But in an interview in Leonard Maltin's The Disney Films, Ballard claimed that "Walt made me put some of the trick shots back because he.liked technical things." In truth, the trick shots were so well done, and Mills's performance was so good and so specific and different for each character, that those shots were very effective. Director David Swift and cinematographer Lucien Ballard preferred working with the double, Susan Henning, and although they shot the double exposure scenes, they initially used very few of them in the edited film. The original plan had been to use mostly the latter process, which was complicated and difficult to do in those pre-computer days. The other was by using double exposure process shots when both twins were seen side-by-side facing the camera. One was with over-the-shoulder and long shots using a double for Mills. The scenes of the twins interacting were filmed in two ways. The Parent Trap was Mills' follow-up to Pollyanna, and was even more successful. The film made Mills a star, and earned her a special Oscar® for her performance. Walt Disney saw that film, and immediately put Hayley under contract, giving her the title role in Pollyanna (1960).
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Mills had made an impressive movie debut in the British film Tiger Bay (1959) at the age of 13, playing alongside her father, British star John Mills. They switch places to get to know the parents they've never met, then conspire to re-unite the estranged couple. The girls are unaware of each other's existences until they meet at camp. Sharon has been raised by her mother (Maureen O'Hara) in Boston, and Susan by her father (Brian Keith) in California. She plays identical twins whose parents divorced when the girls were infants, each parent taking one of the twins. One of the Baby Boomers' most fondly remembered Disney live-action films, The Parent Trap (1961) offers double the pleasure of British teen sensation Hayley Mills. Goaded on by the scheming youngsters, Mitch and Maggie resolve their marital differences and decide to make a second trip to the altar. In their efforts to get rid of their father's fiancée, the girls enlist Maggie's aid and then proceed to make life so miserable for Victoria that she abandons all thoughts of marrying Mitch. The two children then reveal their true identities and force Maggie to bring Susan back to her California home. Neither parent is aware of the deception until Sharon learns their father is planning to marry a conniving gold digger, Victoria Robinson. They decide to get their parents together again, and when camp is over, they switch places in order that each may meet the parent she has never known. They take an initial dislike to each other (Sharon is a proper Bostonian while Susan is a rowdy Californian), but before long they discover their relationship, and as the summer progresses they become close friends. Now, after 14 years, the twins are accidentally reunited when they are sent to the same summer camp. Sharon has lived with her mother, Maggie, while Susan has lived with her father, Mitch neither knows of the other's existence. Although some purists don't like the new remake of Parent Trap, I thought the remake kept the essence of the original story and updated it to match todays global travel, destigmatization of divorce, etc.Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers are identical twins whose parents were divorced when the girls were infants. Although most kids will still enjoy the original movie's favorite kid moments of the punchbowl splashing into a chaperon, the timeless cake falling on Miss Inch's face, and Vicky's hissy fit, the movie's long pace might bore todays kids. The camp cabin sabotage, the twins joining forces to prank dad's girlfriend. Dorky animated cupids aside, as a kid I loved the movie's cross country saga. In the 1980s I finally got to see the whole film uncut on the Disney cable channel and finally got to figure out "the little dolls signing the parent trap song" my sister spoke of (there was 15 minutes I'd never get back).
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My older sister had seen Parent Trap in the theater and knew all of the parts that 1970s TV had edited out. I bought the book at the school book fair and reread it a dozen times. I first saw this movie on Sunday night TV Wonderful World of Disney in 1979 and was hooked.