The Parent Trap *** (1961, Hayley Mills, Maureen O’Hara, Brian Keith) – Classic Movie Review 2862

Writer-director David Swift’s inventive and amusing 1961 Walt Disney live-action comedy-adventure The Parent Trap tells the story of twin sisters who meet for the first time on a summer holiday and decide to try to bring their divorced parents (Maureen O’Hara, Brian Keith) back together again.

Excellent though both O’Hara and Keith are as Maggie McKendrick and Mitch Evers, the movie is most memorable for featuring the young Hayley Mills just being her splendidly winsome self in both roles of the identical twins, Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick.

This is good, old-fashioned entertainment for all the family that succeeds thanks to Hayley, the Oscar-worthy trick photography and clever editing, and the general air of good humour. It was nominated for two 1962 Oscars – for Best Sound (Robert O Cook) and Best Film Editing (Philip W Anderson) but failed to win. Check out the imaginative stop-motion title sequence.

Also in the cast are Charles Ruggles, Leo G Carroll, Una Merkel, Joanna Barnes, Cathleen Nesbitt, Nancy Kulp, Frank DeVol, Ruth McDevitt, Linda Watkins and Crahan Denton.

David Swift’s screenplay is taken from the novel Das Doppelte Löttchen by Erich Kästner, the author of Emil and the Detectives.

It was remade as The Parent Trap in 1998 with Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson and Lindsay Lohan.

It is followed by The Parent Trap II (1986, TV Movie), Parent Trap III (1989, TV Movie), and Parent Trap: Hawaiian Honeymoon (1989, TV Movie).

Joanna Barnes died on 29 April 2022, aged 87. The veteran actress had 100 credits, mostly TV, and was in two versions of The Parent Trap. In the original she plays gold-digger Vicki Robinson and 37 years later in the remake she plays Vicki Blake, mother of the new gold-digger. She was a lifelong liberal Democrat.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2862

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