From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Let’s Get Together” | |
---|---|
Single by Hayley Mills | |
from the album Let’s Get Together with Hayley Mills | |
B-side | “Cobbler, Cobbler” |
Released | 1961 |
Genre | Pop |
Label | Buena Vista |
Songwriter(s) | Robert B. ShermanRichard M. Sherman |
Producer(s) | Salvador Camarata |
“Let’s Get Together” is a song written by Robert and Richard Sherman for the 1961 Disney film The Parent Trap. It was sung in the film by teen actress Hayley Mills, using double-tracking because she played both the roles of twin sisters, which was a technical feat in the early 1960s.
Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands also did a version of the song in the film, which is heard during the dance at the summer camp.
When released on disc, the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1961 (b/w “Cobbler, Cobbler”) and went on to become a top 10 hit, peaking at number 8. The credit on the single reads “Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills”, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Mills apparently singing a duet with herself. Released in the UK, it reached the top 20, peaking at number 17. In 1963, the song reached #1 in Mexico. The song’s success led Mills to record an album, Let’s Get Together with Hayley Mills, which included “Let’s Get Together” and Mills’ only other hit song, “Johnny Jingo.”
A homage to the original appeared in the 1998 remake of the film, with Lindsay Lohan singing the title line, and Nobody’s Angel performing the soundtrack version.
A Spanish-language cover of the song, titled “Vayamos Juntos” and recorded by Las Hermanas Jiménez, was one of the most successful recordings of 1963 in that country.
The Go-Go’s performed a cover on DisneyMania 5 and a live version recorded by Oh-OK is compiled on The Complete Recordings.
By Reynold Brown – Public Domain, Link
The Parent Trap | |
---|---|
Theatrical release poster by Reynold Brown | |
Directed by | David Swift |
Produced by | Walt Disney George Golitzen |
Written by | David Swift |
Based on | Lottie and Lisa 1949 novel by Erich Kästner |
Starring | Hayley Mills Maureen O’Hara Brian Keith |
Music by | Songs: Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman Score: Paul Smith |
Cinematography | Lucien Ballard |
Edited by | Philip W. Anderson |
Production company | Walt Disney Productions |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
Release date | June 21, 1961 |
Running time | 128 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $25.1 million |
The Parent Trap is a 1961 Walt Disney Technicolor romantic comedy film directed by David Swift. It stars Hayley Mills (in a dual role), Maureen O’Hara and Brian Keith in a story about teenage twins on a quest to reunite their divorced parents. The screenplay by the film’s director David Swift was based upon the 1949 book Lottie and Lisa (German: Das Doppelte Lottchen) by Erich Kästner. The Parent Trap was nominated for two Academy Awards, was broadcast on television, saw three television sequels, was remade in 1998 with Lindsay Lohan, and has been released on digital stereo LaserDisc format in 1986 as well as VHS and DVD in 2002.
The Parent Trap was Hayley Mills‘s second film in the series of six for Disney.
Production notes
The novel was discovered by Disney’s story editor Bill Dover who recommended the studio buy it.
In March 1960 Disney announced that Hayley Mills would star in His and Hers to be written and directed by David Swift. Swift and Mills had just made Pollyanna for Disney. It was also known as Petticoats and Blue Jeans and was the first in a five-film contract Mills signed with Disney, to make one each summer.
Maureen O’Hara signed in June. She wrote in her memoirs that Disney offered her a third of her normal fee of $75,000 but that she held out for her quote and got it. O’Hara said her contract gave her top billing but that Disney decided to give that to Mills; she says this caused tension with the studio and was why she never worked with Disney again.
Production started in July under the title of We Belong Together and went until September.
The film originally called for only a few trick photography shots of Hayley Mills in scenes with herself; the bulk of the film was to be shot using a body double. The film used Disney’s proprietary sodium vapor process for compositing rather than the usual chroma key technique. When Walt Disney saw how seamless the processed shots were, he ordered the script reconfigured to include more of the special effect. Disney also wanted Mills to appear on camera as much as possible, knowing that she was having growth spurts during filming.
The film was shot mostly at various locales in California. The summer camp scenes were filmed at Bluff Lake Camp (then owned by the Pasadena YMCA, now by Habonim Dror‘s Camp Gilboa) and the family camping scenes later in the movie at Cedar Lake Camp, both in the San Bernardino Mountains near the city of Big Bear Lake in Southern California. The Monterey scenes were filmed in various California locations, including millionaire Stuyvesant Fish‘s 5,200 acres (21 km2) ranch in Carmel and Monterey’s Pebble Beach golf course. The scenes at the Monterey house were shot at the studio’s Golden Oak Ranch in Placerita Canyon, where Mitch’s ranch was built. It was the design of this set that proved the most popular, and to this day the Walt Disney Archives receives requests for plans of the home’s interior design.[14] In fact, there never was such a house; the set was simply various rooms built on a sound stage. Camp Inch was based on a real girls’ camp called Camp Crestridge for Girls at the Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center near Asheville, North Carolina.
Musical numbers
Richard and Robert Sherman provided the songs, which, besides the title song “The Parent Trap“, includes “For Now, For Always“, and “Let’s Get Together“. “Let’s Get Together” (sung by Annette Funicello) is heard playing from a record player at the summer camp; the tune is reprised by the twins when they restage their parents’ first date and that version is sung double-tracked by Hayley Mills. (Hayley’s own single of the song, credited to “Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills,” reached #8 on the US charts.) The film’s title song was performed by Tommy Sands and Annette Funicello, who were both on the studio lot shooting Babes in Toyland at the time.
Reception
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that “it should be most appealing to adults, as well as to children, because of the cheerfully persuasive dual performance of Hayley Mills.” Variety stated that the film was “absolutely predictable from the outset,” but was still “a winner” thanks to the performance of Mills, who “seems to have an instinctive sense of comedy and an uncanny ability to react in just the right manner. Her contribution to the picture is virtually infinite.” Charles Stinson of the Los Angeles Times declared it “a comedy unusually well designed for the entire family — enough sight gags to keep the children screaming and enough clever dialogue to amuse their parents.” Harrison’s Reports graded the film as “Very Good,” and Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called it “charmingly lively” even though “the terrain is familiar.”
The film currently holds a score of 90% on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes based on 20 reviews.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: one for Sound by Robert O. Cook, and the other for Film Editing by Philip W. Anderson. The film and its editor, Philip W. Anderson, won the inaugural 1962 Eddie Award of the American Cinema Editors.
Watch the trailer
Watch the movie
The Parent Trap Remake
The Parent Trap is a 1998 American romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Nancy Meyers, and produced and co-written by Charles Shyer. It is a remake of the 1961 film of the same name and an adaptation of Erich Kästner‘s 1949 German novel Lottie and Lisa (Das doppelte Lottchen).
Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson star as a divorced couple who separated shortly after their identical twin daughters’ birth; Lindsay Lohan stars (in her film debut) as both twins, Hallie Parker and Annie James, who are fortuitously reunited at summer camp after being separated at birth. David Swift wrote the screenplay for the original 1961 film based on Lottie and Lisa. The story is comparable to that of the 1936 Deanna Durbin film Three Smart Girls. Swift is credited along with Meyers and Shyer as co-writers of the 1998 version.
The Parent Trap was released on July 29, 1998 and was a box-office success, grossing $92.1 million against a $15 million budget. It received positive reviews from critics, with Lohan’s performance in particular earning high praise.
Production
Casting
More than 1,500 young actresses submitted audition tapes for the dual roles of Hallie and Annie. Director Nancy Meyers was looking for “a little Diane Keaton” to play the parts. Before Lohan was cast in the roles, actresses Scarlett Johansson, Mara Wilson, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Jena Malone all either auditioned or were considered for the roles, with Malone turning the roles down multiple times.
Filming
Principal photography started on July 15, 1997, in London, United Kingdom, and continued in Napa Valley AVA, San Francisco, Lake Arrowhead, and Los Angeles, California to December 17, 1997. Camp Walden was filmed on location at Camp Seely in Crestline, California. Parker Knoll, the vineyard and residence of the Parker family in the film, was shot on location in Rutherford, California at Staglin Family Vineyard. The exterior of the fictional Stafford Hotel was shot at The Langham Huntington in Pasadena, California, while the interior and pool scenes were shot at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey, California.
Connections to the 1961 film
There are several connections between this film and the original 1961 version:
- The characters Marva Kulp Sr. and Marva Kulp Jr. are named after Nancy Kulp, the actress who played a camp counselor in the 1961 film, Miss Grunecker.
- Both versions of the film feature product placement by Nabisco. In 1998 film, Oreos are featured, while in the 1961 film, Fig Newtons are featured.
- During the poolside scene where Annie and Meredith meet for the first time, Meredith speaks on the phone with someone named Reverend Mosby, who was a character in the 1961 film played by Leo G. Carroll.
- Joanna Barnes appears in both films, playing Vicky Robinson in the 1961 film, and Vicki Blake in the 1998 version.
- The Stafford Hotel is named after a boy in the 1961 film that accepts the boy’s camp invitation to the dance at the beginning of film.
- Right before Hallie meets Meredith for the first time, she can be heard singing a few bars of “Let’s Get Together“, a song from the 1961 version originally sung by Hayley Mills.
- There are bunk houses named Arapahoe in both films.
Music
The song used in the opening sequence in which glimpses of Nick and Elizabeth’s first wedding are seen is Nat King Cole‘s “L-O-V-E“.
The song used in the end credits, in which photos of Nick and Elizabeth’s second wedding are seen, is his daughter Natalie Cole‘s “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)“.
The instrumental music featured prominently in the hotel scene where the girls and their parents cross paths serendipitously is “In the Mood“, which was previously made famous by the Glenn Miller band. The song “Let’s Get Together” is also quoted over the Walt Disney Pictures logo, and at the end of Alan Silvestri‘s closing credits suite.
When Hallie shows up at Annie’s poker game at Camp Walden, the music used is “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
The tune playing as Hallie and Annie are making their way up to the Isolation Cabin is the main theme from “The Great Escape” by Elmer Bernstein.
The song coming from the radio in Meredith’s car as she pulls up to the Parker’s home is “Parents Just Don’t Understand” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.
The background song heard in the campfire scene is “How Bizarre” by the music group OMC.
The song playing as Annie, Elizabeth, and Martin say goodbye to Hallie, Nick and Chessy toward the end of the film is “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye“, performed by Ray Charles & Betty Carter.
Reception
Box office
The film premiered in Los Angeles on July 20, 1998. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $11,148,497 in 2,247 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office, behind Saving Private Ryan. By the end of its run, The Parent Trap grossed $66,308,518 domestically and $25,800,000 internationally, totaling $92,108,518 worldwide. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 11, 1998, and opened on #3, behind Rush Hour and The Mask of Zorro.
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 6.8/10 based on 51 reviews. The website’s consensus states: “Writer-director Nancy Meyers takes the winning formula of the 1961 original and gives it an amiable modern spin, while young star Lindsay Lohan shines in her breakout role.” Metacritic gave the film a score of 64/100, based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert each gave the film three stars. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan “the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original”, going on to say that “she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities”. Lohan won a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film.
Accolades
Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | Artios Awards | Best Casting for Feature Film, Comedy | Ilene Starger | Nominated |
1999 | Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | Favorite Female Newcomer | Lindsay Lohan | Nominated |
1998 | International Film Music Critics Association | Best Original Score for a Comedy Film | Alan Silvestri | Nominated |
1999 | Online Film & Television Association | Best Breakthrough Performance: Female | Lindsay Lohan | Won |
Best Youth Performance | Lindsay Lohan | Nominated | ||
Best Family Actress | Lindsay Lohan | Nominated | ||
1999 | Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actress | Lindsay Lohan | Won |
Best Family Feature – Comedy | The Parent Trap | Nominated | ||
1998 | YoungStar Awards | Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy Film | Lindsay Lohan | Nominated |
Home media
The Parent Trap was originally released on video in the United States on December 8, 1998. A 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray was released as a Disney Movie Club Exclusive on April 24, 2018. The film was also available as a launch title on Disney+.
Remake
On February 21, 2018, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that remakes of several films are in development as exclusive content for The Walt Disney Company‘s streaming service Disney+ with one of those projects named in the announcement as The Parent Trap.
Reunion
On July 20, 2020, Katie Couric moderated a virtual cast reunion through her Instagram account for the film’s 22nd anniversary. Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, Elaine Hendrix, Lisa Ann Walter, Simon Kunz, Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer all participated in the video chat. A charity fundraising effort during the COVID-19 pandemic, the reunion special helped raise money for chef José Andrés‘ non-profit organization World Central Kitchen. Quaid then released an extended version of the reunion on his podcast The Dennissance on the following day.
Comments