Disney Remakes `The Parent Trap' For Today's Kids

If you were a child or a teenager in the early 1960s, you couldn't escape a Disney comedy called "The Parent Trap," starring Hayley Mills as identical teenage twins who have been raised separately.

"I was 7 or 8, I had a crush on Hayley Mills, and I saw it several times," said Dennis Quaid, who plays the twins' father in Disney's remake (it opens Wednesday).

"All kids see movies they like several times," he added, speaking by car phone somewhere on the Los Angeles freeway.

Officially, "The Parent Trap" was No. 3 on the list of 1961's top-grossing Hollywood movies, right behind "The Guns of Navarone" and "Exodus." But if you consider that most of the tickets sold to "The Parent Trap" were half-price or less, it was probably seen by more paying customers than any other picture released that year.

"When I was a kid, I thought maybe I had a twin," said Quaid. "I'd guess that has a lot to do with its appeal."

A late-1960s theatrical reissue was also a hit, and the movie earned significant ratings when it made its network debut. It spawned three Disney Channel sequels (including 1989's "Parent Trap Hawaiian Honeymoon") and several unofficial imitations, including the shamelessly derivative 1995 Kirstie Alley comedy, "It Takes Two," starring the Olsen twins, Ashley and Mary-Kate.

With Disney remaking so many of its past hits, a new "Parent Trap" seemed inevitable. A Long Island newcomer, Lindsay Lohan, was recruited to play the twins this time. Natasha Richardson, who was not familiar with the original film, was cast as their mother.

"She's from England, and she's younger," said Quaid. "I'm really not too sure what Lindsay's awareness of the original was, but I think she knew more than Natasha did."

For one thing, Lohan sings part of Mills' deliberately tacky rock song, "Let's Get Together," which cemented the twins' relationship in the first film.

"That was not really in the script," said Quaid. "And I think Disney actually charged us for it. They charged themselves!"

Also back from the 1961 original is Joanna Barnes, who played the golddigger who tried to seduce the girls' father. This time Barnes turns up as the mother of that character, who is played with a similar manipulative flair by Elaine Hendrix.

"Elaine has fantastic comedic timing, and she really threw herself into it," said Quaid. "She just came out of the blue." Although she's done some television work, Hendrix's only notable previous big-screen role was the Vogue magazine fashion editor, Lisa Luder, in last year's "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion."

The script for the remake is the latest work of Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, who did the 1991 remake of "Father of the Bride" and its 1995 sequel. However, they give first place in the writing credits to David Swift, who wrote and directed the Hayley Mills version.

"I thought that was really great of Charles and Nancy to do that," said Quaid. "But the story has been updated, and I think it's more romantic than the original.

"It's a romantic comedy with something for everybody. I think a guy could get lucky on a first date with this."

In the original film, Maureen O'Hara and the late Brian Keith played the twins' estranged parents, who had split up before their daughters were old enough to know each other. He takes one baby, she takes the other. The separated sisters finally realize that they're related when they accidentally meet at summer camp.

In both versions, the script mixes summer-camp slapstick with this poignant surprise reunion. In both films, camera tricks were used to make the star seem to split into two characters.

"It's actually easier now to do than it was then," said Quaid. "Before, they used a blue screen, or a split screen, and they never really looked at each other. Here they cross into each other's frame. When I'm looking at the film, I think I'm watching two girls.

"It's very easy to work with, because it's done by computer. It really wasn't any more complicated than doing a scene with two actresses. Lindsay had to go change her clothes, that was it."

The filming of "The Parent Trap" came during a busy couple of years for Quaid, who made his directing debut with a TNT movie, "Everything That Rises," that had its premiere this month. He also has finished "Savior," a Bosnian war story that will open in theaters in November, and "Dancing About Architecture," an ensemble piece that should be out by the end of the year. In November, he begins work on Oliver Stone's "On Any Given Sunday."

He said he wouldn't mind doing a "Parent Trap" sequel, especially "if people really embraced the movie."

Never a favorite with critics, the original version of "The Parent Trap" was once used by Pauline Kael as an example of pop culture at its most insidious. In her first published collection of essays, "I Lost It at the Movies" (1965), she berated a man who praised "the child-like charm and innocence" of the film.

Leonard Maltin called it "no great shakes." Leslie Halliwell found the movie a "quite bright but awesomely extended juvenile romp."

The original's 129-minute running time is often trimmed to fit a two-hour television spot; few fans protest the missing scenes. Ironically, "The Parent Trap" earned an Academy Award nomination for best film editing. The remake is just as long.

Yet the movie's popularity has never subsided, partly because the theme of "The Parent Trap" has never really been out of vogue. Such 1990s films as "Sliding Doors" and "The Double Life of Veronique" also toy with the idea that there's a doppelganger out there, possibly for everyone.