The Parent Trap

At a summer camp two girls see each other and are appalled: the same face. Sharon and Susan are twins, separated at birth. One grew up in Boston with their mother and the other in California with their father, and neither knew the other existed. When camp ends, they swap places. The subject is not the prank but the part of a divorce nobody tells the children. The girls try to bring their parents back together, and what is interesting is that the parents still wanting each other helps nobody; what keeps them apart is not feeling but stubbornness. The form is family comedy: camp pranks, a campfire, the end of summer. Hayley Mills plays both girls, and the scenes with the two of them in frame were shot with split screen and a double standing in. The production was among Disney's biggest hits of the period and made Mills the studio's star. Its song was a chart success that year. The same story was remade in 1998 with Lindsay Lohan, using the same twin trick. David Swift directs. Maureen O'Hara plays the mother and Brian Keith the father. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Disney live action and sixties family films. Who it is not for: anyone without patience for two and a half hours; it is long and some sections visibly sag.