THE PARENT TRAP (1961) *** Disney takes on the social aberration of divorce, both cinematic barrels blazing: identical twins who have never heard of each other run into each other by accident at summer camp, where they plot to reunite their wonderful, madly in love parents, who have successfully ignored each other for 13 years without much thought about it. Need not carry a "don't try this at home" warning, as anyone able to is either smart enough not to, or wizard enough to pull it off. But it's all very warm, and silly with just the right bits of decadence and skulduggery adorning the edges. Perhaps no one could have pulled it off but Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills, but interesting actors keep coming up behind her, and to the sides: how about Leo G. Carroll as a holy man, eh? I sincerely doubt that it was in the German novel (and so hats off to the wonder of Disney), but the greatest part is the metaphorical depiction of what was happening in California: the healthy, virile, casual, absolutely John Wayne-like Brian Keith is stalked and ultimately submarined by the insidious, predatory, gold-digging with her intent barely airbrushed, even cosmetically degraded Joanna Barnes; all aided by a law favoring the unrighteous. Yes, my children, that's how it happened, and the succubus was Ronald Reagan. But Disney doesn't make political films, and doesn't have important points to make, and always insists on a happy ending no matter what. Not like reality, which is good, because there are some situations where reality has to be, however briefly, occulted by fantasy, and I suspect that children of divorcing parents know something all about that. The film, though: shamelessly and gloriously silly and sentimental. That's what gives it its gravitas.
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