POLLYANNA

Hayley Mills

POLLYANNA  (1960). Director: David Swift. 

Now that she has become an orphan, young Pollyana (Hayley Mills) is shipped off to a small midwestern city where she is to live in a mansion with her stern and uncompromising Aunt Polly (Jane Wyman). So as not to disturb her sleep, Polly gives her niece the smallest room up in the attic. Despite her travails, Pollyana has the most upbeat nature in the world, and refuses to see defeat in anything or anybody. Mayor Warren (Donald Crisp) wants the town to build a new orphanage while Polly -- the wealthiest citizen, who happens to own the building -- thinks all it needs is new plumbing. When everyone decides to hold a fair to raise money for the new orphanage, Polly forbids her to go, but she sneaks out anyway, nearly leading to tragedy. 

Mills with Richard Egan

A very popular movie in its day -- and the first film Mills did for Walt Disney -- Pollyana is undeniably entertaining and generally well-acted, especially by young Ms. Mills. A sub-plot has to do with the romance between Polly's assistant Nancy (Nancy Olson) and George Dodds (James Drury), not to mention Polly's interactions with old flame Dr. Chilton (Richard Egan). Pollyana also interacts with the hypochondriacal Mrs. Snow (Agnes Moorehead, badly over-acting); the weird recluse Pendergast (Adolphe Menjou); orphan boy Jimmy (Kevin Corcoran); grumpy maid Angelica (Mary Grace Canfield); the termagant Mrs. Tarvell (Anne Seymour); peppery cook Tillie (Reta Shaw); and the amazingly wishy washy and weak Reverend Ford (Karl Malden). Pollyana offers a surprisingly negative portrait of the minister, although he does eventually grow a spine. 

Egan with Jane Wyman

Pollyana is a little too long - surely the little ones in the audience grew impatient, not to mention needed bathroom breaks? -- and the whole business with Pendergast and his prisms that create rainbows gets tiresome very quickly. How faithful the film is to its turn of the century period I can't tell. Despite the open-endedness of the finale, the movie is extremely pat in virtually solving all of the problems of the characters with what seems like the snap of a finger -- this is almost funnier than anything else in the movie. Still, if you can take all that with a grain of salt, the movie may work for you. It is fun. 

Verdict: Classic Disney film with a fine lead performance. ***. 

THE PARENT TRAP (1961)

Hayley Mills meets Hayley Mills

THE PARENT TRAP (1961). Director: David Swift. Walt Disney Studios.

"You must bring mother to California. Boston is no place to rekindle a romance."

Two girls at a summer camp named Sharon and Suzie (Hayley Mills) look exactly alike. Initially hating each other, they eventually become friends, compare notes, and discover they are sisters raised on separate coasts. The two decide to switch places so they can each get to know the parent the other one lives with. When it develops that their father Mitch (Brian Keith) is about to get remarried, they contrive to rekindle a romance between him and their mother, Margaret (Maureen O'Hara). The film starts badly with a horrible title tune sung not at all well by Tommy Sands and Annette Funicello, but the opening scenes in camp are very funny. Hayley Mills reminds everyone that she was one of the most talented child stars ever. Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara make a good team, even if Keith is a more natural actor; O'Hara looks stunning. Joanna Barnes and Linda Watkins are the scheming fiancee, Vicky, and her overbearing mother, Edna; Cathleen Nesbitt and Charlie Ruggles, the maternal grandparents -- all are fine. Ruth McDevitt is fun as the dithery head of the summer camp, Miss Inch, and Nancy Kulp appears briefly as a counselor. Una Merkle plays Mitch's housekeeper, Verbena, and Leo G. Carroll, a few years before The Man from U.N.C.L.E., has a very amusing turn as the reverend Dr. Mosby. The most hilarious scene occurs when Margaret meets Vicky and her mother for the first time and mischievously confuses the two of them. At over two hours, this is a little overlong, but entertaining for the most part. However, the plot and its holes will not hold up to much scrutiny [why not tell the girls they have a sister, for instance?] The girls perform the snappy "Let's Get Together." Mills starred in the very different Twisted Nerve seven years later.

Verdict: Amiable Disney comedy with some good performances. ***.