The Parent Trap Information

The Parent Trap is a 1961 Walt Disney film. It stars Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith in a story about teenage twins on a quest to reunite their divorced parents. The screenplay by the film's director David Swift was based upon the book Lottie and Lisa (Das Doppelte Lottchen) by Erich Kästner. Kastner derived his version from a Deanna Durbin film Three Smart Girls. The Parent Trap was nominated for two Academy Awards, was broadcast on television, saw three television sequels, was remade in 1998 with Lindsay Lohan, and has been released to VHS and DVD. The original film was Mills' second of six films for Disney.

Plot

Identical twins Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick (Mills in a dual role) meet at summer camp, unaware that they are sisters. Their identical appearance initially creates rivalry, and they continuously pull pranks on each other, which ultimately leads to the camp dance being crashed by their mischief. As punishment, they must live together in an isolated cabin (and even having lunch together at an "isolation table") for the remainder of their summer camp. After both admit they come from broken homes, they soon realize they are twin sisters and that their parents, Mitch and Maggie (Keith and O'Hara, respectively), divorced shortly after their birth, with each parent having custody of one of them. The twins, each eager to meet the parent they never knew, switch places. While Susan is in Boston masquerading as Sharon, Sharon goes to California pretending to be Susan.

Sharon telephones Susan in Boston with news that their father is planning to marry a gold-digger, and their mother needs to be rushed to California to stop the wedding. In Boston, Susan reveals to her mother the truth about the switched identities and the two fly there.

With all four in California, the twins (with mild approval from their mother) scheme to sabotage their father's marriage plans. Mitch's money-hungry"?and much younger"?fiancée Vicky Robinson (Joanna Barnes) receives rude, mischievous treatment from the girls and some veiled cattiness from Maggie. One evening, the girls recreate their parents' first date at an Italian restaurant with a gypsy violinist. The former spouses are gradually drawn together, though they quickly begin bickering over minor things and Vicky.

To delay Maggie's return to Boston with Sharon, the twins dress and talk alike so their parents are unable to tell them apart. They will reveal who is who only after everyone goes on the annual family camping trip. Mitch and Maggie reluctantly agree, but when Vicky objects to the plan, Maggie tricks her into taking her place. The girls effect the coup de grace: Vicky spends her time swatting mosquitoes and being awakened in terror by two bear cubs licking the honey the twins put on her feet. Exasperated, Vicky angrily slaps one of the girls, and Mitch ends the relationship. Mitch and Maggie rekindle their love, and the two remarry in the final scene with the twins in the wedding party.

Cast

• Hayley Mills - Susan Evers/Sharon McKendrick
• Maureen O'Hara - Margaret "Maggie" McKendrick
• Brian Keith - Mitch Evers
• Joanna Barnes - Vicky Robinson
• Charlie Ruggles - Charles McKendrick
• Cathleen Nesbitt - Louise McKendrick
• Una Merkel - Verbena
• Leo G. Carroll - Reverend Dr. Mosby
• Ruth Mc Devitt - Miss Abbey Inch
• Crahan Denton - Hecky
• Susan Henning - Susan/Sharon double

Production notes

The screenplay originally called for only a few trick photography shots of Hayley Mills in scenes with herself; the bulk of the film was to be shot using a body double. When Walt Disney saw how seamless the processed shots were, he ordered the script reconfigured to include more of the special effect. Disney also wanted Mills to appear on camera as much as possible, knowing that she was having growth spurts during filming.

The film was shot mostly at various locales in California. The summer camp scenes were filmed at Bluff Lake Camp (owned by the Pasadena YMCA) and the family camping scenes later in the movie at Cedar Lake Camp, both in the San Bernardino Mountains near the city of Big Bear Lake in Southern California. The Monterey scenes were filmed in various California locations, including millionaire Stuyvesant Fish's ranch in Carmel and Monterey's Pebble Beach golf course. The scenes at the Monterey house were shot at the studio's Golden Oak Ranch in Placerita Canyon, where Mitch's ranch was built. It was the design of this set that proved the most popular, and to this day the Walt Disney Archives receives requests for plans of the home's interior design. Of course, there never was such a house; the set was simply various rooms built on a sound stage. Camp Inch was based on a real girls' camp called Camp Crestridge for Girls at the Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center near Asheville, North Carolina.

Musical numbers

Richard and Robert Sherman provided the songs, which, besides the title song "The Parent Trap", includes "For Now, For Always", and "Let's Get Together". "Let's Get Together" (sung by Annette Funicello) is heard playing from a record player at the summer camp; the tune is reprised by the twins when they restage their parents' first date. The title song was performed by Tommy Sands and Annette Funicello, who were both on the studio lot shooting Babes in Toyland at the time.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: one for Sound by Robert O. Cook, and the other for Film Editing by Philip W. Anderson.

Subsequent developments

The film was theatrically re-released in 1968 and earned $1.8 million in rentals.

The Disney Studios produced three television sequels The Parent Trap II (1986), The Parent Trap III (1989), and The Parent Trap IV: Hawaiian Honeymoon (1989). The original was remade in 1998 starring Lindsay Lohan, Natasha Richardson and Dennis Quaid.

In 1965, a Tamil version of the story called Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum, starring Kutty Padmini was released. The following year, it was remade into Telugu as Letha Manasulu. A Hindi version Do Kaliyaan starring Neetu Singh in the double role was made in 1968. The 1987 film Pyar Ke Kabil also has a similar storyline, as does the 2001 film Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi which has Kajol playing the double role of 23-year-old twins.