Seeing double in the movies
LOHAN. She’s both British and American in “The Parent Trap” remake.
“Jack & Jill,” Adam Sandler’s latest starrer, is by no means the only film about twins. More famously—and effectively—Hayley Mills played separated twins who met at camp and plotted to bring their divorced parents back together in 1961’s “The Parent Trap.”
The movie was so successful that it was remade, even more endearingly, in 1998, starring the very young and gifted Lindsay Lohan, who did a great job turning in different characterizations as the lively American twin and her more sophisticated British counterpart.
A loose parody revolving around two sets of identical twins separated at birth during the French Revolution, “Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me,” stars Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland.
In the “Harry Potter” movies, the Weasley twins were played in the first three installments of the vastly popular film franchise by real-life twins, James and Oliver Phelps.
In “A Merry Mix-up” (1957), the Three Stooges portrayed three sets of triplets who were separated at birth!
Good girl
In “New York Minute” (2004), Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are featured, with Mary-Kate playing the wilder sister and Ashley cast as the good girl.
“Slapstick” (1984) cast Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn as parents who find out they each have twins—who are aliens from another planet!
“Steal Big, Steal Little”—Andy Garcia plays both roles in this comedy about a twin and his unscrupulous brother.
“Stuck on You”—a comedy about conjoined twins, played by Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear.
OLSENS. Cast in contrasting roles in “New York Minute.”
In “Wonder Man” (1945), a young nightclub entertainer is murdered, and his ghost urges his twin brother to seek revenge.
The twin factor lends itself most easily to comedic treatment, but it’s also figured prominently in a number of dramas. In “Adaptation,” Nicolas Cage portrays real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, as well as his fictional twin brother, Donald, in a story about writer’s block.
“Dark Mirror” (1946) is a murder mystery about a woman who is accused of a murder that may have been committed by her twin sister. Olivia de Havilland portrayed both roles.
In “Dominique and Eugene,” Tom Hulce plays a slow-witted garbageman who puts his smart twin brother (Ray Liotta) through medical school.
In “Double Trouble,” the Paul twins, David and Peter, play characters on the opposite side of the law who team up to nail a crime lord.
In “Equinox,” Matthew Modine plays twins who meet as adults after having been raised in very different environments.
Revelations
“A Kiss Before Dying”—a woman’s investigation into her twin sister’s apparent suicide leads to startling revelations about her new husband.
“Million Dollar Babies”—about the exploitation of the Dionne quintuplets.
“A Stolen Life” (1946)—Bette Davis plays a twin who takes her drowned sister’s place as the wife of a man (Glenn Ford) both of them had fought over.
“Dead Ringer”—in David Cronenberg’s horror film, Jeremy Irons plays the twin Mantle brothers, gynecologists who share and share alike.
“The Girls of Roquefort” is a French musical that stars Catherine Deneuve and Francois Dorleac as twin sisters.
And, in “Here Come the Waves” (1944), Betty Hutton stars as twin sisters, Susie and Rosemary—both of whom are being courted by Bing Crosby!
