Today my wife and I watched the Parent Trap back to back
Both remake and original in that order
Both my wife and I were of Unanimous agreement to do so
Both movies have their moments and styles
Old vs new and it does show
Clothes, period, the camp, the styles of behavior
Each has its merits and its downs but overall is very difficult to fault ether version because the full essence of the movie is there albeit in different ways
One cannot review the one without reviewing the other and give justice to ether
As someone commented earlier
One can look at the two movies with a certain amount of pain
Splitting Twins, the effects of divorce, the reasons for the divorce, but especially in the newer version knowing the sad fates of two excellent actresses
Natasha Richardson and Lynsey Lohan
One Tragically died in a skiing accident and the other tragically destroying her life with drink and drugs
I have seen Natasha Richardson in several other movies - both playing hood and bad people and it's a pleasure to watch her fall fully into her roll so enthusiastically
Likewise with Lynsey
But the review is not about the two of them, it is about the movies themselves
The connections between old and new is very visible
There are a multitude of connections starting from the begining to the end
Many are humorous and many are more straight laced
The reason is the periods both movies are based in
The help is there in both movies but as far as both my wife and I are concerned the performance of Cheesy and Martin are concerned they stole the help show
Both were adorable in their performances
In the original sadly the help although good was too sterile
The Gran was typical of that day and age in the Parent Trap original and missing from the remake
In both cases the grandfather in both cases was very well played with love and compassion
In Parent Trap original the grandfather was more conniving and played a bigger part in bringing his daughter into the modern era
In Parent Trap new he was more of a bit player than a guiding light
Lynsey as the Twins was far better than Haily Mills who still had that Pollyanna way of doing things
The parents in both shows were very strong
I’m not really a fan of Denis Quad
Don’t like his false smile
Talking of false smiles PT O Was full of them but that seems to have been the norm for the early movies from the 30s to the sixties
I definitely got the Evil step mother feeling more in the original than in the remake and in both cases it was from Vicky and her mom
A little bit of trivia here
One of the only ones to be recast in both movies was Vicky
First as Vicky in the original and then as Medriths mom mom in the remake and in both cases very false evil typecast
Natasha was well portrayed as a very sweet business executive but Maureen o Hara takes top honors here when comparing the two movies
Here Maureen comes up as a smart wavy red headed irish mother with a short temper and like Natasha a sly schemer but Maureen carry’s it off better
The incidents that occur in both movies are handled very well even if they are more slightly twisted
Camp incidents
The meeting of the two girls I think was handled much better in the remake than the original
More suspenseful
The hut scene was virtually the same with a few embellishments but I think the remade did better
The. Switch was handled well in both cases but again the remake was better in my opinion
There was far more interesting bits in the remake
Martin and Chesses love for for the twins was so well handled
I loved their performances every time they had a scene
In fact they are the ones who steal the show for me compared to the stiff upper lip of the original
I’m not saying that the help in the origional was bad but it was far to constrained and lifeless (standard performance for that period of time
(Again comparing the two versions of Pollyanna)
There the original definitely runs rings around the remake
The finding out of the deception scene was handled very well in both versions but again broken in two the remake scores higher than the original except with the grandfather putting his wife down when the deception is revealed
As there was no grandmother in the remake it could not be repeated
The meeting of the parents in both versions was very good
Both had their moments in time but think the original was a little bit more humorous
While Denis. did a good job falling around Brian I think did it better when seeing his wife
The final Vicky / Medrith scenes were both very good hand handled well
While Medrith was a little more cool calm and collected Vicky really showed her true colors at the end
It is here that I find something very distasteful
In the original there is a lot more violence especially towards the Twins
Fight in the dance hall
Brian been punch in the eye and the most distasteful one of the lot was Vicky smacking the one twin really showing her true colors
Denis just brushed it off and found it amusing which made it more distasteful
In the remake Medrith just stomps off into the sunset
That is the big difference between the two movies what makes the remake all the more a better one
The endings I prefer the remake
Just think it was a tad better as it keeps you in suspense to the very end
The original was a bit two flat
Good but flat
Overall both movies are very good in their own way but if I had to make a choice of which to watch more it would be the remake
Again the Martin / Chessy performances steals it for me
