Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

If the original Parent Trap from the sixties with Hayley Mills in two roles, stunning, classy Maureen O’Hara and Brian Keith (the latter of The Family Affair TV show, I believe) reminds you slightly of the movie Beach Blanket Bingo, it should. Annette Funicello from that movie and Tommy Sands croon the bouncy, original title song to the antics of cartoon characters representing a troubled mother, father and two daughters before the movie begins. Later at the camp dance that one of the girls is allowed to dance in, she dances to another Annette Funicello song, “Let’s Get Together,” which the girls much later do as a fun duet with guitar and piano for their parents.

I have seen this movie many times and the 90’s remake with Dennis Quiad as the father and the rest of the actors and unoriginal pop songs escaping my memory, though I saw it by mistake not more than two weeks ago. Maybe I’m a sucker for 60’s nostalgia, but for me the original Parent Trap is the one I want to watch.

Eich Eisner wrote the book it’s based on. The girls, Susan and Sharon, are twins who don’t know about each other because their parents split when they were a year old. Now, thirteen years later, they meet at a summer camp and play pranks on each other out of resentment that the other has her face. But when they finally are put in isolation together and come to realize they are sisters, they decide to pull a prank on their parents instead. When they are picked up at the end of the summer, they’ve learned how to be like the other in voice, habits and style. Each goes to visit the parent they haven’t seen since their babyhood.

Nothing is really suspected at first. I feel their joy in meeting their other parent because it reminds me of myself finally finding my birthmother and meeting her. I had waited twice as long as the twins did and had outgrown my need for a mother, especially a strange one, but still it was a wonderful meeting because my birthmother was so excited. Anyway, the twins soon realize they have no time to lose in getting their parents to unswitch them, which meant their parents would have to see each other again. The rugged charmer of a father was planning to marry a much younger woman and the twins could not let that happen!

I don’t want to spoil your fun of discovering how their big prank plays out, no, no, but I do want to mention that this Walt Disney movie will not only be appreciated by children. Another epinion I read recently really disappointed me because the reviewer failed to be as delighted by the dry wit mixed with simple charm displayed by all of the actors of the original Parent Trap as I was.

This reviewer complained that it was basically disingenuous and unbelievable. I will address that with a couple of examples of why I thought it was instead the opposite. When the wrong Susan goes back to her father’s California ranch, she doesn’t fool the dog or the longtime maid. After she admits she is Sharon, she lets out her anger at her father for keeping her from her sister. That reviewer said they had no anger. I also like the way the twins ‘fess up that they submarined their father’s fiancée, which they don’t in the remake, it seems. Their parents are completely believable as well in acknowledging what went wrong with their young marriage and in how they are still in love with each other.

You know with the comic talents of these well-known actors and the teenage liveliness of an inspired Hayley Mills that this movie will deliver. I dare you to defy that statement! Watching this movie you will remember the stiltedness of your first dance, the need for peer acceptance and your parent’s love. It was amazing that so many years had passed without the parents marrying other people, which is my only complaint, but I think it emphasizes the message Eich Eisner wanted to convey. Namely that true love is never lost or replaced and will find a way, even such a convoluted one as this one their children cooked up, to again be grasped…if only in the next life.

Men, women, kids of all ages, I recommend that you rent this or have your parent rent it for you. Then enjoy it together with a bowl of unbuttered popcorn. You don’t need to fear mushiness or boredom. I promise!


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8