Line #56 Film/TheParentTrap1961


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4	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_parent_trap_1961.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:300:''"Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah!"'']]
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7
8	->''"If their love's on skids, treat your folks like kids\
9	Or your family tree’s gonna snap!\
10	So to make 'em dig, first you gotta rig\
11	What do ya gotta rig? The parent trap!"''
12
13	''The Parent Trap'' is a 1961 Creator/{{Disney}} live-action comedy film, based on the 1949 German book ''[[Literature/LottieAndLisa Das doppelte Lottchen]]'', that starred Creator/HayleyMills. It yielded three sequels which are hard to fit into one continuity (and are [[FirstInstallmentWins pretty much forgotten about]]) and also a [[Film/TheParentTrap1998 1998 remake]] that starred Creator/LindsayLohan in her feature film debut.
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15	Twin sisters Sharon and Susan have been separated nearly at birth when their parents, Mitch and Maggie, divorced. The year their father is considering remarrying, the sisters meet each other at summer camp. On meeting, they plot to get their parents back together, a plot that involves each pretending to be the other. HilarityEnsues.
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17	In the 1980s, Hayley Mills played Sharon and Susan as adults in three made-for-TV sequels. In ''The Parent Trap II'', Sharon was the parent entrapped by her own daughter; in ''Parent Trap III'', it was Susan's turn. ''Parent Trap: Hawaiian Honeymoon'' was a direct sequel to ''III'' featuring Susan and her new family (including identical triplet daughters).
18
19	----
20	!! ''The Parent Trap'' provides examples of:
21
22	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Hecky goes along with Mitch that the twins' pranks on Vicky are terrible, but he looks ready to bust a gut laughing, and he shoots them a wink when Mitch isn't looking.
23	* AdaptationalLocationChange: The original novel was set in Germany and Austria. The movie adaptation relocates the setting to the United States.
24	* AdaptationTitleChange: The movie is based on the 1949 German book ''Literature/LottieAndLisa'', otherwise known as ''Das doppelte Lottchen''.
25	* AdaptationalVillainy: In the original book, the father's fiancée is clearly an unsympathetic antagonist, but hardly a villain -- she seemed to genuinely like the girls' father (even if attracted to his fame as well), wanted to have her own children with him and only planned to get rid of his daughter (by sending her to boarding school) after the latter came to her house to openly object to their marriage. The fiancée didn't actually get to do anything villainous. However, in the movie she's portrayed as a ChildHater and GoldDigger (in the original, she's in fact much richer than her would-be husband) who WouldHurtAChild.
26	* AgeLift: The twins are nine years old in the original book, but here they're thirteen.
27	* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The girls being identical twins is what allows them to pull the switch off.
28	* AllJustADream: At the end, when Mitch and Margaret rekindle their romance, Sharon wakes up from her sleep claiming to her sister Susan that she had a crazy dream about their parents getting married and the twins were the bridesmaids dressed in matching clothes. It's then all revealed to be a premonition as the twins do attend their parents' wedding dressed as matching bridesmaids before the end credits roll.
29	* AnimatedCreditsOpening: With stop-motion.
30	* ArtisticLicenseMusic: Hayley Mills is not moving her fingers when playing guitar Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Then on "Let's Get Together" her strumming does not match the music (in addition to not moving her fingers).
31	* BelligerentSexualTension: Mitch and Margaret when they're reunited by the twins.
32	* BettyAndVeronica: Margaret is the Betty to Vicky's Veronica over the Archie, Margaret's ex and Vicky's fiancé Mitch.
33	* BigShutUp: Vicky yells one at Hicky as she orders him to stop talking and to get her boots and get her out of the wilderness.
34	* BitchInSheepsClothing: The step-mom-to-be is a sheep to the dad, and a bitch to everyone else.
35	* BitchSlap: The twins give one to each other just before grabbing each other and escalating into a physical fight at the summer camp.
36	* BondingOverMissingParents: Leads to Susan and Sharon realizing that they each have the other's missing parent and that they're sisters.
37	* BookEnds: The film opens with the song "Togetherness" and ends with the song playing at film's end during the twins parent's wedding.
38	* ButtMonkey: The fiancée Vicky who gets easily tricked by the twins into thinking there's mountain lions and scaring them away with sticks would help, has her bug spray swapped with sugar and water to attract mosquitoes, has her backpack filled with heavy rocks, tricked into taking a drink of water where a lizard is, accidentally falls into deep water and wakes up to find bear cubs licking honey from her feet. The last of which really sets her off.
39	* TheCameo: The father's golf caddy is played by Creator/JohnMills, Hayley Mills's real-life father.
40	* CatFight: The brawl between the two protagonists, as part of an escalating series of pranks they played on each other, was fully played for comedy, fanservice, and [[KungShui absolute destruction of the party they were at]].
41	* CelebrityCrush: Susan reveals to Sharon that her celebrity crush is Ricky Nelson after she helps her with her room posters.
42	* ChildHater: Vicky, the father's new fiancée.
43	* CityMouse: Vicky, who's really out of her element on the family camping trip.
44	* ColonelBogeyMarch: The other girls at the camp whistle this as the twins are escorted to the Isolation Cabin.
45	* CoolOldGuy: The grandfather. To the characters who need it the most, he's supportive and easy to talk to. He ensures others get the support and space they need, and it's partly because of this that things turn out all right in the end.
46	%%* CoolOldGuy: Dr. Mosby, the preacher. He is utterly charmed by Maggie. %%ZCE -- how is he cool?
47	* ComedicUnderwearExposure: From one of the pranks during the dance, when Sharon surreptitiously cuts the back off the skirt of Susan's party dress.
48	* CoordinatedClothes: The twins wear matching outfits several times, sometimes to confuse the others about which twin is which.
49	* CouldSayItBut: The Evers' housekeeper, a flagrant busybody, often concludes her gossip with "But I'm not saying a word, not one single word".
50	* CoversAlwaysLie: The case of the Vault Disney Collection DVD, pictured above, seems to place ''too'' much emphasis on the parents, to the extent that the movie seems more like an oddly-titled adult romance than a kid-centric comedy.
51	* DisappearedDad: Sharon has been growing up without a father.
52	* {{Disneyfication}}: The original story was far more serious -- the father was distant, the mother was a wreck, and one twin falls ill.
53	* DistractedByTheSexy: After Sharon gets back at Susan by cutting her dress with scissors, one of the boys dancing gets momentarily distracted by the sight of Susan's exposed underwear.
54	* DisposableFiancee: Vicky is, unusually for the female version of this trope, the kind who can be discarded without regret after being revealed to have been Evil All Along.
55	* DisproportionateRetribution: Susan manages to very much overreact and initiate all the fights.
56	* DivorceIsTemporary: The twins actively invoke this. Mitch and Margaret are divorced and bitter toward one another but thanks to their twins and time, eventually the two rekindle their love for one another and remarry.
57	* DontSplitUsUp: The twins' plan is to get their parents back together so they can be together as well.
58	* DoomedNewClothes: Susan's new dress is ruined by Sharon as part of their prank war.
59	* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Mom punches Dad [[EyeScream in the eye]]. What he says after being punched suggests she'd done stuff like that to him when they were married: "[[MenUseViolenceWomenUseCommunication Why do you have to get so physical? Can't even talk to you about anything, you're always trying to pelt me with something]]."
60	* DoubleVision: Used in places to have the twins interact.
61	* EmbarrassingNickname: According to Vicky's mother Edna, Mitch calls Susan "Peanut Face".
62	* EscalatingWar: The twins start off hostile to each other, and a prank war ensues. This results in them getting put in the Isolation Cabin and forced to spend time together.
63	* EvilDetectingDog: Sharon isn't exactly evil, but Susan's dog still figured out that she's an impostor much earlier than the father and the maid do.
64	* ExpositoryThemeTune: The TitleThemeTune[[note]]written by Music/TheShermanBrothers; sung by Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands[[/note]] explains why and how the kids set "the parent trap".
65	* TheExsNewJerkass: When Sharon goes to California after swapping places with twin sister Susan, she learns that their divorced father Mitch is now engaged to Vicky Robinson. Vicky is a two-faced Gold Digger who acts sweet and gentle with Mitch but is haughty and rude to people behind his back, especially anyone she considers beneath her station, and she intends to ship Susan off to a boarding school in Switzerland right after the wedding. The prospect of having Vicky for a stepmother is one of the catalysts for the girls hatching their plot to try to get their biological parents back together instead.
66	* FieryRedhead: [[Creator/MaureenOHara Maggie]] and Sharon's camp friend, Ursula.
67	* FirstFatherWins: Gender Flipped. Maggie gets back the guy, while the GoldDigger runs off in defeat.
68	* ForegoneConclusion: The opening credits tell us the story in clay animation.
69	* FourthDateMarriage:
70	** By the looks of things, Maggie and Mitch certainly didn't waste any time tying the knot for the second time.
71	** While Mitch (thankfully!) never actually marries Vicky, he ''does'' propose to her in quite a hurry- it's established that Susan has never met her before, meaning that the couple had to have become acquainted while she was away at camp and thus have only known each other for a couple of months at most.
72	* FriendshipSong: "Let's Get Together" celebrates Susan and Sharon's companionship and their potential for accomplishing great things together.
73	* FreudianSlip: Mitch has a major one when he introduces Maggie to Reverend Mosby (the pastor who is set to marry him and Vicky)- he refers to her as his ''wife''. Needless to say, the minister is left quite confused for a few moments before Mitch hurriedly corrects himself.
74	* GoldDigger: Mitch's young, opportunistic fiancée Vicky, who is only interested in Mitch's money.
75	* GoodLuckGesture: They cross fingers (for luck) on both hands, with arms crossed (symbolizing the girls' Twin Switch).
76	* GuessWhoImMarrying: The twins discover their father about to marry a new woman who's nasty.
77	* HardWorkMontage: The twins use this to give each other information and mannerisms they'll need to remember when visiting the other parent.
78	* [[SheCleansUpNicely He Cleans Up Nicely]]: Mitch towards the end of the film. He goes upstairs to "wash his hands" before having dinner with Maggie and ends up giving himself almost a full makeover- shaving, fixing his hair, changing his clothes, etc. The effect is not lost on ''any'' of his girls (the twins see him as he passes by their bedroom on his way back downstairs- and are extremely happy because they know there's only one person who could have triggered him to spiff up that much).
79	* HerBoyfriendsJacket: Or rather her ex-husband's ''bathrobe''. Maggie wastes no time settling in at the Evers' ranch, showering in Mitch's bathroom and then donning the robe he conveniently left hanging on the door. HilarityEnsues.
80	%%* HilarityEnsues
81	* HisAndHers: Discussed trope. Once they discover each other, neither twin is happy that in the original divorce, the twins were treated as "his and hers", as if they were a set of matched towels.
82	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The father toward his gold digger fiancée. She is extremely rude -- to not only the girls, but also his ''housekeeper.''
83	* HumanLadder: Sharon and Susan do this while they're in the lake to try to fool Vicky into thinking the water is shallow.
84	* IdenticalTwinIDTag: The twins start off easily identifiable by their hairstyles, clothing and accents. Throughout the course of camp, they alter their appearances so that they are identical.
85	* ImAManICantHelpIt: Mitch Evers has trouble seeing that Vicky is a BitchInSheepsClothing because he's DistractedByTheSexy. Discussed when Sharon (posing as Susan) tells Vicky that the wool isn't pulled over her eyes.
86	-->'''Sharon as Susan''': I know what wonderful, delicate mystery Daddy sees in you. And I can't say I blame him there, either. You're very nicely put together.
87	* ImportantHaircut: Susan gives one to Sharon.
88	* {{Infodump}}: For everyone who is involved in the main plot.
89	* ItsASmallWorldAfterAll: Twin sisters, separated and living in different states, end up at the same camp one summer. This gets lampshaded more than once.
90	* KarmaHoudini: The parents, who pay for willingly denying their children the chance to know about one another and having multiple family members and friends lie to them for years by being reunited as a couple and a family.
91	* KickTheDog: Having had enough of Mitch and his twins, Vicky slaps one of the twins across her face telling her to give her sister the other half. This makes Mitch call Vicky out for her actions just before she breaks up with him.
92	* KidsPlayMatchBreaker: Before they can reconcile their parents, the twins must first get rid of Mitch’s [[GoldDigger gold-digging]], [[ChildHater child-hating fiancé]], Vicky.
93	* KidsPlayMatchmaker: The sisters initially just want to get to know their respective other parent. Then they decide to try getting them back together.
94	* [[LikeMotherLikeDaughter Like Mother like Daughters]]: Maggie's attitude towards Vicky is virtually the same as her daughters' (in fact if anything she's a bit ''bolder'' than they are!)- and it's implied that she deliberately manipulated the younger woman into going on the camping trip so that she and Mitch would break up.
95	* LongHairIsFeminine: The tomboyish twin has shorter hair than the girly girl.
96	* LongLostRelative: Susan and Sharon.
97	* LoveTriangle: Margaret/Mitch/Vicky.
98	* MealTicket: Mitch for Vicky.
99	* MemoryTrigger: Susan (posing as Sharon) smells her grandfather and tries to make his scent a SignatureScent to remember him with:
100	-->'''Charles:''' What are you doing?
101	-->'''Susan:''' Making a memory.
102	-->'''Charles:''' Making a memory?
103	-->'''Susan:''' All my life, when I'm quite grown-up I will always remember my grandfather and how he smelled of tobacco and peppermint.
104	-->'''Charles:''' Tobacco and peppermint. Well, I'll tell you what. I take the peppermint for my indigestion and as for the tobacco... to make your grandmother mad.
105	* MissingMom: Susan has been growing up without a mother.
106	* NoSympathy: Susan and her bunkmates slip into Sharon's cabin and trash the place while Sharon and her bunkmates are asleep. Even though the damage is clearly the work of saboteurs, Sharon and her bunkmates are punished for having a messy cabin.
107	* NomDeMom: Sharon [=McKendrick=] and Susan Evers have different surnames because Sharon was raised with their mom's surname and Susan with their dad's.
108	* NotWhatItLooksLike: When Mitch and Margaret get into another argument, she punches him in the eye and he falls onto the couch as she attempts to check his bruised eye (he isn't exactly cooperative about it). The minister walks in and, since she's wearing a robe and lying atop of him, assumes he's intruding on them having an intimate moment. Lampshaded by Mitch when he tries to persuade Maggie to put on "something decent" just moments before the minister enters.
109	-->'''Mitch''': The priest could come in here any minute, it looks like we just...
110	* NowYouTellMe: A lot of characters find things out the hard way.
111	* OhCrap:
112	** When Susan's friends see Susan dancing with a boy and then notice that her dress is cut and her underwear is exposed and they go to warn her about it.
113	** Susan gasps and covers herself before running off with her friends after being told that her underwear is exposed due to Sharon cutting her dress as payback.
114	* OffToBoardingSchool: What would have happened if the fiancée married the father.
115	* OldManMarryingAChild: Used as an indirect accusation delivered with SugaryMalice. When Mitch tells Sharon!"Susan" that Vicky is about to become part of the family, she surely understands right away that he's talking about marriage. However, she pretends to innocently misunderstand him and tells him that she thinks it's really sweet of him to want to adopt Vicky. She continues making snarky references to Vicky's youth throughout the rest of the film, until Mitch finally snaps and tells her to "stop referring to her as a child!"
116	* OneTruePairing: Established in-universe, between Maggie [=McKendrick=] and Mitch Evers -- the daughters' reason for the trap.
117	* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Vicky in her engagement to Mitch. When Sharon "casually" drops this accusation during what Vicky initially passes off as an innocent heart-to-heart, she immediately drops all pretenses and warns Sharon not to do anything to interfere with their upcoming marriage, kicking off the girls' desperate plans to reunite their parents before this can happen. Oh, and Vicky's mother appears to be all in on the scheme as well.
118	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mitch's full first name is Mitchell, but Vicky's mother Edna is the only one who ever calls him that.
119	* OnlyOneName: Verbena and Hecky's surnames are never mentioned.
120	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Creator/HayleyMills plays two Americans from vastly different regions of the United States. From character to character and scene to scene, her accent veers from flat-voweled generic American to vaguely British and back again.
121	* PapaWolf: Mitch doesn't take very kindly to Vicky slapping one of his daughters (as retaliation for the girls' pranks).
122	* ParentalSubstitute: Verbena the housekeeper acts as a maternal figure towards Susan (and Sharon when she takes her place). Notably, she is the first person to notice that something is odd about "Susan" and it is to her that Sharon first confesses her true identity.
123	* ParentWithNewParamour: The father has just started dating a new girlfriend - who is a GoldDigger.
124	* ParentsKnowTheirChildren: Sort of. Mitch looks each twin in the eye and declares which one is Susan; however, it's not made clear if he's right, since the twins keep playing up the charade and make him question his own judgement. He even outright names the trope, declaring "I know my own daughter!"
125	* PickyEater: Vicky refuses to eat the freshly caught trout that Mitch, Hecky and the girls enjoy on the camping trip.
126	* PosterGalleryBedroom: Susan's bed at camp has photos and magazine clippings of 1960s teen heartthrobs. Sharon isn't so cool, so she has no idea who Ricky Nelson is. "Oh, your boyfriend." Susan gasps in disbelief. "I wish he was! You mean you never heard of him? Where do you come from, outer space?"
127	* RichBitch: The fiancée. It may be more accurate to call her an ''aspiring'' Rich Bitch, as her GoldDigger plot falls through and so she never actually qualifies for the rich part.
128	* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: The father falls in love with another woman and fails to notice that the target of his affections is a GoldDigger who doesn't care about him or his daughters.
129	* RuleOfPool: ''Nature's'' pool in this case. When Mitch sees his ex-wife from afar, he's so stunned that he forgets to pay attention to his surroundings... which leads to him promptly tripping over a beach chair and falling into the lake on his property.
130	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
131	** Sharon-as-Susan does this taking off riding her horse when her father Mitch is just about to tell her his engagement plans to Vicky.
132	** Vicky when she's had enough of camping with Mitch, Hecky and the twins and leaves in an angry fit.
133	* SeparatedAtBirth: The twins were separated at some point when they were both babies.
134	* SettingUpdate: The film moves the setting to contemporary America (from 1940s Germany in the book).
135	* ShipperOnDeck: Maggie's father clearly has a preference for Mitch, while Reverend Mosby has one for Maggie (he calls her a "delightful woman" and remarks that he doesn't understand how Mitch "ever let her slip away"). Verbena and Hecky also happily help the girls with their plans to reunite the two (well, the latter isn't so eager at first, being that his first "duty" involves playing a gypsy, but he comes around quickly).
136	* ShoutOut:
137	** The title sequence references Creator/StanFreberg's "John and Marsha" skit twice.
138	** The Evers' ranch is called Golden Oak Ranch (the name can clearly be seen on the door of the pickup truck Mitch, Hecky, Vicky and the girls use on their camping trip). This is the Mouse House giving ''themselves'' a shoutout- at the time they owned a filming lot called Golden Oak Ranch.
139	* SiblingTeam: Once the girls discover they're sisters.
140	* SignatureScent: Susan (posing as Sharon) smells her grandfather:
141	-->'''Charles:''' What are you doing?\
142	'''Susan:''' Making a memory.\
143	'''Charles:''' Making a memory?\
144	'''Susan:''' All my life, when I'm quite grown-up I will always remember my grandfather and how he smelled of tobacco and peppermint.\
145	'''Charles:''' Tobacco and peppermint. Well, I'll tell you what. I take the peppermint for my indigestion and as for the tobacco...to make your grandmother mad.
146	* SolomonDivorce: The parents of a pair of infant twin girls each take one with them after they divorce, and the children only find out about it after meeting each other by chance when they're teenagers.
147	* TakeThat:
148	** A subtle one to Boston when Susan finds out that Sharon knows nothing about TeenIdol Ricky Nelson and asks if she's from outer space, Sharon replies where she's from and then Sharon snootily replies as though that explains everything; likely more to the Boston elite being very out-of-touch with social changes and fashion.
149	** Another one when Mitch is trying to explain that Maggie isn't a threat to the upcoming wedding -- the first quality of hers that he mentions is that she's from Boston.
150	* TheTalk:
151	** Maggie cancels a very important meeting with the Red Cross because she's afraid her daughter might want to have sex, and takes her for a picnic to have that woman-to-woman talk.
152	** Mitch decides to have the Talk with Sharon (disguised as Susan) on a golf course, assuming that's why she's wanting to know about her mother all of a sudden. After a few minutes of awkward explanation, Sharon tells him she's known about ''that'' for ages.
153	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Sharon is a girly girl, having been raised as a child of Boston high society; Susan is the tomboy.
154	* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Susan, the tomboy sister, remarks she feels just "naked" without her lipstick, and doesn't usually dress any more boyish than Sharon; she is also adept at homemade haircuts.
155	* TwinSwitch: The girls swap places to get to know their respective non-custodial parents. Later they do the same just to fool them.
156	* {{Unishment}}: Being isolated from the rest of the campers ends up being this when Sharon and Susan realize that they are sisters; with no one else around, they have a great opportunity to bond and to prep each other to switch places.
157	* VillainousBreakdown: Vicki at the end. Oh, so much.
158	* WellIntentionedReplacement: The girls (with the assistance of Hecky and Verbena) recreate the restaurant from their parents' first date as part of an attempt to get their parents back together. Everything is quite homemade and primitive, but it's touching, nonetheless. Discussed when Maggie realizes what the girls tried to do and tells Mitch to stop laughing.
159	* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Wondered by Verbena about the GoldDigger dating Mitch--not that the guy is ugly, but he's usually a Regular Joe and isn't very witty or "one of those charm fellows".
160	* WouldHurtAChild: When Vicky gets fed up with the girls' antics, she slaps one of them (which leads to a swift telling-off from Mitch).
161	* TheVamp: Vicky.
162	* VinylShatters: When the girls upset the table with the records while fighting at the camp dance.
163	* YoungFutureFamousPeople: Look for a then-teenaged [[Creator/MuppetPerformers Dave Goelz]], originator of [[Series/TheMuppetShow Gonzo, Bunsen Honeydew]] and [[Series/FraggleRock Boober Fraggle]] among others, in a brief appearance in a dance scene.
164	* ZanyScheme: The Parent Trap, of course.
165
166	!!The sequels contain examples of:
167
168	* HistoryRepeats: ''The Parent Trap II'' and ''Parent Trap III'' have Sharon and Susan respectively finding themselves at the other end of a KidsPlayMatchmaker scenario.
169	* KidsPlayMatchmaker:
170	** In ''The Parent Trap II'', Sharon's daughter Nikki and Nikki's friend Mary scheme to hook Sharon up with Mary's father.
171	** ''Parent Trap III'' features identical triplet teens who bring Susan and their father together.
172	* SameSexTriplets: In ''Parent Trap III'', adult Susan falls in love with a man who has identical triplet daughters, Lisa, Jessie and Megan Wyatt. Interestingly, while the Susan and Sharon were played by the same actress (Creator/HayleyMills), the triplets were played by real-life triplets Leanna, Monica and Joy Creel.
173	* SequelEscalation: ''Parent Trap III'' adds identical ''triplets''.
174	* ShoutOut: In ''The Parent Trap II'', the two girls are named Nikki Ferris and Mary Grand; Hayley Mills's other child roles for Disney included Nikky Ferris in ''The Moon-Spinners'' and Mary Grant in ''In Search of the Castaways''. And Sharon's boss is named [[Creator/WaltDisney Walter Elias]].

Context Film / TheParentTrap1961