First Watch: The Parent Trap (1961)

Watched:  02/05/2026

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  David Swift

So, The Parent Trap (1961) is one of those movies that gets so heavily referenced, I figured I was good skipping it.  Twins (Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills) are separated at birth, one goes with Mom (a radiant Maureen O'Hara) and one goes with Dad (Brian Keith) - and neither is supposed to know the other exists.  For reasons.

Kids meet at camp, figure out they're sisters, and swap places for a bit til it's time to reveal who they are and force their parents back together.  Wackiness ensues.  

After we finished The Muppet Show special on Disney+, the menu offered up this movie, and I mentioned I'd never seen it, and Jamie insisted.  I mean, it was not exactly a hard sell.  I'll watch Maureen O'Hara read the dictionary.

Anyhoo, my impression of the plot was largely right.  What I wasn't prepared for is the kind of dark sense of humor the movie has, and that it's even a little bawdy at times - for a live-action Disney movie from 1961.  It's really funny.

Yeah, I really liked The Parent Trap.  Who knew?

The story is a bit more complicated than I expected, the camp stuff a bit daffier and not as twee.  And the acknowledgement of the yearning the twins have to know their parents and each other doesn't just get glossed over.  It's really the driving force that makes the movie work.

And credit to O'Hara and Keith who play the movie like they're just making a romantic comedy about two people over 40.  They're fine with Hayley Mills, but really solid together.  

There's some diabolical pranking in the movie - just really good stuff.  It's probably for the best I didn't see this when I was 12.  

I can't really wrap my head around what this had to cost Disney in 1960-61 to produce.  It's full of name talent, from the aforementioned leads to Una Merkel - who'd been a screen siren in the 1930's, Charles Ruggles who'd been in movies since movies were a thing, Ruth McDevitt and Cathleen Nesbitt who are contemporary with Ruggles, Nancy Kulp - Ms. Jane from Beverly Hillbillies, and more.  Heck. Muppeteer Dave Goelz is one of the teens in the movie.  

But, really, it's the visual FX and editing that are just stunning.  Doubling of actors in movies in the 1990's didn't look this good most of the time until they figured out how to do digital compositing.  And only once or twice did I see tells, like shadows blurring across the mid-line  It's incredibly well handled, and the cuts to Mills' double are seamless.  Enough so I kind of stopped noticing or thinking about it.

Kudos to actress Joanna Barnes who has the unfortunate position of playing the villain - the young woman trying to marry Brian Keith for his money when O'Hara and Hayley Mills show up at the ranch.  She's really funny but I imagine a generation of kids grew up hating her nonetheless.

In the end, yes, I knew what this movie was going to be in many ways - but the execution is so much better than I was expecting.  And Hayley Mills really is that good - even if her accent(s) are all over the place and that is the worst air-guitar ever put on film.  The movie is dated so I imagine it would feel a bit weird to kids, and I'm not sure explaining gender roles of 1961 in 2026 to your kids is going to make a ton of sense.  But I'd still show it to kids.  

Anyway - yeah, Brian Keith very much makes the right choice in this movie.