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Conference bookie::movies

Title:Movie Reviews and Discussion
Notice:Please do DIR/TITLE before starting a new topic on a movie!
Moderator:VAXCPU::michaudo.dec.com::tamara::eppes
Created:Thu Jan 28 1993
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1249
Total number of notes:16012

268.0. "The Parent Trap" by TLE::JBISHOP () Mon Jul 26 1993 10:07

    This 1961 Disney film is famous for staring Hayley Mills
    as twin sisters who were separted as infants when their
    parents divorced and meet accidentially at camp when 13.
    They get their parents back together.
    
    I watched it out of cultural curiosity, and it repays that
    kind of watching.  Otherwise it's a predictable plot, flat
    characters, perhaps slightly better made than the usual run
    of Disney live-action kid movies from that era.
    
    For the critic there are some interesting points:
    
    o	Hayley does a credible job, using a mild Boston accent
    	and a mild generic American accent for the two girls;
    	they are not directed to be radically different.  I was
    	particularly impressed at her apparent self-posession
    	at 13.  Whatever happened to her?  The other actors barely
    	exert themselves.
    
    o	The special effects aren't bad, but the modern observer
    	quickly notices that the twins' images never overlap--we
    	can fix this now, but not then.  I suspect that the
    	twin scenes are not masterpieces of timing as much as of
    	slowing and speeding the film--sometimes the slowing is
    	perceptible.  On the otherhand, the lip-synching and fake
    	guitar-playing in the "big" song is painfully obvious.
    	Since I have small children I've been watching lots of
    	Disney stuff: most of it from the '60s is very poorly
    	made, as though they just didn't care.
    
    o	True to the ethos of the time, divorce has to be undone
    	by remarriage--there's no attempt at all to show why the
    	two divorced, nor any consideration that either parent
    	could have changed in the intervening 13 years, nor is the
    	"other" woman who wishes to marry the father given a chance:
    	we barely see her before she gloats over the California
    	community property law.  It's all a set-up--in real life,
    	this other woman would be in love, and things would be much
    	more painful.
    
    	Here is where the social change we call "the sixties" is
    	most obvious: in this film, the conventions (social and plot)
    	are still in effect; but the revolution is coming (indeed,
    	the bubble-gum rock big song is part of that revolution).
    
    o	The dating of the movie is funny at times: the mother is
    	told by her father that she's in unfashionable, dowdy clothes.
    	She goes to New York City go buy up-to-date clothes, and the
    	next time we see her, she's in what people react to as a new,
    	fashionable outfit: but to an observer from 1993, they both
    	look the same.
    
    o	True to Disney kid-logic, most of the actions don't make
    	sense: real children would not be able to do what's done,
    	nor get away with it if they did.
    
    It's clear in retrospect that the movie is appealing to a set of
    values, and reacting to others; it's illuminating in that it makes
    it clear how much has changed since it was made.  But almost any
    mediocre movie of that era would do the same.
    
    		-John Bishop
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
268.125415::MAIEWSKIMon Jul 26 1993 13:399
  I can remember seeing it as a kid and liking it a lot although I have no
doubt that if I saw it today and rated it from an adult point of view I'd
feel the same. 

  I wonder if the part about the kids doing things they'd never get away with
was deliberate? Lots of Disney stuff seems to put kids and animals in that kind
of situation. 

  George
268.23694::BELFORTIBen really DOES have a lifeMon Jul 26 1993 14:301
    One of my all time favoites!!!  I even bought in a few months ago!!!!
268.3Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah11843::WOOLNERYour dinner is in the supermarketTue Jul 27 1993 13:4928
    Oh great, now you guys have that song doing an endless loop in my
    noodle!
    
    I saw The Parent Trap when it came out (I was 12) and *loved* it... my
    parents had divorced when I was a year and a half old, but I knew I
    couldn't pull off Sharon and Susan's shenanigans: no twin!  (Also, my
    mother had remarried.  But _he_ was only a temporary obstacle in my
    devious preteen mind.)
    
    I taped it on one of those free Disney Channel weekends and I *still*
    love it!  Packs a helluva nostalgic wallop, especially for anyone
    roughly Hayley's age; the costumes just catapult me back in time.  And
    the mom's makeover in NY had more to do with her hair style (uptight,
    matronly french twist --> Sandra Dee bubble cut) than her clothes,
    though if you look closely you can see the Boston outfits are more
    conservative: classic (boring) tailoring, as opposed to from-the-pages-
    of-Vogue-as-modeled-by-Suzy-Parker.
    
    The fiancee was a golddigging twit, and there are still plenty of
    golddigging twits around these days (in other words, I don't think it
    was a dated plot device; I think it was a facile [too easy] plot
    device).  I *loved* "Topper" as the minister.
    
    Hayley's still around... did a "Parent Trap II" (or III) where Susan or
    Sharon becomes stepmother to triplets.  A forgettable TV movie, but
    Hayley made the most of a couple of cardboard roles.
    
    Leslie
268.4still acting57894::PALUSESBob Paluses @MSOTue Jul 27 1993 14:236
    
    
     Hayley also plays a teacher in the teen sitcom , "Saved by The Bell".
    
    
     Bob
268.5CDROM::HENDRICKSThe only way out is throughTue Jul 27 1993 16:415
    Pollyanna
    The Trouble with Angels
    The Truth about Spring
    The Moonspinners
    The Chalk Garden  ( a favorite of mine )
268.6Info on Haley movie wanted16913::MILLS_MATo Thine own self be TrueTue Jul 27 1993 19:0114
    Speaking of "The Moonspinners" (which we weren't) does anybody know if this
    is out on video? This is one of my favorite movies of all times, though
    I haven't seen it in many years. Stars Hayley Mills, and Peter McEnnery
    (sp?) I think Maureen O'Hara is in this laso. Is there somewhere we can 
    write to Disney to find out if they will release it, if it's not out yet? 
    I suppose I can call Buena Vista productions, my family lives up the 
    street from there.
    
    One of those stupid you didn't really want to know facts: my
    sister-in-law's maiden name was Hayley Mills also. (You can die happy
    now, knowing that ;^) )
    
    Marilyn
268.7DSSDEV::RUSTTue Jul 27 1993 19:5017
    (I've modified the base note title to "The Parent Trap / Hayley
    Mills".) Re .6: "Moonspinners" isn't listed in my various video
    catalogs, which suggests it's not on video at all. (Yet.)
    
    Another Mills performance: she played a lead role in "Whistle Down the
    Wind," an odd film about some farm children who find a tramp in their
    barn and believe that he's Jesus Christ. The film is described as
    "delightful" and "charming" in the various blurbs I've read, but to me
    it seemed quirky and disturbing; not too surprising, as it's directed
    by Bryan Forbes, the guy who brought us "Seance on a Wet Afternoon".
    (More trivia-you-didn't-want-to-know: Maltin says that "Whistle Down
    the Wind" was based on a novel written by Hayley's mother.)
    
    Among Mills' other films: "Pollyanna" and "That Darn Cat," from Disney,
    and "The Trouble with Angels".
    
    -b
268.8DSSDEV::RUSTTue Jul 27 1993 19:528
    Oh, yeah. Meant to say that I _loved_ "The Parent Trap" when it came
    out (though it did not, I'm sorry to admit, encourage me to be any
    nicer to my little sister; I just wished I had a twin who was more like
    _me_). In more recent viewings, it has shown its age, but I still find
    it pleasant - all the while making little mental adjustments for
    changes in attitudes over time. ;-)
    
    -b
268.93759::AHERNDennis the MenaceWed Jul 28 1993 09:2013
    RE: .7  by DSSDEV::RUST 
    
    >Another Mills performance: she played a lead role in "Whistle Down the
    >Wind," an odd film about some farm children who find a tramp in their
    >barn and believe that he's Jesus Christ. 
    
    Didn't she also fall in with a man-on-the-lam in "Tiger Bay".  Must
    have been getting typecast.
    
    I think her first "grown-up" role was in something called "The Family
    Way" in 1966 as a young newlywed whose husband is having a problem with
    consummation.
268.10"...that WONDERFUL Community Property law"VMSDEV::HALLYBFish have no concept of fireWed Jul 28 1993 11:4411
    Wasn't Hayley also the leading lady in "The Flame-Trees of Thicka"
    (or something like that) where her family moved from England to Kenya
    near the begining of the century, founding a coffee plantation.  On PBS.
    
    I was an early-teenager and saw this movie with my sister.  We loved it
    so much we called our parents from the theatre to ask if we could watch 
    it \again/.  So we sat thru the B movie and watched it a second time.
    
    I would like to view it again just for old times' sake.
    
      John
268.1112658::benceEven Batman had a butler.Wed Jul 28 1993 16:274
    Yes, she played the mother in Elspeth Huxley's "Flame-Trees of Thika".
    It's available on video.
268.12Mills credit list...QUARRY::reevesJon Reeves, ULTRIX compiler groupWed Jul 28 1993 20:3134
Includes everything mentioned so far, as it happens.

Tiger Bay (1959)  [Gillie]
Pollyanna (1960)  [Pollyanna]
Parent Trap, The (1961)  [Sharon McKendrick/Susan Evers]
Whistle Down the Wind (1961)  [Kathy Bostock]
In Search of the Castaways (1962)
Summer Magic (1963)
Chalk Garden, The (1964)  [Laurel]
Moon-Spinners, The (1964)
Truth About Spring, The (1964)
That Darn Cat (1965)
Daydreamer, The (1966) (voice)
Family Way, The (1966)  [Jenny Fitton]
Gypsy Girl (1966)
Trouble With Angels, The (1966)
Africa - Texas Style! (1967)
Matter of Innocence, A (1967)
Twisted Nerve (1968)
Take a Girl Like You (1970)
Cry of the Penguins (1971)
Endless Night (1971)
Bananas Boat, The (1974)
Deadly Strangers (1974)
Kingfisher Caper, The (1975)
"Flame Trees of Thika, The" (1980) (mini)
Parent Trap II (1986) (TV)  [Sharon Ferris/Susan Corey]
Appointment With Death (1988)  [Miss Quinton]
Parent Trap Hawaiian Honeymoon (1989) (TV)
Parent Trap III (1989) (TV)  [Susan/Sharon Evers]
Back Home (1990) (TV)  [Peggy]
"Good Morning, Miss Bliss" (????)
"Grimm's Fairy Tales and Storybook Series" (????)
Saved by the Bell (????)
268.13"Saved by the Bell" Connection16913::STERN_TOTom Stern -- Have TK, will travel!Wed Jul 28 1993 20:4012
re:           <<< Note 268.4 by 57894::PALUSES "Bob Paluses @MSO" >>>
                               -< still acting >-

    
    
>>   Hayley also plays a teacher in the teen sitcom , "Saved by The Bell".
    
    "Small world" trivia.  Hayley Mills left the show (or was removed) when
    the kids went from junior high school to high school.  On the last
    season of the show, two of the girls were no longer on the show, and
    were replaced by a new female character.  The new girl was played by
    one of the Creel triplets (Who were in Parent Trap 2).
268.14If you are still interested in Moonspinners...31803::STEVENSON_TWed Oct 27 1993 14:3611
    The Moonspinners IS out on video.  I have rented it more than a few
    times over the years from Maloney Video on Rt 101 in Bedford, NH.
    
    I'm a BIG Haley Mills fan and although not an Oscar-winning film, I
    love it because of her!
    
    Tricia
    
    "The Truth About Spring" is, I think, one of her best.  James McArthur
    (better known as "Danno" from Hawaii 5-0) also co-stars.
268.15Great News!16913::MILLS_MATo Thine own self be TrueThu Oct 28 1993 15:4813
    Tricia,
    
    I'm in Southern California and have no access to Maloney video. Next
    time you're in, can you find out what company released it? 
    
    I'm thinking Disney, but I'd love to find out where I can get it. I'll
    buy it so I can have access to it whenever I want!
    
    
    Thanks,
    
    
    Marilyn