Ginger Rogers stars opposite Ray Milland in Billy Wilder’s first American-directed film, The Major and the Minor.
Released in 1942, the romantic comedy follows Susan Applegate, played by Rogers, a woman who disguises herself as a twelve-year-old girl to afford a cheaper train ticket. Milland plays Major Philip Kirby, a military-academy instructor who believes Susan is a child. The mistaken-identity premise creates the film’s central comic tension while allowing Rogers to shift between adult sophistication and deliberately childlike behavior.
The film was Wilder’s first American directing assignment after he had made the French-language Mauvaise Graine in 1934. Before directing, Wilder had established himself in Hollywood as a screenwriter, often collaborating with Charles Brackett. Paramount gave him the chance to direct after he and Brackett developed the project around Rogers.
Rogers had recently won the Academy Award for Kitty Foyle, and The Major and the Minor became an important early directing opportunity for Wilder. It was later remade as the 1955 Jerry Lewis comedy You’re Never Too Young, which reversed the gender of the adult disguised as a child.