MovieChat Forums > That Darn Cat! (1965) Discussion > british accent?

british accent?

posted 17 years ago by goofyball
10 replies | jump to latest

isn't it odd that one sister has an american accent while the other has a british accent?

and the older one has to be around 30 and still living at home even though she has a job.

[–] hotspurpagg 16 years ago

Haley Mills was very popular around this time, and her accent was part of her persona.

It's mentioned that Ingrid is having a tough time finding a guy worthy to be her husband.

[–] BigD_3285 15 years ago

"It's mentioned that Ingrid is having a tough time finding a guy worthy to be her husband. "

More likely she's such a cold fish that she's having a tough time finding a guy who'd want to be her husband...

[–] rudeboy8080 14 years ago

Hayley Mills is a delightful woman, but she's vedy, vedy British. On a game show, she struggled to speak in a French and "Southern" accent. Anyway, Mills looked sensual and innocent in the original That Darn Cat. A year later, she showed her bare butt in The Family Way(1966).

[–] catwoman1275 16 years ago

Yes. I also thought it was odd in The Parent Trap that the twins Sharon and Susan (both played by Hayley Mills as we all know) had a British accent, yet both parents had American accents. Nothing against Hayley though...her Disney films in the 1960's were great.

Did you also notice in That Darn Cat that Ingrid, the older sister, goes to work early in the morning and returns home late at night? (She returned home after 11pm, after the news on television, when it was broadcasted that the bank teller was kidnapped and Patti discovered the wristwatch on DC's neck.) Gregory used to give her rides to and from work. Just what kind of a job must she have worked, I wonder? And she also came home after 9 pm the night Zeke and the FBI set up their communication equipment in her bedroom.

[–] sjbradford 13 years ago

Yes. I also thought it was odd in The Parent Trap that the twins Sharon and Susan (both played by Hayley Mills as we all know) had a British accent, yet both parents had American accents. Nothing against Hayley though...her Disney films in the 1960's were great.

In The Parent Trap, they actually try to address this, by having Hayley try to speak (mostly unsuccessfully) with an American accent as Susan and with a British accent as Sharon. They have a scene where Sharon tries to teach Susan to speak the way Sharon does, before they switch places. I've noticed in a few older movies where they seem to think that we in Boston speak with a vaguely British accent (which of course we don't). And Sharon's grandmother had an accent as well (though mom and grandfather didn't).

[–] skiop 16 years ago

the older one has to be around 30 and still living at home even though she has a job

That's not so strange. I have an aunt who never moved out and now that my grandparents are dead, the house is hers alone. She never married either, so maybe she just hated being alone (she's an extrovert); it seems kinda rude to ask. So yeah, it happens.

Maybe if the older one married the duck hunter, she'd move out. Hopefully, he would too. His mother sounds terribly unpleasant.

[–] guitarnoise65 16 years ago

I would guess Ingrid is about 20, with an "old" face, if that makes sense.

And I detect a bit of an English accent in Ingrid at the beginning of the film. I thought it was a decent touch that they at least attempted to match Hayley's accent. But it vanished pretty quickly and Ingrid is a yapping American girl for the rest of the film.

~~"Lucas, you and I were just friends."~~

[–] stealth4386 12 years ago

Yes, quite odd. And why don't the girls have their own cars? I think Ingrid should especially have her own car, as she is a working woman at least in her twenties.

[–] Noirdame79 9 years ago

In the book, "Undercover Cat", Patti was the older sister (23 years old), Ingrid was the younger sister (16). The girls also had a 12-year-old brother named Mike.

I think Patti owned her own car and worked as a model. Roddy McDowall's character, named Greg Balter, is a neighbor who has something of an interest in Patti but loathes D.C. In the book, D.C. is an overweight black cat.

[–] PretoriaDZ 9 years ago

Elsa Lancaster and Roddy McDowell also have accents - lots of Brits in the neighborhood!

This positively infantile preoccupation with bosoms!Terry-Thomas about US 1963.Hasnt changed much!