April 4 movie: The Major and the Minor. Ginger Rogers wants to get out of NYC, but can't afford train fare home. What does she do? Why, dress up as a little girl to get the half-fare, of course. On the way she meets and falls for Ray Milland, an Army major who can't tell the difference between an actual 12 year old and a grown woman in pigtails. Hilarity ensues!
I wanted to like this, or at least watch it, because it's Billy Wilder's US directorial debut. But, yuck. I mean, yuck! Rogers might have made a convincing 12 year old in 1932, but by 1942 she was already 31. I guess they were trying to make "adult Ginger" more beautiful by comparison, but they did a terrible job of making her up as "child Ginger." She looks all blotchy and way older than she really was. The result was a prematurely aged Rogers in a little dress and pigtails, staring longingly at dumb-ass Milland and calling him "Uncle Phillip" while he calls her "dear child." Seriously cringe-inducing, though I suppose people with a infantilism fetish might enjoy it.
The creep factor got to me and I gave up halfway through. But I can tell you with near certainty that Milland and Rogers end up together, they get rid of his fiancee in such a way that the fiancee is humiliated and the blame is on her, and he gets his career back in active military service. The only thing I'm not sure of is whether Rogers eventually comes clean with Milland or poses as her own older sister.
2 Comments
HA! i was totally watching this too--did yours keep like glitching out and freezing?
actually i like this movie, i've seen it like four times and it's entirely stupid (and yes, creepy), but i love ginger rogers and the fiancee's sister and how everyone in the military school uses the same line about paris and the maginot line. and actually, if you're curious, the two of them break up the impending nuptials. the fiancee comes off sort of bad but isn't humilated.
ginger rogers poses as her own mother and then her cousin but finally "uncle phillip" figures it all out.
wow, you actually make me sorry I deleted this movie from the DVR! I'm going to end up watching it again next tiem it's on TCM. Good thing they re-run movies a lot :)