The plot is essentially this: Ginger Rogers stars as Susan Applegate, a girl from Iowa who came to New York to try to make her fortune. To her dismay, she finds herself stuck in a series of dead end jobs, the latest of which is as a "Revigorous System" scalp massager. When her first client is a creep who makes a very heavy pass at her (repelled by the use of company product) Susan is fed up, broke, and determined to go home. When she arrived in New York by train, Susan had sealed the exact amount of cash for a return ticket in an envelope so that, no matter what happened, she would always be able to go home. When she arrives at the station with her suitcase, however, she is dismayed to find that the price of the trip to Iowa has been increased and she can no longer afford a ticket.
I recently watched the 1942 movie The Major And The Minor starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. I love Ginger Rogers as an actress; I'm not just talking about her flicks with Fred Astaire (those are great, of course) but her other movies as well. I hadn't seen this one before, though I've been meaning to for a while. The plot is essentially this: Ginger Rogers stars as Susan Applegate, a girl from Iowa who came to New York to try to make her fortune. To her dismay, she finds herself stuck in a series of dead end jobs, the latest of which is as a "Revigorous System" scalp massager. When her first client is a creep who makes a very heavy pass at her (repelled by the use of company product) Susan is fed up, broke, and determined to go home. When she arrived in New York by train, Susan had sealed the exact amount of cash for a return ticket in an envelope so that, no matter what happened, she would always be able to go home. When she arrives at the station with her suitcase, however, she is dismayed to find that the price of the trip to Iowa has been increased and she can no longer afford a ticket. While she is standing near the ticket booth wondering what to do, Susan overhears a mother buying tickets for herself and her two children and realizes that children twelve and under only pay half fare. She disappears into the ladies room, then reappears with her hair in braids, her skirt pulled up to school girl level, and in bobby socks. She buttonholes a passing man and offers to pay him a small amount if he'll buy a child's ticket for his "daughter". He does so, but then pockets the rest of Susan's money and walks away, knowing she's in no position to call him on it. Fuming and penniless, Susan boards the train but reasons that at least she's going home. On the train, Susan- or Su-Su as she calls herself- acts in a childish manner but the two conductors are suspicious, and eventually find her out by catching her smoking. She dodges through the train cars, trying to elude them and shuts herself in what she thinks is an empty compartment to hide. It turns out to be occupied by Major Philip Kirby (Ray Milland) who is returning to his position as an instructor at a military academy. Believing her to be the frightened twelve year old Su-Su claims to be, he tells her that, since he has a double berth, she can spend the night in the lower bunk and make use of his compartment until he disembarks the following day. While they're co-habiting the room, Kirby confides that he believes that the States will be entering the War, and hopes to be transferred overseas. Susan is charmed by the easy-going and gentlemanly Major and begins to feel sorry that he'll be leaving the train the following day. And not just because she'll lose the compartment. Major Kirby's departure is put off however, because the following morning the train runs into some flooding and must stop until the tracks are passable again. Hearing about the delay, Philip's fiancee Pamela Hill asks her father, who is the commanding officer at the academy, to drive with her to meet the train and take Philip the rest of the way by car. She boards the train and makes her way to Kirby's compartment where she finds, to her horror, Susan asleep in the bunk. Philip, who has been walking about the train, returns just in time to meet Pamela storming out, accusing him of cheating on her. She does not stay long enough for him to explain. Dismayed by this misunderstanding becoming a scandal which could cost him not only his fiancee but his position, Philip asks Susan to come with him to the academy so he can prove to Pamela and her father that she's just a child that he was helping. Then, he says, he'll put her on the next train to Iowa; she can call her mother from the school to explain about the delay. Susan is sympathetic but reluctant, well aware that her disguise will not hold up to prolonged scrutiny. But she allows herself to be talked into it and, once the train is underway again, travels with Philip to the academy, full of misgivings. (To Be Continued...)
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