Synopsis of Movie

”Let’s get together, yeah, yeah, yeah…”

They cloned Pollyanna. Not really, but that was certainly the effect Walt Disney wanted for 1961’s The Parent Trap. Young actress Hayley Mills had skyrocketed to fame the previous year as the title character in Disney’s Pollyanna, and Walt decided to capitalize on that success by giving the girl double billing. As twins Sharon and Susan, Mills proved more than up to the task, giving the spunky spark to this perennial family favorite.

Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers first come across each other on a trip to summer camp, where each notices the uncanny resemblance. Taking an instant dislike to their mirror images, the girls engage in prank warfare, culminating with a no-holds-barred brawl/food fight. The camp counselors decide the best way to deal with the situation is to force the two to spend the rest of camp together, since they’ll either learn to get along or quietly kill each other off.

As the two start to warm up, they discover they’re actually long-lost twin sisters, separated soon after birth when their parents divorced. The girls decide to switch roles in order to meet the other parent: Sharon goes to California to spend time with her father, while Susan flies out to Boston to see mother.

The switched sibs manage to pull off the scam, but trouble arises when dad announces his impending marriage to gold-digging Vicky Robinson. Sharon calls her sis in Boston, who tells her mother the truth and arranges to fly both her and mother out to spoil the wedding. The girls’ matchmaking efforts appear to fall short when mom and dad have a fight, but on the day mother is to return to Boston, the identically-dressed-and-coifed twins refuse to tell which girl is which. That battle won, Sharon and Susan insist the family (including Vicky) go on a planned camping trip together, giving them time to sabotage one engagement and plot another.

The split-screen effect of having both Hayleys on screen at the same time was pulled off without a hitch, and the actress played both parts with equal sweet and sour precociousness. The movie was a smash, and Mills went on to star in a number of other films for Disney. In the 1980’s, a grown-up Mills reprised her roles for a handful of TV movie sequels, and in 1998, Disney released a remade version of the original with newcomer Lindsay Lohan in the twin roles.

Movie Release History

1961 - The Parent Trap (1961)

Movie Sub Categories

live-action
comedy
disney

Movie Studio

Disney

Cast

Sharon McKendrick Hayley Mills
Susan Evers Hayley Mills
Maggie McKendrick Maureen O'Hara
Mitch Evers Brian Keith
Louise McKendrick Cathleen Nesbitt
Charles McKendrick Charles Ruggles
Verbena Una Merkel
Vicky Robinson Joanna Barnes
Edna Robinson Linda Watkins
Miss Inch Ruth McDevitt
Mr. Eaglewood Frank De Vol
Hecky Crahan Denton
Rev. Dr. Mosby Leo G. Carroll
Miss Grunecker Nancy Kulp

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