"THE PARENT TRAP" (1961) Review

 

"THE PARENT TRAP" (1961) Review

One of the most beloved films from the Disney Studios' live-action collection is the 1961 romantic-comedy, "THE PARENT TRAP". Based upon Erich Kästner's 1949 novel, "Lisa and Lottie" aka "Das doppelte Lottchen"</i>, the movie was a box office hit that earned two Academy Award nominations and produced three television sequels in the 1980s and a remake in 1998.

As I had pointed out in the previous paragraph, "THE PARENT TRAP" was an adaptation of "Lisa and Lottie". However, Wikipedia claimed that the movie's plot bore a stronger resemblance to the 1945 movie, "TWICE BLESSED". I have read the plot summaries for both the novel and the movie. If I must be honest, I believe the 1961 movie bore a closer resemblance to Kästner's novel. "THE PARENT TRAP" began when teenagers Sharon McKendrick of Boston, Massachusetts and Susan Evers of Monterey, California meet at a summer camp for girls. Their identical appearance causes jealousy, resentment, and a rivalry between them in which they continually get each other in trouble and disrupt camp activities. The camp's owner Miss Inch punishes the pair by forcing them to spend the remainder of the camp season rooming and dining together in isolation. Sharon and Susan overcome their mutual dislike when they discover they are identical twin sisters whom their parents had separated upon divorcing shortly after their birth. Eager to meet the parents from whom they were separated, Susan and Sharon decide to switch places, cut their hair identically, and coach each other on their lives. Susan becomes acquainted with her mother, Margaret "Maggie" McKendrick and her maternal grandparents in Boston. Sharon becomes acquainted with her father, Mitch Evers and his longtime employees at his ranch in Monterey. But when Sharon learns of Mitch's engagement to a gold-digger named Vicky Robinson, who intends to send Susan to a boarding school following the wedding, she informs Susan and the twins decide to end their charade in order to reunite their parents.

I was surprised to learn that "THE PARENT TRAP" had a running time of 128 minutes. This struck me as a bit long for a romantic comedy about two teenage girls plotting to reunite their divorced parents. Mind you, I thought the summer camp sequence seemed a bit longer than necessary. It could be that I was impatient for Sharon and Susan to leave their summer camp in order to put their deception into motion. Then again . . . yeah, I believe the camp sequence could have been shortened a bit. But it seemed like a minor hiccup in an otherwise well-paced film. I found the narrative, which explored family ties, past mistakes and romance with a great deal of humor and surprising pathos, so engrossing that the rest of the movie zoomed by without any notice of its running time by me. May I be frank? I thought David Swift did an excellent job as both screenwriter and director in translating Kästner's novel to film.

But the summer camp sequence was not the only aspect of the film I found a little troubling. I had one other quibble - namely the past history of the Evers-McKendrick family dynamic. As much as I had enjoyed this film, I found it troubling that Maggie McKendrick and Mitch Evers had kept the girls apart for so long . . . all due to the acrimonious nature of their divorce. This was also the case in Kästner's novel and in "TWICE BLESSED". Worse, neither parent allowed Sharon to know their father or Susan to know their mother. I found Maggie and Mitch's actions rather cruel and unnecessary. And the twins only questioned their parents' decision once . . . twice in the movie. However . . . I do realize that without Maggie and Mitch's decision to keep the girls apart, the story would have never worked.

But there were many aspects of "THE PARENT TRAP" I did enjoy. The movie featured first-rate production values. Not only was the film shot in different locations in California, but also in Boston, Massachusetts, thanks to Lucien Ballard's sharp and colorful photography. As Production Designer, Ken Anderson did an excellent job in projecting the film's different settings in Monterey, Boston and the unknown location for Miss Inch's Summer Camp for Girls. Although I believe the Inch summer camp sequence required a bit more editing, I thought Philip Anderson did a first-rate job as the film's editing.

Earlier I had commented on David Swift's role as the film's screenwriter and director. "THE PARENT TRAP" featured a great number of scenes I really enjoyed. One of them featured Sharon and Susan's realization that they were twin sisters. I thought it was a beautifully poignant moment that also struck me as a bit sad. I also felt the same when Maggie and her parents discovered Susan's true identity following a long-distance call Sharon made to her. Sharon's constant arguments with Mitch over his fiancée Vicky Robinson hilarious. Also, Mitch and Maggie's scenes together were either very funny or charmingly poignant. However, there are two sequences that I consider to be the film's pièce de resistances - the Evers-McKendrick family reunion following Susan and Maggie's arrival at Mitch's ranch and the infamous camping trip near the film's end. The latter featured a good number of funny moments in which Susan and Sharon inflicted a very reluctant Vicky with a series of pranks to remind her of the price of being their future stepmother. Yes, it was systematic and cruel. But since I disliked Vicky so much, I really did not care. For me, the movie's funniest sequence revolved around Susan and Maggie's arrival at the Evers ranch . . . and Mitch's hilarious reaction to seeing his ex-wife and both of his daughters together for the first time in over a decade. Granted, the cast's performances in this sequence were top-notch. But I do not believe it would have worked without Brian Keith's comedic performance.

Speaking of performances, I might as well comment on the cast. "THE PARENT TRAP" featured some first-rate performances not only from those in supporting roles, but also from the leads. Mind you, I was not particularly impressed one way or the other from those who barely had a line, including actress Nancy Culp, who portrayed one of the summer camp's counselors. Another year or two would pass before Culp's more memorable nine-year run as Miss Jane Hathaway on CBS's "THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES". But there were supporting performances that did attract my notice. One came from veteran actress Ruth McDevitt, who gave an entertaining performance as Miss Abbey Inch, the ladylike owner of the Miss Inch's Summer Camp for Girls. Charles Ruggles and Cathleen Nesbitt created a first-rate screen team as Maggie McKendrick's parents - the witty and observant Charles McKendrick and the emotional, yet slightly controlling Louise McKendrick. Crahan Denton gave a subtle, yet funny performance as Mitch's ranch foreman, Hecky. Una Merkel was very funny as Mitch's sharp-tongue housekeeper, Verbena. Leo G. Carroll proved to be sly, yet charming as Reverend Dr. Mosby, the minister set to marry Mitch and Vicky. Linda Watkins' performance as Vicky's ambitious mother, Edna Robinson, dripped deliciously with malice and greed. Joanna Barnes' performance as Vicky Robinson struck me as a bit more subtle as Watkins, yet equally effective in the character's own greed and ambition.

Disney Studios cast Maureen O'Hara to portray the sisters' Boston Brahmin mother, Margaret "Maggie" McKendrick. Judging from Maggie's early appearances in the movie, one would be inclined to view her as a soft-spoken, yet genteel woman. Yet, the movie's second half revealed Maggie's iron-will, talent for manipulation and quick temper underneath the gentility. And O'Hara did an exceptional job of conveying all of Maggie's traits with a smooth and skillful performance. She also managed to create a sizzling screen chemistry with Brian Keith, who portrayed her ex-husband and the twins' father, Mitchell "Mitch" Evers. In my opinion, Keith gave a hilarious and, in my opinion, the second-best performance in the movie as the twins' beleaguered father. As I had indicated earlier, the scene featuring Mitch's reunion with his ex-wife and both daughters proved to be the movie's funniest moment, thanks to Keith's performance. But in the end, it was Hayley Mills who truly made "THE PARENT TRAP" a success, thanks to her portrayal of the twins Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers. Mills, who had been fourteen when the movie was shot, did an exceptional job of portraying the two sisters - the reserved Sharon and the more gregarious Susan - with such ease and skill. In an interview, Mills had stated that she used two different accents for her portrayal of the twins. I must confess that Mills seemed to use the same mid-Atlantic accent for both Sharon and Susan. But I did notice she had utilized different diction styles for the twins - a casual California slang for Susan and for Sharon, a more formal style of speech for the upper-class Bostonian Sharon. It seemed a travesty to me that Mills never received any acting nominations or awards for her performance.

It has been over sixty years since Disney Studios first released "THE PARENT TRAP" in theaters. One would believe it has not held up after so long. Yet, in my eyes, it has. "THE PARENT TRAP" has remained a first-rate family comedy and romance thanks to David Swift's screenplay and direction, along with a phenomenal cast led by the very talented Hayley Mills.

"THE PARENT TRAP" (1961) Photo Gallery

 

Below are images from "THE PARENT TRAP", Disney's 1961 adaptation of Erich Kästner's 1949 novel, "Lisa and Lottie". Directed by David Swift, the movie starred Hayley Mills in a dual role:




"THE PARENT TRAP" (1961) Photo Gallery

"THE MALTESE FALCON" (1931) Review

 

”THE MALTESE FALCON” (1931) Review

The three versions of Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel seemed to have become a legend in Hollywood circles during the past decade. Many filmgoers are familiar with John Huston’s 1941 adaptation that starred Humphrey Bogart. However in recent years, these same movie fans have become familiar with previous adaptations of the novel. In 1936, William Dieterle directed a comic version starring Warren Williams and Bette Davis called ”SATAN MET A LADY”. And Roy Del Ruth directed the original adaptation in 1931, which starred Ricardo Cortez. It is this particular film I will be discussing.

I have a confession to make. I have never read the novel, ”The Maltese Falcon”. The only Hammett novel I have ever read was ”The Thin Man”, published in 1934. Because of this, I would not be able to compare the novel to Del Ruth’s film adaptation. But I can discuss the movie. In a nutshell, ”THE MALTESE FALCON” told the story about a San Francisco private detective named Sam Spade, who finds himself drawn into a search for a valuable falcon statuette first created during the Crusades, while investigating three murders.

The story began with a Miss Ruth Wonderly hired Spade and his partner, Miles Archer, to find her missing sister and a man named Floyd Thursby. When Thursby and Archer end up murdered, Spade discovered that Miss Wonderly is one of three people searching for a statuette called the Maltese Falcon. A mortally wounded ship’s captain delivered the statuette to Spade’s office before dropping dead, making him the case’s third murder victim. The entire case spiraled into a game of cat-and-mouse between Spade, Miss Wonderly, a wealthy fat Englishman named Caspar Gutman and an effeminate continental European named Dr. Joel Cairo. Spade also had to deal with the police, who are determined to pin the three deaths on him.

So, what did I think of this version of ”THE MALTESE FALCON”? In the end, it turned out better than I had expected. However, the movie is not without its faults. There were times when I felt I was watching a filmed play (very common with early talking movies). But the film’s main problem seemed to be its pacing. It seemed too slow for what was supposed to be a witty murder mystery. Especially during the film’s first half hour. By the time Joel Cairo was introduced into the story, the pacing finally began to pick up. The dialogue provided by screenwriters Maude Fulton, Brown Holmes and an unaccredited Lucien Hubbard failed to improve over the course of the movie. Not only did the screenplay allow the dialogue to drag throughout the entire film, the latter was not that memorable. I did recognize a few lines from the 1941 film (which probably came from the novel), but nothing more. Also, I found the scene that featured Spade’s visit to an imprisoned Ruth Wonderly rather irrelevant. Spade’s reluctance to turn her over to the police should have conveyed his feelings for her toward the audience. The prison visit featured in the movie’s final scene simply struck me as unnecessary.

But ”THE MALTESE FALCON” still struck me as a pretty damn good film. Considering that it had been released during Hollywood’s Pre-Code Period (1929-34), it is not surprising that this version is considered the sexiest of the three movies. Del Ruth, along with Fulton, Holmes and Hubbard, did an excellent job of conveying the womanizing aspect of Spade’s character by revealing his affairs with Archer’s wife Iva, his casual flirtation with his secretary Effie, and visual hints of his relationship with Ruth Wonderly – like a small indent in the pillow next to the client’s head, which hinted that Spade had spent the night with her. Other signs of Pre-Code sexuality included Spade bidding a female client good-bye at the beginning of the movie, a nude Miss Wonderly in a bathtub, an off-screen striptease eventually revealed with a bare-shouldered Miss Wonderly, and a hint of a homosexual relationship between Caspar Gutman and his young enforcer Wilmer Cook.

Fulton, Holmes and Hubbard did a solid job of adapting Hammett’s novel for the screen by maintaining most of the original story. As I had pointed out earlier, the film’s dialogue did not strike me as memorable. It lacked the sharp wit of the 1941 adaptation. And it included an unnecessary scene from the novel – Spade’s visit to an imprisoned Ruth Wonderly – that could have easily been deleted. But the screenplay managed to hold its own. And considering that I have never read the novel, the screenplay did allow me to completely understand the story in full detail for the first time, without leaving me in a slight haze of fog. I found nothing memorable about William Rees’ photography or Robert M. Haas’ art direction . . . except in one scene. The scene in question featured an exterior setting, namely a street in San Francisco’s Chinatown where Miles Archer’s body was discovered. I suspect that this particular scene gave both Rees and Haas an opportunity to display their artistry beyond the movie’s usual interior settings.

”THE MALTESE FALCON” also featured a surprisingly solid cast. In fact, I would say that it turned out to be better than I had expected. Ricardo Cortez, a New York-born Jewish actor with a Latin name, led the cast as detective Sam Spade. Cortez got his start in silent films and had grown to leading man status by the time he shot this film. By the late 1930s, he ended up in supporting roles as a character actor and later ended his acting career to become a successful stockbroker on Wall Street. I thought that Cortez gave a very sexy interpretation of Spade in his performance. Mind you, his constant smirks and grins in the film’s first ten to fifteen minutes seemed annoying. But in the end, Cortez grew on me. I can honestly say that not only did I find him very effective in portraying a sexy Sam Spade, he also managed to superbly capture the character’s cynical humor, toughness and deep contempt toward the police.

Bebe Daniels, another survivor from the silent era, portrayed the movie’s femme fatale, Ruth Wonderly. She first became a star (following a stint as a child actor before World War I) during the 1920s. Her role in ”THE MALTESE FALCON” has been be considered as one of her best. And it is easy to see why. She managed to give an excellent performance as the ladylike, yet manipulative Ruth Wonderly, who drew Spade into the labyrinth search for the Maltese Falcon. Mind you, she lacked Mary Astor’s throbbing voice and nervous manner. But that is merely a minor hitch. Daniels still managed to portray a very convincing elegant temptress.

Irish-born Dudley Digges portrayed the wealthy and obsessive Caspar Gutman, who is not above murder, bribery and a score of other crimes to acquire the falcon statuette. Although not as rotund as Sydney Greenstreet, Digges seemed plump enough to be regarded as Gutman’s nickname, "the Fatman". However, Digges’ Gutman seemed a bit too obsequious in his performance. He lacked the style to believably portray a man wealthy enough to conduct a twenty-year search for a valuable artifact. Instead, Digges reminded me of a corrupt minor official at a British post in the tropics. He seemed to the subtlety for infusing menace into his character. Whenever he tried to be menacing, he only ended up giving a hammy performance. On the other hand, Otto Matieson gave a more believable performance as Dr. Joel Cairo, Gutman’s Continental accomplice. Despite Effie’s description of him as an effeminate, Matieson portrayed Cairo as a no-nonsense and practical man who is careful with his money and with whom to trust. Whatever effeminate qualities his character possessed, Matieson kept it to a minimum.

Una Merkel gave a humorous performance as Spade’s Girl Friday, Effie. Her Effie is not hesitant about expressing her attraction to Spade, yet at the same time, she seemed to find the detective’s other amorous activities rather amusing. Perhaps Merkel was amused at Thelma Todd’s performance as Archer’s widow and Spade’s mistress Ivy Archer. I found the future comedy star’s portrayal as the amorous and spiteful Ivy rather theatrical and false. It could have been her slightly hammy acting . . . or the fake clipped tone she used when pronouncing her words. All I do know that is that Todd seemed to be trying too hard as a scorned lover without any subtlety. At least Dwight Frye fared better as Gutman’s young enforcer, Wilmer Cook. Frye barely had any lines in the film, thank goodness. I have seen him in other films and his performance seemed to come off as hammy. But in ”THE MALTESE FALCON”, I thought he did a solid job in conveying the portrait of a baby-faced killer.

It is a shame that John Huston’s 1941 movie has overshadowed this version of Hammett’s novel. Mind you, Roy Del Ruth’s version is not perfect. The movie’s pacing in the first 15 to 20 minutes struck me as rather slow. But if I must be honest, I can say the same about the 1941 film. I was not that impressed by Dudley Digges and even less impressed by Thelma Todd’s performances. And this Pre-Code movie seemed to lack any memorable dialogue or mysterious atmosphere. But it had a sly sexuality that seemed to be missing in both the 1936 and 1941 versions. Also, the rest of the cast gave excellent performances – especially Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. And ironically, this version of ”THE MALTESE FALCON” made me clearly understand the story’s plot in clear detail for the very first time. I believe that it deserves to be considered more than just a footnote in movie history.

"THE MALTESE FALCON" (1931) Photo Gallery

Below are images from "THE MALTESE FALCON", the 1931 adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel. Directed by Roy Del Ruth, the movie starred Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels:


"THE MALTESE FALCON" (1931) Photo Gallery