Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1960s
    Movies - 1960s Movies - P 3 Mins Read

    Parent Trap, The (1961)

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    They cloned Pollyanna. Not really, but that was certainly the effect Walt Disney wanted for 1961’s The Parent Trap.

    Young actress Hayley Mills had skyrocketed to fame the previous year as the title character in Disney’s Pollyanna, and Walt decided to capitalise on that success by giving the girl double billing.

    As twins Sharon and Susan, Mills proved more than up to the task, giving the spunky spark to this perennial family favourite.

    Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers first come across each other on a trip to summer camp, where each notices the uncanny resemblance.

    Taking an instant dislike to their mirror images, the girls engage in prank warfare, culminating with a no-holds-barred brawl/food fight.

    The camp counsellors at Camp Inch decide the best way to deal with the situation is to force the two to spend the rest of camp together since they’ll either learn to get along or quietly kill each other off.

    As the two start to warm up, they discover they’re actually long-lost twin sisters, separated soon after birth when their parents divorced.

    The girls decide to switch roles in order to meet the other parent and spend the summer coaching each other on their respective lives. At summer’s end, they switch places: Sharon goes to California to spend time with her father (Brian Keith), while Susan flies out to Boston to see her mother (Maureen O’Hara). They hope they can also reunite their parents into the bargain.

    The switched sibs manage to pull off the scam, but trouble arises when dad announces his impending marriage to gold-digging Vicky Robinson (Joanna Barnes).

    Sharon calls her sis in Boston, who tells her mother the truth and arranges to fly both her and mother out to spoil the wedding.

    The girls’ matchmaking efforts appear to fall short when mum and dad have a fight, but on the day mother is to return to Boston, the identically dressed-and-coifed twins refuse to tell which girl is which.

    That battle won, Sharon and Susan insist the family (including Vicky) go on a planned camping trip together, giving them time to sabotage one engagement and plot another. Of course, there’s a happy ending.

    The split-screen effect of having both Hayleys on screen at the same time was pulled off without a hitch, and the actress played both parts with equally sweet and sour precociousness.

    The movie was a smash, and Mills went on to star in a number of other films for Disney. In the 1980s, a grown-up Mills reprised her roles for a handful of TV movie sequels, and in 1998, Disney released a remade version of the original with newcomer Lindsay Lohan in the twin roles.

    Writer/director David Swift was so taken with the possibilities of a comic summer camp that he used the first part of the film as the basis for a TV series several years later called Camp Runamuck.

    Sharon McKendrick/Susan Evers
    Hayley Mills
    Maggie McKendrick
    Maureen O’Hara
    Mitch Evers

    Brian Keith
    Louise McKendrick

    Cathleen Nesbitt
    Charles McKendrick

    Charles Ruggles
    Verbena

    Una Merkel
    Vicky Robinson

    Joanna Barnes
    Edna Robinson

    Linda Watkins
    Miss Inch

    Ruth McDevitt
    Mr Eaglewood

    Frank De Vol
    Hecky

    Crahan Denton
    Rev. Dr Mosby

    Leo G. Carroll
    Miss Grunecker

    Nancy Kulp

    Director
    David Swift

    Related Posts

    • 101 Dalmatians (1996)
      101 Dalmatians (1996)
      Disney updated its classic animated tale with this live-action version starring a deliciously over-the-top Glenn Close as the infamous villain…
    • Peter Pan (1953)
      Peter Pan (1953)
      Sir James M. Barrie's book Peter Pan was a long-time favourite of Walt Disney's, and the pioneering animator worked for years to…
    • Journey of Natty Gann, The (1985)
      Journey of Natty Gann, The (1985)
      This Walt Disney production is a bittersweet tale about the friendship of a Depression-era waif and a domesticated wolf, recalling…
    • Paris, Texas (1984)
      Paris, Texas (1984)
      German director Wim Wenders miraculously accomplished what most American directors could never do - he made an absorbing film about…
    • Twisted Nerve (1968)
      Twisted Nerve (1968)
      Martin Durnley (Hywel Bennett) lives at home with his over-protective mother (Phyllis Calvert) and stepfather (Frank Finlay), who is worried…
    • Babes in Toyland (1961)
      Babes in Toyland (1961)
      Victor Herbert's operetta Babes in Toyland brought classic Mother Goose characters together through story and song. The opera had already been brought…
    • Sleeping Beauty (1959)
      Sleeping Beauty (1959)
      Based on Charles Perrault's enduring fairy tale, this was Disney's most expensive cartoon to date, costing $6 million and taking…
    • Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The (1992)
      Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The (1992)
      Disney moved in on the quick-buck slasher market with this disarmingly tacky rip-off of Fatal Attraction (1987) and every crazed-nanny flick…

    Disney
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleParadise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
    Next Article Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid (1973)

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Pelé
      Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé was Brazil’s soccer […]
    • Wattoo Wattoo
      1 9 7 8 (France) 60 x 5 minute episodes This 5-minute French […]
    • Maya
      1 9 6 7 – 1 9 6 8 (USA) 18 x 60 minute episodes Young […]
    • Night Tide (1961)
      Production executive and sometime avant-garde film-maker Curtis […]
    • Kodiak
      1 9 7 4 (USA) 4 x 30 minute episodes This short-lived ABC series […]
    • Fast Talking (1984)
      Shot on Super 16mm film and then blown up to 35 mm for […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disco Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.