When I say parent trap, the first thing that now pops into people’s heads is probably Lindsey Lohan. However, for any person alive before 1990, it would be Hayley Mills. The original Parent Trap was made in 1961, and to this day it mostly remains a delightful romp and terrific family film that will put a lengthy smile on your face, anchored like the 1998 film by a terrific turn by a child star.
If you don’t know the conceit of The Parent Trap, it’s one of the great ones for Disney. Sharon McKendrick (Mills) from Boston arrives at a summer camp for girls, excited to spend some time outdoors. She runs afoul of Susan Evers (also Mills) from California almost immediately, with the two pranking each other to the point of banishment to an isolated cabin. Stuck together, they realize that they are in fact twins: their parents Maggie (Maureen O’Hara) and Mitch (Brian Keith) divorced and each took one. The twins concoct a brilliant scheme: switch places with each other to meet the parent they’ve longed to see, and eventually, they’ll have to switch back and their parents will hopefully meet and get back together. However, Mitch’s new girlfriend Vicky (Joanna Barnes) throws a curveball into the brilliant plan.
The first half of The Parent Trap holds up the least well. The first 10 minutes is a stop motion cartoon telling you what you’re going to watch for the next hour, which immediately made me worry about what I was going to see going forward, and if Disney was going to just phone it in. Hayley Mills, thankfully, has charisma for days, so she carries that crappy early material with charm and charisma. I beg you all to watch Mills and then watch any man at that camp dance: it’s CRINGE inducing how bad they are. We finally get to the isolation cabin 30 minutes into the movie after what seemed to be a 30 minute walking montage to the cabin (seriously, did the Sherman brothers, who composed the music, have a whistling disclaimer in their contract?). At this point, I’m just terrified I had only remembered how terrific Mills was and that the movie had zero lasting power.
But then the magic starts happening. Simply ignoring the other campers and putting Mills against herself (pretty good with the technology of the day) was a terrific decision. The scene where they figure out they’re twins is adorably sweet, and by then you’re hooked into their plan to get their parents back together. One thing I forgot, is how prominent the parents are in this version. Maureen O’Hara has aged magnificently as Maggie; there’s a scene where she bursts into a wedding conversation between Vicky, Vicki’s mother (Linda Watkins), Mitch, and the minister (Leo Carroll, a highlight of the rewatch) where O’Hara holds court and manipulates everyone around her like a champ. It’s patently clear that Maggie and Mitch’s relationship is at least on semi-equal footing, progressive for the era. I also forgot how lovely Mitch is as a father, especially for 1961. Brian Keith gives the man an exasperated but loving personality, clearly his daughter’s biggest fan; he also not only never once hits his kids (other people do), but he scolds other people for doing so and how dumb it is while he falls into a lake for a joke. These sweet touches makes Mitch maybe a little naive, but a very likable man, making you root for him and Maggie to rekindle their love and put their family back together. I never thought of The Parent Trap as being ahead of its time, but with how many women run the show here, much of the film has aged like a fine wine.
Sadly, Lindsey Lohan’s 1998 version of The Parent Trap will be the more memorable version. At first, this bummed me out, but then I started noticing things. The 1961 music is still part of the 1998 film. Verbena (Una Merkel), Mitch’s housekeeper, delivers information after insisting she’s “not saying a word,” exactly like Chessie in the new one. The best lines are repeated verbatim: Peppermint and Tobacco. What are you doing? Making a memory. We decided we’re getting jipped. If we switched, sooner or later, they’ll have to unswitch us. Not just lines: whole scenes like a mother/daughter staircase reunion, a lizard on a water bottle, and dogs barking at new arrivals. Heck, even Joanna Barnes comes back to play her own mother in the 1998 version! So now I don’t feel bad, because the 1998 version makes a few minor changes to what is already a very solid family film, and incorporates most of the big stuff that makes the Hayley Mills version so special. But again, I’m not saying another word…