This has been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it as a young teen becoming addicted to the wit and charm of so many of the films of the 30's and 40's. I loved it for its humor, for Rogers' combination of sass, guts and tenderness, and for the way it winked at its own unlikely premise. I'd never given a lot of thought to the Lolita-esqe subtext addressed by many here. What strikes me about it now is that it's just one element of the theme of sex-as-potential-exploitation that's woven throughout--from the ogling of Susan in New York, to her unpleasant encounter with Benchley, to her exhausting attempts to avoid male teenage libidos at the military academy. What makes Wilder's treatment of that theme so wonderful, and perhaps why his films are not merely shallowly risqué, is the way that potential is just observed, rather than being the whole point of the movie. The point instead, in this film as in his later ones, is the capacity of mature, clear-eyed adults to navigate past sexual predators and through their own cynicisms to find love. POSSIBLE MINI-SPOILER: That theme is epitomized for me in this film in that last scene where Rogers is gloriously, luminously revealed as an adult, taking charge of her life and sexuality with eyes and heart wide open. I think that's really why I love this film. That, and the fact that it's charming and hilarious.
Review of The Major and the Minor
