The Major And The Minor coming from Arrow (1 Viewer)

[Astairefan]

Since nobody else has mentioned it, I was reading in the Blu-ray news on "the other forum" that the Billy Wilder classic The Major And The Minor is coming out from Arrow in September in both the US and UK!

 

[Matt Hough]

Another Golden Age classic would be most welcome on Blu-ray.

 

[Rodney]

I have never been able to maintain a suspension of disbelief with this film.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

My very very very favourite Billy Wilder movie. I'll be in on the first day. Disbelief? I just don't care about such trivialities. The ending is totally unbelievable. And totally perfect. Can't wait. And good news about the dual-region release, since Amazon.co.uk seems to have placed an embargo on Australia.

 

[RMajidi]

My very very very favourite Billy Wilder movie. I'll be in on the first day. Disbelief? I just don't care about such trivialities. The ending is totally unbelievable. And totally perfect. Can't wait. And good news about the dual-region release, since Amazon.co.uk seems to have placed an embargo on Australia.

Re Amazon UK’s embargo on Australia. I find Zavvi.com to be a reliable alternative. They ship product lines from most distributors, including Arrow, and often email discount codes. I’ll be buying The Major and the Minor either from Zavvi or directly from arrowfilms.com.

One of the few Wilder films I’ve yet to see, but with Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland in the leads, I’d be after this one even if it wasn’t Billy Wilder at the helm.

 

[Garysb]

Trivia- Lela Rogers plays her daughter, Ginger's, mother in the film.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Yes, I'll be trying Zavvi.com as well.. I can't keep up with amazon.co.uk; they seem to keep changing their policy on sales to Australia. They stopped sales after the Government started imposing GST at source on all foreign purchases, then started selling again after the US Amazon lifted their ban on sales to Australia, and has now banned sales again. Very confusing.
Still it's not as bad as trying to buy major Disney products which now seem for many must-have titles to have a world-wide ban unless you live in the USA and are allowed to join their ridiculously exclusive Disney club. Grrrrrrrrrrr.......

 

[Thomas T]

I have never been able to maintain a suspension of disbelief with this film.

You and me both! I've always been uncomfortable watching adults act like babies and Rogers had a penchant for it. In addition to The Major And The Minor, she was a baby again in Monkey Business (1952) and perhaps the most absurd, at the age of 35, she played an 18 year old juvenile delinquent escaping from a reform school in Heartbeat (1946). You can imagine my queasiness when she starred in a movie called Teenage Rebel (1956) but thankfully, saner minds prevailed and she played the mother rather than the title role.

Call me a heretic and burn me at the stake but I infinitely prefer the 1955 remake You're Never Too Young with Jerry Lewis in Ginger's role.

 

[Trancas]

perhaps the most absurd, at the age of 35, she played an 18 year old juvenile delinquent escaping from a reform school in Heartbeat (1946).

Oh my! I just read the synopsis on Wikipedia - that sounds pretty awful. Does "charming young runaway, Arlette Lafron (Ginger Rogers)" attempt a French accent to go with her 18 years of girlish innocence?

 

[B-ROLL]

Oh my! I just read the synopsis on Wikipedia - that sounds pretty awful. Does "charming young runaway, Arlette Lafron (Ginger Rogers)" attempt a French accent to go with her 18 years of girlish innocence?

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I believe she built Astaire way to Paradise !

 

[Thomas T]

Oh my! I just read the synopsis on Wikipedia - that sounds pretty awful. Does "charming young runaway, Arlette Lafron (Ginger Rogers)" attempt a French accent to go with her 18 years of girlish innocence?

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No, although the film takes place in France, no one in the cast attempts a French accent. The one exception is Jean Pierre Aumont who doesn't have to attempt a French accent, he is French! Coincidentally, it was a remake of a French film called Battement De Coeur with Danielle Darrieux playing Rogers part and that just arrived in my mail this past week from Amazon France so it will be interesting to compare them. I suspect the French version will come out ahead.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

To get back to The Major and the Minor. Her quite unconvincing 12-year-old really does add to the fun. Robert Benchley is especially good, as is the fellow who plays a lasciviously-minded clergyman. It's too too delightful for worlds.

 

[Trancas]

........it was a remake of a French film called Battement De Coeur with Danielle Darrieux playing Rogers part and that just arrived in my mail this past week from Amazon France so it will be interesting to compare them. I suspect the French version will come out ahead.

Hmmm.....I guess it might be easier for a 23 year old Danielle Darrieux to believably play an 18 year old.......

 

[Astairefan]

I'm definitely one of the people who really likes Ginger in this movie! So I'm definitely glad to see it coming! I now find myself wondering, with films like Going My Way coming from Shout and The Major And The Minor coming from Arrow, I wonder who the Abbott & Costello films are going to be coming from, since I thought Kino stated they didn't have access to them, either...

 

[Will Krupp]

You and me both! I've always been uncomfortable watching adults act like babies and Rogers had a penchant for it.

If memory serves, she played "little girl" for the first time in a KITTY FOYLE flashback scene and must have fallen in love with her own portrayal because that schtick does come up quite a lot after that. Isn't there a similar scene between she and the dishy Robert Ryan in TENDER COMRADE where they play teenaged versions of themselves? Perhaps briefly in the dreadful LADY IN THE DARK, too, or am I imagining that? Truth be told, I find her pretty insufferable in just about everything post-1940 so perhaps I'm not the best judge. When she gets the "cutes" (playing little girls or "hilarious" drunks) it especially sets my teeth on edge.

 

[Robert Crawford]

If memory serves, she played "little girl" for the first time in a KITTY FOYLE flashback scene and must have fallen in love with her own portrayal because that schtick does come up quite a lot after that. Isn't there a similar scene between she and the dishy Robert Ryan in TENDER COMRADE where they play teenaged versions of themselves? Perhaps briefly in the dreadful LADY IN THE DARK, too, or am I imagining that? Truth be told, I find her pretty insufferable in just about everything post-1940 so perhaps I'm not the best judge. When she gets the "cutes" (playing little girls or "hilarious" drunks) it especially sets my teeth on edge.

TBH, I was never a big Ginger Rogers fan even in her musicals with Fred. I wouldn't go as far as saying she's insufferable as I can watch her films, but just not a big fan.

 

[Thomas T]

TBH, I was never a big Ginger Rogers fan even in her musicals with Fred. I wouldn't go as far as saying she's insufferable as I can watch her films, but just not a big fan.

Her Oscar win for Kitty Foyle is a real head scratcher. Her performance never rises above average yet she won over some iconic performances from Bette Davis (The Letter), Katharine Hepburn (Philadelphia Story) and Joan Fontaine (Rebecca).

 

[Robert Crawford]

Her Oscar win for Kitty Foyle is a real head scratcher. Her performance never rises above average yet she won over some iconic performances from Bette Davis (The Letter), Katharine Hepburn (Philadelphia Story) and Joan Fontaine (Rebecca).

I'm not going to argue with you there. I can see those other women losing to the other's performance that year, but to Ginger in Kitty Foyle. Just another example of why I view the Oscars as a jaded process.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

I'm sorry, but this is not a forum for such inane arguments. How can anyone not love Ginger her to distraction, in her early Busby Berkeley appearances, in all her roles with Fred, and in 'The Major and the Minor'? I refuse to read such arrant nonsense. I'm all for free speech, but this sort of talk endangers our society. Sedition. Send them to the tower. Or the guillotine. Whatever you prefer as your favoured mode of execution.
Am I being too harsh? I don't think so. Not harsh enough, methinks.

 

[B-ROLL]

I'm sorry, but this is not a forum for such inane arguments. How can anyone not love Ginger her to distraction, in her early Busby Berkeley appearances, in all her roles with Fred, and in 'The Major and the Minor'? I refuse to read such arrant nonsense. I'm all for free speech, but this sort of talk endangers our society. Sedition. Send them to the tower. Or the guillotine. Whatever you prefer as your favoured mode of execution.
Am I being too harsh? I don't think so. Not harsh enough, methinks.

You neglected to mention her appearance as the Queen in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1965 version) !