The Major and the Minor (1942)

Review by All Movie Guide
Billy Wilder jokes about slipping his American directorial debut, The Major and the Minor, past censors in 1942. Seven years before Nabokov wrote Lolita, Wilder and co-screenwriter Charles Brackett penned a script based on repressed pedophilia -- a grown man takes an undeniable interest in what he deems to be a 12- year-old girl -- and watched it become a mammoth success. The Major and the Minor was one of the year's most popular films, breaking box-office records in both Hollywood and Los Angeles. As a director, Wilder proved that he could render a taboo subject crowd-pleasing, not simply with comic irreverence, but with insight and compassion. The Major and the Minor presages an essential human aspect of what would later be called the "Lolita story": the rejuvenation a young girl inspires in her much older male counterpart. Masquerading as young Sue-Sue, Ginger Rogers unwittingly enlivens Ray Milland's Major Kirby. Wilder and his actors approach this change innocently and naturally; it is appealing and sympathetic. Moreover, Sue-Sue does not only inspire Kirby's rebirth as a man, but also as a soldier. She is a key player in his much-desired return to active military service, a fact that marks the film's sincere acknowledgement of wartime preoccupations. The Major and the Minor, despite its tawdry premise, is a precocious film with a big heart. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide