This is the story of two 14-year-old sisters who have been separated, through their parents’ separation, since babyhood. One girl, the ladylike Sharon (Hayley Mills), has been brought up by her mother in an exclusive Boston district. The other, tomboy Susan (Hayley Mills), lives with her father on his large Carmel, California ranch.
Sharon and Susan meet, for the first time in their memory, at a girls’ summer camp in New England to which their parents’, by coincidence, have sent them. The parents, Mitch Evers (Brian Keith) and Maggie McKendrick (Maureen O’Hara), have completely lost track of each other over the years.
The fun begins when the girls discover their relationship and immediately plot to reunite the family. Sharon instructs Susan on her mother’s Boston family, and Susan dittos Sharon on pertinent matters in her life. Then Sharon, posing as Susan, flies to Carmel and Susan, posing as Sharon, drives to Boston to begin the major part of the plot.
When Maggie discovers she has the wrong twin, she flies Susan to the ranch and there discovers Mitch falling in love with a 25-year-old beauty, Vicki Robinson (Joanna Barnes). But the girls are on to Vicki, trick her into a fateful outdoor mountain camping trek, and eventually bring Mother and Father together again in some of the most romantic, most hilarious scenes ever filmed. Additional cast:
Leo G. Carroll as Rev. Mosby, Nancy Kulp as Miss Grunecker, John Mills cameo as Mitch's golf caddy
97 minutes rated G
The Parent Trap
(1998)
"The Parent Trap tells the tale of identical twin sisters, separated shortly after birth by the break-up of their parents. Hallie is growing up in Napa Valley with her vineyard-owner father. Annie is raised in fashionable London by her mother, a renowned wedding gown designer. Unaware of each other’s existence, fate intervenes when the girls coincidentally meet at their summer camp in Maine. They devise a scheme to switch places and ultimately, reunite their mom and dad."
Stars: Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson, and introducing Lindsay Lohan
No relation to "The Tender Trap" (1955) in which a swinging bachelor finds love when he meets a girl immune to his lines (Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm and Debbie Reynolds of Halloweentown)
1961 Trivia (courtesy the Internet Movie Database)
* 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.
* The title song was performed by Tommy Sands and Annette Funicello; they were on the lot shooting Babes in Toyland (1961).
* For the scene were Maureen O'Hara and Charles Ruggles are speaking in the bedroom, Charles didn't have any place to put the ashes of his cigarette so, on his own, he decided to put them in his hand.
* When Susan cat-fights Sharon, the body double can be recognized with cake covering her face, however, her eyes are blue, instead of Brown
* When Vicky is offered the canteen of water with the lizard perched on top, the canteen lid is open. When Vicky throws the canteen back, the lid is on.
* While performing "Let's Get Together" with Sharon, Susan plays an acoustic guitar, but the sound it makes is distinctly that of an electric guitar.
* Filmed at various locations in California and Boston
* Actress Joanna Barnes played the "wicked girlfriend" in The Parent Trap (1961) and plays the mother of the wicked girlfriend in the 1975 version. Both characters are named Vicky
* Before the recent remake, there were three TV-movie sequels with adult Hayley Mills and all-new casts: Parent Trap II (1986), Parent Trap III (1989) and Parent Trap IV: Hawaiian Honeymoon (1989), which aired in the network's Disney timeslot. The original was a remake of
Das Doppelte Lottchen (1950, West Germany) based on a popular children's book by Erich Kästner
