The Major and the Minor

Directed by Billy Wilder
USA 1942

Wilder's first film as director begins brilliantly with Rogers as a New York career woman disillusioned to find her house calls offering scalp massage constantly subject to male misinterpretation - in particular from a lecherous Benchley pursuing 'a little drinkypoo, biteypoo, rhumbapoo' - who masquerades as a pigtailed l2-year-old innocent in order to avoid paying full adult fare on the train home to Iowa. Very funny stuff as she meets Milland's protective major, and finds ambiguous refuge in his sleeping compartment, although it later proves to be a one-joke situation as she is forced to accompany him to the military academy where he instructs, and becomes mascot to a horde of hopefully lecherous cadets. Pretty irresistible, nevertheless, with Rogers doing a beautiful job of dovetailing sexual provocation and demure innocence.

Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: September 16th, 1942

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DVD Review: Universal - Region 1 - NTSC

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Distribution

Universal Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC

NOTE: Universal are releasing 4 vintage comedies on April 22nd:

Runtime

1:40:24

Video

1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 8.64 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Audio

English (Dolby Digital 2.0)

Subtitles

English (SDH), French, None

Features

Release Information:
Studio: Universal

Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1

Edition Details:

• Robert Osborne Introduction (2:12)
• Trailer (2:18)

DVD Release Date: April 22nd, 2008
Double-lock Keep Case
Chapters: 17

Comments:

I've never been one for vintage comedies but I LOVED this. It is warm and humorous and still has an 'edge' reminding me somewhat of Preston Sturgis' later work (he was a writer on this). Really, this film is quite brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable.

Well, there's an Australian, Spanish and French DVD version of this film but this is it's versatile disc debut in North America.... and it's a decent, if not stellar, one. Dual-layered with a strong bitrate the image quality looks fairly strong - yes, there is some noise and dirt but overall contrast carries the film through a wonderful presentation. Without seeing the other editions I'll bet this is the best of the lot. The captures do a fair job of identifying the strengths and weaknesses.

The unremarkable audio does the job without distraction and there are optional English or Spanish subtitles if desired. Extras are sparse - a 2 minute intro by perennial TCM host Robert Osborne and a similarly long original trailer. I think this is a steal for the price and we strongly recommend based both on the immensely enjoyable film and decent presentation on DVD. An easy purchase.