Name	The Parent Trap
Caption	Theatrical release poster by Reynold Brown
Writer	Erich Kästner (book)David Swift (screenplay)
Starring	Hayley MillsMaureen O'HaraBrian Keith
Director	David Swift
Producer	Walt DisneyGeorge Golitzen
Music	Songs:Score:Paul J. Smith
Cinematography	Lucien Ballard
Editing	Philip W. Anderson
Distributor	Buena Vista Distribution
Released
Runtime	129 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Followed by	The Parent Trap II

The Parent Trap (1961) is a Disney film. It stars Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith in a story about teenage twins and their divorced parents. The screenplay by the film's director David Swift was based upon the book Lottie and Lisa (Das Doppelte Lottchen) by Erich Kästner. Kastner derived his version from a Deanna Durbin film Three Smart Girls. The Parent Trap was nominated for two Academy Awards, was broadcast on television, saw three television sequels, was remade in 1998 with Lindsay Lohan, and has been released to VHS and DVD. The original film was Mills' second of six films for Disney.

Plot

Identical twins Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers (Hayley Mills) make each other's acquaintance at summer camp, not realizing at first that they are indeed sisters. At first rivals, pulling pranks on each other, their mischief ruins the camp dance. Their punishment is to live together in an isolated cabin where they bond. After both admitted they have come from broken homes, they soon learn that their parents Maggie and Mitch (Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith) divorced shortly after the twins' birth, with each parent having custody of one daughter. The sisters, each dying to meet the parent they never knew, switch places in order to visit the parent they have never seen. While Susan is in Boston masquerading as Sharon, Sharon is in California masquerading as Susan.

Sharon calls Susan in Boston with the news that their father is planning to marry a and their mother needs to be rushed to California to prevent the union. In Boston, Susan tells her mother the truth about the switched identities and the two fly to California.

With both parents and both twins in California, the twins set about (with some slight approval from their mother) sabotaging their father's marriage plans. Mitch's money-hungry girlfriend Vicki Robinson (Joanna Barnes) receives some rude, mischievous treatment from the girls and some veiled cattiness from Maggie. When Vicki is away for an evening, the girls stage a reprise of their parents' first date in Mitch's home with an Italian dinner and a gypsy violinist. The former spouses are gradually drawn together, however they quickly begin bickering over little things and Vicky. Feeling cheated, the twins decide to dress and talk alike so the parents can't tell them apart. They tell their parents they'll tell who is who if they agree to go with on the family camping trip together. The parents reluctantly agree.

Vicki however digs her heels in regarding Mitch and marriage, but the girls effect the coup de grace on a wilderness camping trip: Vicki spends her time swatting mosquitoes after dousing herself with a sugar and water "mosquito repellent" given her by Sharon and Susan, and finds her sleep interrupted as she is tickled awake by two bear cubs licking honey off her feet. The bear cubs were drawn to her tent by a trail of honey left by the twins. Exasperated, Vicki gladly tosses in the towel. Mitch and Maggie rekindle the love they once held for each other and the two remarry in the final scene with the twins as members of the wedding party.

Cast

Hayley Mills as Sharon McKendrick / Susan Evers

Brian Keith as Mitch Evers

Maureen O'Hara as Margaret "Maggie" McKendrick

Joanna Barnes as Vicky Robinson

Production notes

The screenplay originally called for only a few trick photography shots of Hayley Mills in scenes with herself; the bulk of the film was to be shot using a body double. When Walt Disney saw how seamless the processed shots were, he ordered the script reconfigured to include more of the special effect. Disney also wanted Mills to appear on camera as much as possible, knowing that she was having growth spurts during filming.

The film was shot mostly in California at various locales. The summer camp scenes were filmed at Cedar Lake Camp, in the San Bernardino Mountains, near Big Bear Lake, California. The Monterey scenes were filmed in various California locations, including millionaire Stuyvesant Fish's 5,200 acre (21 km²) ranch in Carmel, Monterey's Pebble Beach golf course. The scenes at the Monterey house were shot at studio's Golden Oak Ranch in Placerita Canyon, where Mitch's ranch was built. It was the design of this set that proved the most popular, and to this day the Walt Disney Archives receives requests for plans of the home's interior design. Of course, there never was such a house; the set was simply various rooms built on a sound stage. Camp Inch was based on a real girls' camp called Camp Crestridge for Girls at the Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center near Asheville, North Carolina.

Musical numbers

Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman provided the songs, which, besides the title song "The Parent Trap", includes "For Now, For Always", and "Let's Get Together". "Let's Get Together" is heard playing from a record player at the summer camp; the tune is reprised by the twins when they restage their parents' first date. The title song was performed by Tommy Sands and Annette Funicello, who were both on the studio lot shooting Babes in Toyland at the time.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: one for Sound by Robert O. Cook, and the other for Film Editing by Philip W. Anderson.

Subsequent developments

The film was theatrically re-released in 1968. The Disney Studios produced three television sequels The Parent Trap II (1986), The Parent Trap III (1989), and (1989). In 1963, ABC television sitcom The Patty Duke Show debuted using similar filming techniques in a series about teenage cousins (played by Patty Duke) with identical twin appearances but with completely different personalities. The original The Parent Trap was remade in 1998 starring Lindsay Lohan.

Similar plotted Hindi film "Do Kaliyan" starred Nitu Singh in the double role.

A similar Tamil film was called Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum starring Kutti Padmini.

Notes

External links

Category:1960s romantic comedy films Category:1961 films Category:American comedy films Category:Comedy of remarriage films Category:English-language films Category:Films based on novels Category:Films directed by David Swift Category:The Parent Trap films Category:Sherman Brothers Category:Summer camps in fiction

Name	Hayley Mills
Birthname	Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills
Birth date	April 18, 1946
Birth place	London, England, UK
Occupation	Actress, singer
Yearsactive	1947–present
Spouse	Roy Boulting (1971–1977)
Website	}}

Hayley Mills (born 18 April 1946) is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961. During her early career, she appeared in several films for Walt Disney.

During the late 1960s she began performing in theatrical plays, and played in more mature roles. The age of contracts with studios soon passed. Although she has not maintained the box office success nor the Hollywood A-list she experienced as a child actress, she has continued to make movies and TV appearances, having two movies in post-production in 2010.

In 2007 Mills became a main character in the ITV Series Wild at Heart.

Early life and career

Mills was born Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills in London, England, the younger daughter of actor Sir John Mills and playwright Mary Hayley Bell. She is also the younger sister of actress Juliet Mills and the cousin of Susie Blake.

Mills was 12 when she was discovered by J. Lee Thompson, who was initially looking for a boy to play the lead role in Tiger Bay. Walt Disney's wife, Lillian Disney, saw her performance and suggested that Mills be given the lead role in Pollyanna. The role of the orphaned "glad girl" who moves in with her aunt catapulted Mills to super-stardom in the United States and earned her a special Academy Award.

Disney subsequently cast Mills as twins Sharon and Susan who reunite their divorced parents in The Parent Trap. In the film, Mills sings the hit song "Let's Get Together." She made four additional films for Disney in a four-year span, including In Search of the Castaways and Summer Magic. The advent of the British Invasion in popular music in 1964, courtesy of The Beatles, allowed the maturing Mills to maintain her popularity. Her final two Disney films, The Moon-Spinners and That Darn Cat!, did very well at the box office, aided by a well-publicized meeting between Mills and Beatle George Harrison in March 1964.

During her six-year run at Disney, Mills was arguably the most popular child actress of the era. Critics noted that America's favourite child star was, in fact, quite British and very lady-like. The success of "Let's Get Together" (which hit No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart) also led to the release of a record album on Disney's Buena Vista label, Let's Get Together with Hayley Mills, which also included her only other hit song, "Johnny Jingo" (Billboard No. 21, 1962).

In addition to her Disney movies, Mills starred in several other films, notably Whistle Down the Wind (based on the book of the same title written by her mother, Mary Hayley Bell), The Truth About Spring (with her real father, John Mills, cast as her father and James MacArthur as the love interest), and The Chalk Garden.

Mills was considered for the role of Lolita Haze in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film version of Lolita. However, Walt Disney discouraged the casting, feeling the role was not up to Disney's wholesome standard, and the part eventually went to Sue Lyon.

Post-Disney film career

After her contract with Disney expired in 1965, Mills starred in the enduring comedy The Trouble with Angels, opposite screen veteran Rosalind Russell. Looking to break from her girl-next-door image, Mills returned to England to appear as a mentally challenged teenager in the film Sky West and Crooked, which was directed by her father and written by her mother. Shortly thereafter, Mills was persuaded by her father and director Roy Boulting to star in The Family Way, a comedy about a couple having difficulty consummating their marriage, featuring a score by Paul McCartney and arrangements by Beatles producer George Martin. She then starred as the protagonist of Pretty Polly, opposite famous Indian film actor Shashi Kapoor in Singapore. After her appearance in The Kingfisher Caper in 1975, Mills dropped out of the film industry for a few years.

Television resurgence and reception

In 1981 Mills returned to acting with a starring role in the UK television mini-series The Flame Trees of Thika, based on Elspeth Huxley's memoir of her childhood in East Africa. The series was well-received, prompting Mills to accept more acting roles. She then returned to America, and made two appearances on The Love Boat.

Always welcomed at Disney, Mills narrated an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, sparking renewed interest in her Disney work. In 1986 she reprised her roles as twins Sharon and Susan for a trio of Parent Trap television movies: The Parent Trap II, The Parent Trap III, and . Mills also starred as the title character in the Disney Channel-produced television series Good Morning, Miss Bliss in 1987. The show was cancelled after 13 episodes, and the rights were acquired by NBC, who reformatted Good Morning, Miss Bliss into Saved by the Bell. In recognition for her work with The Walt Disney Company, Mills was awarded the prestigious Disney Legends award in 1998.

Mills recalled her childhood in the 2000 documentary film Sir John Mills' Moving Memories which was written by her brother Jonathan. In 2007 she began appearing (alongside her sister Juliet) as Caroline in the ITV1 African vet drama, Wild at Heart.

Stage career

Mills made her stage debut in a 1966 West End revival of Peter Pan. In 2000 she made her Off Broadway debut in Sir Noel Coward's Suite in Two Keys, opposite American actress Judith Ivey, for which she won a Theatre World Award. In 1991 she appeared as Anna Leonowens in the Australian production of The King and I.

Personal life

While filming The Family Way, the 20-year-old Mills met 53-year-old director Roy Boulting. The two married in 1971, and owned an apartment in London's Kensington. They then went on to purchase Cobstone Windmill in Ibstone, Buckinghamshire. The couple divorced in 1977. They had one child, Crispian Mills, who achieved recognition as the lead singer and guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker. Mills currently lives in New York City.

Mills later had a second son, Jason Lawson, during a relationship with British actor Leigh Lawson.

Mills has had involvement with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (the "Hare Krishna" movement). She wrote the preface to the book, The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking, published in 1984.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Film & Television |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1947 | So Well Remembered | Infant (uncredited) | |- | 1959 | Tiger Bay | Gillie | Won–Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at Berlin }}

External links

Haley Comes Back to Her Richmond Roots

Category:Academy Juvenile Award winners Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:English child actors Category:English child singers Category:English film actors Category:English television actors Category:English stage actors Category:English musical theatre actors Category:English vegetarians Category:1946 births Category:Living people