the train conductor. In a mad panic to hide she enters a compartment car room only to discover it is occupied by Major Philip Kirby (Ray Milland), who falls for Susan's ruse and allows her to stay in his room until her stomach ache goes away from eating too much candy.
This far into the scenario Billy Wilder and co-writer and longtime collaborator Charles Brackett have created enough hilarious moments for an entire feature film but Wilder and Brackett up the ante. The Major we discover is engaged to Pamela (Rita Johnson), whose father, Colonel Hill (Edward Fielding) is his commanding officer at an all-boys military academy the Major teaches at. Pamela, who has come to pick-up the Major at the train station, initially believes Susan is a grown adult woman and that the Major has been fooling around with her. In order to clear his name, the Major insists Susan, now going by the name Su-Su, accompany him at the Academy. Where Susan must now contend with hundreds of teenage boys, all of whom think Su-Su is quite a dish. If she thought the fast-talking men of New York were bad, wait till she meets adolescent, lust-filled teenage boys!
After Susan arrives at the Academy she is bunked up with Pamela's younger sister, Lucy (Diana Lynn). Despite being a teenager Lucy is able to see past Susan's charade. Is this a commentary on how our perception changes from childhood to adults? Children can see more clearly whereas adults are able to convince themselves of believing and accepting anything? Lucy and Susan however are able to bond and form a pact, they both want Pamela and the Major to split. Lucy knows - thanks to spying - her sister doesn't really love the Major and is secretly working behind his back to keep him from getting a transfer overseas. The Major believes the U.S. is going to enter the war in Europe.
On a side note the references to a possible U.S. entry into the war are a little behind the times. By the time "The Major and the Minor" was released in theaters - September 1942 - not only had war been declared on the U.S. - the attack on Pearl Harbor happened December 7, 1941 - American troops had already been sent over seas by September 1942 - deployments of troops hit the British Isles in January '42.
The brilliance of "The Major and the Minor" lies in Wilder and Brackett's screenplay which is able to find the right tone for this material, that in less talented hands could have been creepy and unsavory. After all this is a screwball comedy involving a grown man falling for, what he believes to be, a 12 year old girl. And yet "The Major and the Minor" is innocent fun. Take for example a scene on the train. It is late at night and Su-Su is sleeping in the Major's car. There is a rain and lightening storm that awakens Su-Su and by extension the Major. He comforts Su-Su in his arms to try and get her to fall back to sleep. He gives her a childish explanation of what causes lightening - dwarfs bowling. While the Major is trying to be protective and comforting, Su-Su is falling in love as she rests in the arms of this man. Here we have the challenge for the actors. They must always be playing a scene on two different levels reacting to the same situation differently.
This scene and all of the other scenes work because of the top rate acting. Much credit must be given to Ray Milland for making the character likeable. The audience never doubts his intentions are sincere and honorable. The film presents the Major's interest in Susan as paternal - Susan calls him Uncle Philip through-out the film. But on some level the audience has to question does the Major ever begin to catch on to Susan's scheme? A weak eye is given as a possible explanation for why the Major may not be able to tell Susan is a grown adult.
Ginger Rogers on the other hand has a bit more freedom to have fun with her role. Her 12 year old resembles a 6 year old with a lollipop and balloon in hand and speaks in a baby voice. Younger audiences won't catch the reference but it sure sounds like Rogers is doing a Baby Snooks impersonation. Baby Snooks was a character played by comedienne Fanny Brice on the radio. It is a far cry from Rogers' Academy Award winning performance in "Kitty Foyle" (1940). Rogers was coming off of her association with Fred Astaire and wanted to show off her acting range and ability. "The Major and the Minor" does a wonderful job accomplishing this. She wouldn't star in a proper musical and sing and dance again until she reteamed with Astaire for their final movie together, "The Barkleys of Broadway" (1949).
Despite the somewhat risque nature of the plot, "The Major and the Minor" does nicely fit in with the typical conventions of screwball comedy. One characteristic often associated with this style of comedy features a male character dominated by a female character. The male characters were often unaware the female characters were courting them. That's generally where the "screwball" element comes from. It takes the romantic-comedy and turns it on its head. That is definitely the case with "The Major and the Minor". It most certainly is not your typical love story. Neither character mentions falling in love with the other, because of the perceived age difference, and the male character struggles with his feelings throughout, perhaps not even realizing what his feelings for Susan are. Everything lies in Susan's hands. Between the two of them, she is in control of their future by revealing her true identity or not. Which leads to a separate issue - the deception of relationships - and how men are usually "tricked" into marriage. Remember neither Pamela or Susan is honest with the Major.
It is astonishing to think "The Major and the Minor" was Billy Wilder's first solo directorial effort. It feels like the work of a born filmmaker. In fact Wilder was
supposed to become the next Ernst Lubitsch. Whether or not he achieved that is up for debate but most film historians and critics believe he came the closest to capturing the famed "Lubitsch touch". Lubitsch's brilliant pre-code films added a European sensibility and adult playfulness to the Hollywood musical and romantic comedies. Wilder, who was already an accomplished screenwriter, even wrote screenplays for some Lubitsch films - "Ninotchka" (1939) and
"Bluebeard's Eight Wife" (1938). His screenplay for "Ninotchka" was one of three Oscar nominated scripts he wrote prior to directing "The Major and the "Minor".
Wilder ranks among my favorite comedy filmmakers, in a class with Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Ernst Lubitsch, and Preston Sturges. I wanted to make sure to discuss him and one of his films during the "year of me" - my year long celebration of my favorite artists and filmmakers in honor of my 40th birthday and the 15th anniversary of this blog. Ginger Rogers is near the top of my list among my favorite actresses alongside Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn.
Rogers I always felt had a naturalistic quality to her acting which made her an immensely likable personality on screen. This is to say nothing of her amazing talent as a singer and dancer. Like most movie fans I was first introduced to her through the Astaire / Rogers musicals -
"Top" Hat" (1935) and
"Swing Time" (1936). Those musicals hold fond memories for me as I watched them with my grandmother. The musical was her favorite genre and Astaire & Rogers ranked high on her list. Rogers also had a great flair for comedy whether it was in
"5th Avenue Girl" (1939) or later movies like Howard Hawk's "Monkey Business" (1952).
"The Major and the Minor" is a silly and outlandish comedy featuring two excellent performances by Rogers and Milland with an interesting commentary on the relations between men and women. Some viewers, especially younger ones, will find the plot nefarious and claim it has a disturbing hidden message. I on the other hand accept the film at face value and believe it was all done in fun.
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