Hayley Mills' last film for Disney. They wanted her to sign a new contract but she turned it down, and later regretted it. I wonder what sort of movies she might've gone on to make - probably the parts given to Suzanne Pleshette eg Blackbeard's Ghost, The Ugly Daschund - maybe the lead in The Love Bug, opposite Dean Jones in Monkeys Go Home.
This was a big hit in its day - fun Bill Walsh fantasy comedy with Mills and Dean Jones as its young stars, and a solid back up of character actors: William Demarest, Elsa Lanchester, Frank Gorshin, Neville Brand, Ed Wynn, Dorothy Provine.
There's some fun comedy at the top where Mills and her byofriend discuss going to beach party movies and she asks "don't you get the impression we go to the same movie again and again and they just change titles". Although Mills is top billed this is more of an ensemble piece. I thought she would romance Jones but she's too young... he has a quick romance with Provine, who plays Mills' elder sister, while Mills has a boyfriend, a Jim Hutton type.
It's shot like a TV movie as Robert Stevenson films tended to be around this time but there's good actors, a fast pace and an engaging sense of sweetness.
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