"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.