Consistently amusing, if not hilarious, comedy. Too much on the pleasant rather than the cynical end of the humor spectrum, especially for Billy Wilder. And the subsidiary characters, beyond Diana Lynn, tend to be bland. But oh what a tour de force for Ginger Rogers who rings every possible register on the wise cracking dame as twelve year old. The first twenty minutes or so when Rogers breaks an egg over a leering elevator operator's head, kicks a creepy guy in the shin in a train station and evades suspicious train conductors is pitch perfect, screwball stuff. And when the movie starts to flatten out during the long stay at the military academy it's Ginger who keeps it moving with seductive dance moves directed at twelve year old cadets (perhaps spoofing her movies with Fred?) or fending off military seduction from said kids. Ray Milland, by contrast, seems to take whatever supply of pervy, Humbert Humbert risibility his character possesses and proceeds to drain it. Perhaps he was forced to do so at the behest of the Hays Office frumps. But, as usual in comedy, Milland is a bore. McRae would have been a thousand percent better. Or MacMurray. Let's give it a generous B minus (or minor) 'cause of Rogers and the fact that it was this great director's first film.
Review of The Major and the Minor
