The Parent Trap is a 1961 family romantic comedy film directed by David Swift and produced by Walt Disney. The film stars Hayley Mills, Maureen O’Hara, and Brian Keith. It was based on the 1949 children’s book Lisa and Lottie by Erich Kästner.
Director: David Swift
Production Company: Walt Disney Productions
Distributor: Buena Vista Distribution
Cast: Hayley Mills, Maureen O’Hara, Brian Keith, Joanna Barnes, Charlie Ruggles, Cathleen Nesbit, Una Merkel, Leo G. Carroll
US Box Office: $25,150,385 ($320,800,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Technicolor
Genre: Comedy, Family
Release Date: June 12, 1961 (premiere); June 21, 1961 (general release)
Plot Summary: Susan Evers (Hayley Mills) is the daughter of Mitch Evers (Brian Keith) from California, and Sharon McKendrick (Hayley Mills) is the daughter of Maggie McKendrick (Maureen O’Hara) from Boston. The two girls meet at summer camp and realize that they’re actually identical twin sisters and their parents are divorced. Susan and Sharon devise a plot to get Mitch and Maggie to remarry by switching places with each other and forcing their mother and father to come together. The girls are forced to accelerate their plans once Sharon realizes that Mitch will soon marry Vicky Robinson (Joanna Barnes), a child-hating gold-digger.
Production: In the late 1950s Bill Dover, a storywriter Walt Disney Productions, read the 1949 children’s novel Lisa and Lottie (Das doppelte Lottchen) by German author Erich Kästner. Dover liked the book and recommended it to Walt, who purchased the film rights to the book. In early 1960 the studio began work on the film, which was originally titled His and Hers. The title was soon changed to Petticoats and Blue Jeans and later changed to We Belong Together (which actually remained the film’s title until close to the end of filming, when The Parent Trap was finally chosen). The film was written and directed by David Swift, who had previously written and directed Pollyanna (1960) for Walt. The Parent Trap was the first feature-length film to feature music written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, brothers who frequently wrote songs for Disney’s films.
The Parent Trap was always intended as a vehicle for child actress and Disney star Hayley Mills, who was cast as twin sisters Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick. Mills previously starred in Walt Disney’s Pollyanna (1960) where she won a special juvenile Academy Award for her performance. Maureen O’Hara was cast as Maggie McKendrick, the mother of Susan and Sharon. The studio originally offered O’Hara only $25,000 (a third of her usual $75,000 fee) for the film, but O’Hara held out and got her wanted fee. Although her contract stated that O’Hara would receive top billing on The Parent Trap, Hayley Mills was given top billing instead. As a result, Maureen O’Hara never made any more films with Walt or the studio. Brian Keith was cast as Mitch Evers, the girls’ father. He later appeared in Moon Pilot (1962) and Savage Sam (1963) for Disney.
Swift began filming The Parent Trap (then still called We Belong Together) in July of 1960, which went on for several months. Walt Disney supervised the film’s production. The film was primarily shot in California, both on location and on-set. The scenes at Camp Inch were shot on location at Bluff Lake Camp (owned by the Pasadena YMCA at the time) in the San Bernardino Mountain range. The family camping trip scenes were shot at Cedar Lake Camp, also within the San Bernardino Mountains. The scenes at the golf course were shot at Pebble Beach golf course in Monterey County. The exterior scenes at Mitch’s ranch were primarily shot at Walt Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch in the Placerita Canyon state park. The exterior of Mitch’s house was built on Golden Oak Ranch, though the interior scenes were mostly shot on set at Disney’s studio in Burbank. The Boston scenes were also entirely shot on set. Brian Keith cracked a rib while filming the scene where Mitch trips over a chair.
Susan Henning was hired by Walt Disney to serve as a body double for Hayley Mills in the scenes were Susan and Sharon appear on screen together. Henning wore an uncomfortable prosthetic nose that made her look almost identical to Mills. The two girls looked so similar that at one point during shooting Mills’ mother thought that Henning was her daughter! The Parent Trap was originally only going to feature a few shots of Mills interacting with herself (using split screen editing and other filming techniques), but Walt was so impressed with how seamless the processed shots were that he had Swift film more of these sequences.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara starred together in two other films: westerns The Deadly Companions (1961) and The Rare Breed (1966). “The Parent Trap,” the song heard during the opening credits, was sung by Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands. They were filming the musical Babes in Toyland (1961) for Disney at the time, which was released a few months after The Parent Trap. During the golf course scene British actor John Mills (Hayley’s real father) makes a brief cameo appearance as Mitch’s golf caddy. Joanna Barnes was the only cast member from the original The Parent Trap to also appear in the 1998 remake. She played the mother of Meredith Blake (Meredith was that film’s equivalent to Vicky Robinson). Both the 1961 film and the 1998 remake feature product placement from the snack company Nabisco. The 1961 film featured Fig Newtons and the 1998 film featured Oreos.
Reception: The Parent Trap had its premiere on June 12, 1961, and it went into general release not long afterwards. The film was a big hit for Walt Disney and was far more successful than Pollyanna, Mills’ previous film for Walt. In general 1961 was a very good year for Walt Disney and his studio, The Parent Trap, The Absent-Minded Professor, and One Hundred and One Dalmatians were three of the top ten highest grossing films of the year. The Parent Trap received a successful rerelease in 1968. Many years after Walt’s death, the Disney company produced three direct-to-television sequels to The Parent Trap, the first one was released in 1986. These films featured Hayley Mills reprising her roles as the now grown-up Susan and Sharon. In 1998 the company released a remake of The Parent Trap. Original writer and director David Swift co-wrote the screenplay.
The Parent Trap received positive reviews from critics when it was first released. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times gave the film a positive review and praised the performances of Hayley Mills. The critics at Variety and TIME magazine also had strong praise for Mills’ dual performances as Susan and Sharon. Charles Stinson of the Los Angeles Times praised The Parent Trap for being equally appealing to children and adults. Stinson noted that adults would like the clever dialogue and children would like the sight gags.
The Parent Trap has also received generally positive reviews in retrospect. James Plath of Movie Metropolis praised Mills’ performances and described The Parent Trap as being one of the best live-action Disney films. Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress similarly wrote that The Parent Trap was, “Probably the most entertaining of all Disney live action films of its era.” The film critics of TV Guide, Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com, John J. Puccio of Movie Metropolis, and Carol Cling of the Los Vegas Review-Journal also gave the film positive reviews. In 2000, The Parent Trap was one of 500 films nominated by the American Film Institute for its list of the top 100 funniest American comedy films.
Oscars: The Parent Trap was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Sound (Robert O. Cook) and Best Editing (Phillip W. Anderson). Cook lost to Gordon E. Sawyer and Fred Hynes for West Side Story. Anderson lost to Thomas Stanford, also for West Side Story.
Why You Should See It: The Parent Trap is a charming and funny romantic comedy film. The film has plenty of good moments; the scenes at the summer camp and the scenes at Mitch’s Ranch where Susan and Sharon first re-introduce Maggie to Mitch are standout moments. Hayley Mills is charming in her dual role as twins Sharon and Susan. The body double work and the special effects used have Mills interact with herself are very well done. Maureen O’Hara also gives a good performance as Maggie. I thought that she was convincing as the girls’ mother.