The Major and the Minor/Bachelor Mother [DVD]

On her first day of work, Sue Applegate (Ginger Rogers) has to escape the clutches of a lecherous client (Robert Benchley, whose favourite line is "Why don't you slip out of that wet coat and into a dry martini?"). Fed up with the big city, Sue decides to head home to Iowa with the precious $27.50 train fare she's kept in a sealed envelope since her arrival. The fare has gone up, however, and she is forced to pose as a 12-year-old to buy a half-price ticket. On the train, she has to dodge the suspicious conductors and bursts into the compartment of Major Phillip Kirby (Ray Milland), who falls for Sue's masquerade and harbors her for the night. The situation is further complicated by the major's fiancée (Rita Johnson) and her savvy 12-year-old sister (Diana Lynn), the only one who sees through the ruse. Add a stay at the major's academy and some escapades with young, hormone-driven cadets, and you have an enjoyable, if not quite classic, silly comedy, well paced by Billy Wilder in his first directorial effort. Rogers's real-life mother appears in a small role as Sue's mother. Rogers is only occasionally convincing as a 12-year-old, but after all she was 30 at the time. --David Horiuchi

Bachelor Mother

Ginger Rogers stars as a department store salesclerk about to be laid off after the Christmas holiday, who happens to be passing an orphanage when a woman leaves a baby on the doorstep. The orphanage assumes that Rogers is the mother, despite her protests; when they contact the department store, the owner's son (David Niven) decides to restore her job so that she can take care of the child. Before long, rumors are flying that Niven is the child's father, which fills Niven's father (the great character actor Charles Coburn) with joy. The plot expertly weaves a deliciously funny web of assumptions and denials, with Rogers, Niven, and Coburn turning in topnotch performances--Rogers, who sometimes overplays her comic parts, is brilliantly understated in what is one of her best roles. These great actors are combined with a smart script from Norman Krasna (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, It Started with Eve) and smooth direction from Garson Kanin (My Favorite Wife). Bachelor Mother is one of the most underappreciated gems of the screwball comedy era. --Bret Fetzer