The Major and the Minor (1942) on Netflix
Working girl Susan Applegate cannot pay the fare home to Iowa, so she passes herself off as a twelve-year-old named Su-Su. She takes refuge in Major Philip Kirby's train compartment.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.3/108,641 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Susan Applegate has spent a year in New York City and a string of jobs, and the latest ends when a client, Albert Osborne, makes a pass at her. She decides to return to Stevenson, Iowa, and accept a standing proposal of marriage from Will Duffy, though she does not love him. At the station she finds she can cover only half fare, so she makes herself look and sound like a twelve-year-old called Su-Su. When two conductors catch her smoking and grow suspicious, she slips into the train compartment of Major Philip Kirby; he takes her for a frightened child and lets her stay until his stop. Philip teaches at a military academy and hopes to be sent to active duty.
Cast
- Billy Dawsonas Cadet Miller
- Lela Rogersas Mrs. Applegate
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Major and the Minor (1942)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ray Milland landed his role after Billy Wilder, driving home from the studio, pulled up beside him at a red light and impulsively called out, "I'm doing a picture. Would you like to be in it?" The actor answered "Sure."
- Ginger Rogers agreed to make the film partly because the story mirrored her own past: as a young woman, traveling by train with her cash-strapped mother, she had pretended to be eligible for a child's fare more than once and identified with the plot.
- Editor Harrison taught Wilder how to "cut in the camera", a form of spontaneous editing that kept the amount of film shot to a minimum and stopped studio heads adding footage the director deemed unnecessary; Wilder said nothing was left on the cutting room floor "but chewing gum wrappers and tears."
