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Lizards in Movies
 
The Parent Trap (1961)
 
Spoiler Alert !

Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.
 
Lizards in Movies Lizards in Movies Lizards in Movies
Lizards in Movies Lizards in Movies Lizards in Movies
Lizards in Movies Lizards in Movies Lizards in Movies
Lizards in Movies Lizards in Movies Lizards in Movies

This is the classic Disney family movie that was followed by a number of sequels, remakes, and television series. It's about identical tween twin sisters who did not know they had a sister until they meet accidentally at a summer camp. Their parents divorced when they were one year old and moved them to opposite ends of the country. (Both twins are well-played by Hayley Mills, using body doubles and special effects.) The girls decide to secretly exchange places so they can each spend time with the parent they never knew and find a way to get them back together again. When the twin from Boston gets to the home of her father in Monterey she finds out he is engaged to be married to a gold digger named Vicky (Joanna Barnes), so she convinces the twin in Boston to bring their mother to Monterey.

The Lizard Scene

The mother tricks Vicky into going on an overnight hiking trip in the mountains. Vicky is not used to strenuous exercise and needs to stop for a rest. One of the twins shows the other twin that she is going to put a lizard on her canteen then offer it to Vicky. Vicky thanks her for the drink, then freaks out when she sees the lizard. She throws the canteen back to Susan or Sharon (I could never tell them apart) and moves away. The father tells the girls to help her out, but Vicky tells them off and calls them vixens. The lizard stunt was nasty, but Vicky has shown herself to be a bad person not worthy of marrying the girls' father. After another prank involving bears licking honey off of her feet, Vicky leaves the hike in anger, returning home and calling off the marriage, which paves the way for the parents to re-unite.

When her father asks what scared Vicky, the twin with the lizard tells him it's a little old tree lizard that wouldn't hurt anybody. The lizard is actually a juvenile Desert Iguana found in the deserts, not a species she would have found in the mountains. It's nice to see one on in a movie. I don't recall seeing one before.

The movie was re-made in 1998 with a more elaborate lizard scene. The Parent Trap (1998)