The World of Henry Orient

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source: The World of Henry Orient

If you go into this film expecting to see a lot of Peter Sellers, you will be disappointed. Make no mistake, he's in there and he's very funny but this film is not about his character, a mediocre pianist with a penchant for married women. Rather, it's about two 14-year old girls who are making the awkward transition from childhood to adulthood. One of the girls has an incredible crush on Orient and her friend is helping her worship him from afar. Henry Orient is the catalyst for their transformation when they learn a little too much about his "world". The acting is uniformly fine. Sellers' character is a rat but he's so clumsy and foolish you find him endearing. Angela Lansbury, as the coldly selfish mother of one of the girls, is extremely hissable. It's hard to believe that she's the same actress playing the warm, friendly Jessica Fletcher so many years later. Paula Prentiss is very amusing as Orient's exceedingly nervous married girlfriend. Tom Bosley plays Lansbury's kind-hearted husband. One of the final scenes in the film is between him and Lansbury and their daughter and it's a great one. There's a great deal of superficial dialogue but the subtext is unmistakable and it becomes the climax of the film. The best part is the two young actresses playing the girls. I have a fourteen year old daughter and she acts just like they do (almost anyway, she doesn't jump over fire hydrants). Their portrayal of giddy women/children is what the film is really all about. Highly recommended.

The theme of this movie is that adolescence can make girls behave obsessively about an older man and that parents shouldn't be too concerned or interfere too much. They'll grow out of it. But thank goodness Nora Johnson spent her efforts creating and developing the characters. The viewer is too interested in following these two teenage girls to consider the plot may have a point. Both new to an exclusive New York City girls school Val and Gil's friendship grows partly out of needs lacking in their homelife and partly out of their contrasting and complimenting personalities. Gil lives with her Mother and her mother's friend Boothie, both post divorce, strong, middle class values type women. Her Father lives Florida with his new family. Val's parent are wealthy, travel and occasionally drop by New York and see their daughter. Val we are told by another classmate has an extremely high "intelligent quota" and sees a shrink. Val is also a prankster who brings Gil into her high energy and overly dramatic make believe world. Early on, director George Roy Hill pulls together scenes of one afternoon in Central Park spent pretending to be chased by a band of evil cuthroats, leaping over every possible object and their first encounter with Henry Orient. The afternoon ends with Gil explaining how she misses her father particularly at dusk. Val verbalizes her feelings perfectly as she spins a fantasy about Gil's father showing up one evening to return to her mother as his one true love. This is one of several scenes that draw you in and before you know it the emotions have gone from energetic to sentimental seamlessly. That is the strength of this movie that it is so personal and true to life without sacrificing the tension of the plot keeping up interest. It is also a very funny movie, with only a couple of occasions where the humor is not appropriate to the emotion of the situation. Val develops a crush on Henry Orient, a concert pianist who hides his Brooklyn roots behind a fake accent and hides his mediocre talent behind avant-guarde music. Val and Gil secretly follow him around town unwittingly spoiling his attempts to seduce a certain married woman. The situations are certainly geared towards adults but never condescending to the girls. I'm not surprised the movie was not as successful as other Peter Sellers movies of the time. It doesn't appear to be the type of movie that fans of The Pink Panther would flock to see. Yet it can be appreciated by a wide audience because the makers didn't assume the viewer would understand or sympathize with a couple of crazy teenage girls or their less than perfect parents. They took the time to make them real, and funny. That's why the zaniness and sentiment in the plot works. And Sellers is given plenty of time to make his character the complete buffoon that he his. Plenty of physical stuff. I can't think of anyone who would fail to enjoy this movie.

I saw this movie at age 8, and it immediately became my favorite movie -- not just because of the natural acting, engaging cinematography, enchanting view of NYC, wonderful characterizations, all of which I didn't know I appreciated until later. Mainly -- AND THIS IS IMPORTANT IF YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER -- I loved it because it got across the magical, honest bond of best-friendship between girls. How often does a girl find a movie that so genuinely AND unsentimentally presents girls as self-reliant and strong (with giddiness that makes them likable, not weak), or that presents the girlfriend bond as something so perfect and fun and full of adventure? In the 1960s, this was the only movie I saw that made me feel privileged to be female. Disney movies in the '60s tried to give girlhood equal time, but they still came from a boy's viewpoint -- as if to say, "Girls can have fun just like boys do." This movie doesn't do that -- it's far more sophisticated culturally and more hip to the truth about parents than any Disney movie ever was, and it's very grounded in how girls really are. George Roy Hill clearly understood what a real buddy movie is made of, regardless of age or gender (remember "The Sting"?). I showed this film to my daughter when she was 12, and she loved it too. She's 18 now, and yesterday she went out and got the DVD -- because she says she saw it at a friend's house last week and realized that she still loves it. She's watching it as I write this. A few notes about Merrie Spaeth: First, she became a well-known media consultant and political speechwriter, which is why the film "Wag the Dog" used her name for one of the actresses considered to play the peasant girl in the fake Albanian bombing newsreel. Also, the Spaeth family is a long-standing name among Philadelphia-area Quakers (although I have no idea if Merrie is from this area or is a Quaker)...but I once met a doctor in the area with the same name so I asked if he was related. He was, and he told me that -- in addition to the amazing notes you can read in her IMDb bio -- Merrie used to write for Superman comics. I think that is WAY cooler than writing speeches for Ronald Reagan; she should put Superman and Henry Orient at the top of her resume.

The only reason I don't give ORIENT an even lower rating is the spectacular film score and cinematography. The title is misleading; it is less about the philandering, phony character played by pre-PINK PANTHER Peter Sellers than it is about two young ladies grappling with puberty and the adult world. Sellers's character is in fact little more than a stretched cameo as the put-upon Mr. Orient. The film is really about the two girls and their wanderings around the isle of Manhattan, which by the way is photographed exquisitely. Only gripe in that regard: scenes of absolutely no one about and around other than the two girls, and not a single minority spotted in this 60s "hip" Pan Arts production. I am sure there are people who would like to see NYC this way, but it is pure fantasy, and jarring. Angela Lansbury is great in a small role as a greedy, grasping mother to one of the girls, and not unlike her greedy, grasping mother in MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

I loved this hilarious movie as a teenager and own the video of it as an adult. The story of two young girls who sweetly stalk a concert pianist, played with insane panache by Peter Sellars, is one of the nicest coming-of-age movies of that era. Set in New York, her is a surprisingly sophisticated and gentle comedy you'll enjoy over and over again. Sellars's clueless, womanizing virtuoso never strikes a false comic note. He's wildly inventive, never more so than in his scenes with the gorgeous Paula Prentiss as the way-too-nervous object of his lust. Playing a married woman who is flattered by his attentions, Prentiss manages to look glamorous and on the verse of a nervous breakdown all at once. Why this spectacularly gifted comic actress didn't make it to the top is a mystery to me. Angela Lansbury's socialite bitch of a mother is another one of her classic nasty lady roles. Nobody can look down her nose with the authority of Lansbury. Yes she got found acceptance and respect on Broadway and on television, but she was a first-rate character actress on screen too. Tom Bosley is sympathetic as Tippy Walker's father and Phyllis Thaxter exudes motherly warmth as Mary Spaeth's divorced Mom. The Walker and Spaeth should have had futures as screen actors. Alas, it was not to be. But they are delightful as the young girls on the verse of womanhood, with a terrific crush on an undeserving idol. Nora and Nunnelly Johnson's script (he of course, a Hollywood legend) wrote a sharp, funny and observant screenplay that is respectful of teenagers and the adults. George Roy Hill is not a great director, but when given good material, he rises to the occasion as he does here. A real gem.

I saw this wonderful film in 1964 when my great-grandmother took me to the movies in Dayton, OH. I was 7 years old. Although I don't remember actually seeing it then, I remembered moments from the movie, and I DO remember talking about it with my grandmother some years later (1969?), when Tippy Walker was appearing on PEYTON PLACE and we were "comparing notes" about some of our favorite movies (SCANDALOUS JOHN was another favorite) and actors in those movies. I didn't see it again until almost 25 years later (late 80s). Everything I remembered about it (mostly emotional memories) returned, and I've watched it many times since then. Tonight, watching THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT on TCM, I re-lived many of those memories. . .and allowed myself to shed a few tears--or joy and of pain--for the characters. Incidentally, I was fortunate enough to meet Phyllis Thaxter in 1989, and subsequently work with her twice--she starred in DRIVING MISS DAISY in 1991, and was the NARRATOR for PETER PAN in 1994 at Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach, FL, where I was working at the time--and she had very fond memories of making this film. . .and I gained a friend in her in the process. . .what a lovely lady.

Two teenage girls stalk a pianist in "The World of Henry Orient," a 1964 film starring Peter Sellars, Angela Lansbury, Phyllis Thaxter, Tom Bosley, Paula Prentiss, Merrie Spaeth and Tippy Walker. Spaeth and Walker are the 14-year-old teens, and the writing for them isn't good - it's PERFECT, capturing what it's like to be that age and having your first crush. The object of their affections is vain, paranoid Henry Orient (Peter Sellars) a pianist who apparently specializes in somewhat ugly modern music whom the girls see kissing his married girlfriend (Prentiss) in the park. When they see him again, he recognizes them and becomes unnerved. Then they attend a concert -- he sees them from the stage and nearly goes into orbit. After that, the girls read all they can about him and start staking out his apartment and restaurants he frequents. The Prentiss character, Stella, lives in fear of her husband finding out about her non-affair - she refuses to go to Orient's apartment, and whenever she acquiesces, she ends up running out of the back of the restaurant while he's getting a cab. Finally Henry gets her to his place. He spots the girls outside, and Stella becomes convinced that her husband has hired two child detectives. The kids have told a storekeeper next to their stalking stoop that they're waiting for their mother, Jayne Mansfield, who has been kidnapped. It goes from there - and it's HILARIOUS. The teens are sensational, giggly, wildly imaginative and creative, swooning, and faking terminal illness and other events on the street as they race all over the gloriously photographed New York City. Val comes from a super-rich family and neglectful parents, played by the glamorous Angela Lansbury and Tom Bosley as her quiet, hard-working husband. Her story, despite all the humor, is a poignant one. Sellars is fantastic, sporting an odd accent, and using the most subtle of expressions and body language to show what he's thinking. Lansbury is terrific and looks great, Bosley is excellent, and Prentiss is a riot as a neurotic mess. But the young girls - what memories they brought back of fantasy, crushes, wild laughter, pranks, and complete devastation. Phenomenal direction by George Roy Hill, gorgeous cinematography, great music. A no-miss if you want to recapture days of record albums, sitting on your bedroom floor with your friends, scrapbooks dedicated to the love of your life, hating teachers, and complete, uninhibited, euphoric daring.

When my wife and I sat down to watch this gem we were completely blown away. The manic magic of being a young girl with a dizzy, silly enthusiasm, especially one that is so pretentious on the outside yet deliciously seamy below the surface. This movie is all about the thrill of finding a true friend and the adventures you have with someone who you look up to and who likes you, too. The movie captures the bright, magical world of New York City at the height of the glorious early 1960s. If you loved the book "Harriet The Spy" when you were little, you'll find this movie to be a thrilling experience. Peter Sellers doesn't even matter - he's a cipher, a mere metaphor for the grown up world and it's mysteries and shortcomings.