Mike’s Picks: ‘The Major and the Minor’ and ‘The Set Up’

The Major and the Minor

MVD/Arrow, Comedy, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Diana Lynn, Robert Benchley.
1942.
In the first Hollywood directorial outing from Billy Wilder, a grown woman posing as a 12-year-old meets and gradually falls for a kindly and thoroughly aboveboard Army major — who probably isn’t even aware that he’s on the road to reciprocating her feelings.
Extras: Includes a taut and nicely crafted voiceover commentary from film scholar Adrian Martin; a half-hour interview with British critic and academic Neil Sinyard; and a 30-minute Ray Milland interview.
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The Set-Up

Available via Warner Archive
Warner, Drama, $21.99 Blu-ray, NR.
Stars Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter.
1949.
To some extent overlooked when it came out the same year as Kirk Douglas’s star-making rival boxing drama Champion, Director Robert Wise’s The Set-Up finally attained the rep it deserves after many years.
Extras: The Blu-ray includes separate commentaries from Wise and Martin Scorsese.
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