The Parent Trap (1961 original)

Official Rating: G

"Straighten out their mess

With togetherness

What do you gotta prepare?

The Parent Trap!"

When parents divorce while having kids, the results are always messy. If you don't tell the kids about each other, it's even messier. And if they eventually find each other at summer camp, and being identical twins, decide to switch places, you get a rip-roaring, highly entertaining family rom-com, guaranteed to find a special place in your heart.

Good Parts:

Opening with some fun stop-motion credits, it remains uproariously funny and masterfully crafted throughout. The characters are wonderful. Miss Inch the camp counselor has some brilliant methods of discipline, the twins are hilarious and intelligent, and the parents have an...interesting dynamic. Many great lessons and themes are taught along the way, with conversations and actions which, although not excusable in every circumstance, make everything turn out well. Everyone's plans and counterplans interact and play out in marvelous, heartfelt ways. In the realm of aesthetics, everything is gorgeous, the fashion, the locations, everything (especially if you love late 50's /60's fashion). Additionally, the plot is a lovely story encouraging people to stay in marriage.

Religion:

Someone says "God love ya." A minister, who plans to officiate the wedding of the father and his new lady friend, Vicky Robinson, visits the ranch.

Violence:

Susan and Sharon fight at a camp dance, causing an unequaled fracas that gets them (justly) punished. The mother and father get in an argument when they first see one another and she jabs him in the eye, rendering it black for quite a while. Vicky slaps one of the twins.

Sexual Content: Little naked non-explicit cupid characters feature in the opening and closing credits. A boy from the next camp over elicits lots of whispering & giggling among the girls when he visits to accept an invitation to a dance. At said dance, the usual awkward young sort-of-flirting occurs. The camp has a communal shower and we get one shot from the shoulders up with nothing shown. Susan has celebrity crushes and gets the conversation she wants with her mother by asking about how long she waited before she got married. When Sharon tries to have a conversation with her father on how she wants a mother, confusion temporarily results from talking about...certain things. Dad gets a gold digger girlfriend, the above-mentioned Vicky. To make her go away, the twins try a variety of stunts, one of which is Sharon making it sound like her father is always "playing the field". During a discussion with Vicky, "the wonderful delicate mystery between a man and a woman" is talked over, and Vicky is complimented by Sharon as being "very nicely put together." To explain a telegram from Sharon, Susan pretends to have received a telegram from a friend at camp who went on a date until 3 a.m. When their mother arrives in California and their father doesn't know it, he finds one of her bras in the bathroom. General innuendo of speech occurs on occasion that will go right over the heads of more innocent watchers. Mother wears a bathrobe. During a fight, the parents tumble into a contretemps that makes the minister think they are being...romantic. Nothing inappropriate is ever shown.

Language:

One twin calls the other a "vicious little wretch." Some friendly bantering transpires. Vicky is savage of speech. Someone says "darn" and "I know vixens when I see them." Dad says it's no fun swearing without someone to pretend to be shocked, but he doesn't say anything on-camera.

Supernatural:

Sharon is said be "psychic—that [she] can sense things before they happen," getting goose bumps when it comes to her. Her father gets the same premonitions. When the girls rig up a stage with some brightly colored curtains, he asks (jokingly) if one is "going to tell fortunes or something."

Other:

The beginning has some teary elements. At the camp the girls play some malicious pranks. Don't try them at home, kids. One twin thinks that soon there will be "more divorces than marriages." (It hasn't quite transpired that way-the divorce rate is lower, but so is the rate of marriage). Susan and Sharon's maternal grandmother is rather stuffy. Ashtrays and tobacco use are mentioned. In several instances, the twins shout at their parents. Mild drinking happens in one scene.

Summary:

The Parent Trap is a great movie! Advocating a hopeful position on the controversial topic of divorce, it warns against hasty action and concealments while promoting love and marriage. For those scarred by divorce, it may bring up some bitter memories, but the message of the movie is refreshingly idealistic, not cynical(which is the point of movies, anyway: to show what should happen). For all its nonsensical antics, it promotes very commonsense principles: be careful who you marry, stay with the one you married, and defend your family. And cool it on the camp pranks, at least until you know who among them is your long-lost relative! Score 10/10

Nerd Corner:

The story is based on a German book called Das Doppelte Löttchen.

Their isolation cabin is called Serendipity.

An Original Poster: