The World of Henry Orient (1964) User Reviews

Sugar And Spice

[slokes · 8/10 · 9 December 2006]

Peter Sellers may be the bait, but two girls supply the hook that keeps this coming-of-age comedy in people's minds 40 years on.

Sellers has the title role as Henry Orient, a pianist more interested in practicing his lines than his scales, but the film's focus is on a lonely young Manhattanite named Gil (Merrie Spaeth) and her new pal Val (Elizabeth "Tippy" Walker), two adolescents who decide to make Val's crush on Orient into the secret center of an adventure-filled friendship.

"Henry Orient" is a film of two parts co-existing uneasily at times. Val and Gil's bond occupies the realm of real life, with Walker and Spaeth giving spot-on performances that seem spontaneous and alive to every moment. The best scene in the movie by far, very much in line with the "Can't Buy Me Love" sequence in the same year's "Hard Day's Night," shows the pair running along a city block, "splitzing" over fire hydrants and tryke-riding boys, their eyes alight with joy as they literally rise over their city surroundings. It's a captivating exercise in what scholars would call "pure cinema." If the rest of the film doesn't rise to that level, it never entirely disappoints, either.

Sellers' sequences are weaker. He's actually quite enjoyable to watch, doing one of his best voice performances as a Brooklynite who affects a French-Italian accent to charm the ladies (listen carefully and you will hear his Brooklyn undertone throughout) but he and Paula Prentiss as the married object of his desires seem to be in a completely different movie, playing a broad farce at odds with the real, sometimes gut-wrenching tone of the rest of the film.

This could be a bigger problem but for Elmer Bernstein's lilting yet driving score, featuring one of the most arresting themes I've heard in film, which seems to carry Val and Gil from one delirious moment to the next with complete abandon while allowing room for darker, contemplative passages. Director George Roy Hill had a gift for employing music at the right moment (see "The Sting"), and the score of "Henry Orient" is a secret strength as it skates over the thinner plot elements.

More obviously a strength is the script by Nora and Nunnelly Johnson, which really captures a sense of how young people talk, goofily, quickly and all-at-once, skipping over the stuff that doesn't matter, like when Val and Gil first meet at their ritzy school. Val asks Gil if she likes being there.

Gil tries to be diplomatic: "They say it's the finest girls' school in the country." "I don't, either," says Val.

Or the priceless exchange they have when taking out a cigarette butt they cadged off of Orient's table during a midday stalk. "No filter!" "He's not scared." One wishes the film found more to draw Orient and his youthful admirers together, though the detour into the state of Val's parental relations has merits of its own, especially with Angela Lansbury doing another of her classic nasty-Mommy turns.

While it didn't set the world on fire in 1964 and, like its young stars, slipped off the radar screen too soon after its premiere, "Henry Orient" remains an engaging glimpse at American youth post-Salinger but pre-Beatles. Sidewalk placards still advertise color TV, while a rich girl's idea of rebellious fashion sense involves wearing a plaid skirt with a mink coat. Trends come and go, but feelings of the kind celebrated in "The World Of Henry Orient" live on.

It's not about Henry Orient

[gee-15 · 7/10 · 30 November 2007]

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.

Charming Film

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 3 April 2004]

A few points. Elmer Bernstein's musical score is as whimsical as the young girls themselves. George Roy Hill, the director, was sensitive to the musical moods of his films. He had originally intended to be a musician and had a bachelor's in music from Yale. The photographer, Boris Kaufman, has done a splendid job of capturing New York City in the late fall and in mid winter. (He was equally perceptive in getting wintry Hoboken on film in "On the Waterfront.")

The acting is fine, surprisingly, from all the principles. The pavonine Peter Sellers usually steals every scene he's in. When he's trying to seduce Paula Prentiss his voice has an accent that sounds somewhere between Italian and Slovenian. He throws in Italian clichés but sometimes gets mixed up -- "Garcon! Due martinis, per favore." One of his funniest moments is when he's performing a terrible piano concerto. He's skipped the last two rehearsals so he's a bit lost. At one point he rolls dramatically into the upper registers (while the rest of the orchestra play checkers) and ends on a trill. He glances at the conductor who slowly shakes his head in disgust. The wrong key. Unperturbed Sellers starts the roll over again and looks to the conductor, who shakes his head again. After the third failure to find the right key, the conductor shakes his head and mouths -- very clearly and silently -- "B Flat." Satisfied, Sellers plunges ahead.

Paula Prentiss doesn't have a very large role but she's delicious both in looks and in her performance. She's so nervous, so flattered by the attention of Seller's phony pianist that she gulps and staggers slightly from time to time. When Sellers finally gets her to his apartment and begins to woo her with a paean to her "burnished shoulders" and "twin poems," she wavers while sitting on the couch and caresses her body parts as he lauds them. She never appears less than half gassed.

Angela Lansbury is in her bitchy mode here, along the lines of her mother in "The Manchurian Candidate." She never seems to go wrong, regardless of the part. Her husband, Tom Bosley, is kind of a good-natured schlub. Phyllis Thaxter looks just fine, considering that she first appeared in "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" more than twenty years earlier. Her sweetness might be cloying except that it seems ingrained in her real personality.

The most surprising thing in the performances are the two 14-year-old girls, neither of whom went on to a respectable movie career. They're plain charming, both goofy and funny, but smart and perceptive as well. "Gilbert" (Spaeth) comes from a warm middle-class family. We can tell because on Christmas we see them preparing a turkey and having friends over for dinner. Spaeth went on in real life to become a strong George W. Bush supporter and helped torpedo John Kerry with the Swiftboat Ads in 2004, for what it's worth.

"Valerie Campbell Boyd" (Walker) is a neurotic genius from a dysfunctional rich family. (That name is a great WASP cognomen, by the way). They're two cute kids, believe it or not, especially Tippy Walker who brings a molestable element to her role. Hill seems to recognize this and gives the PREverts in the audience a couple of slow-motion upskirt shots as the two jump over fire hydrants and dance on park benches. But it's all pretty unstressed and one would be hard put to think of a better image for two pleasant and happy kids living in a world of fantasy than to have them laughing and leaping in the air. Where do they find kids who can act so well? Walker has a way of flipping her hair back and gawkily hunching her shoulders that spells Preppiness.

The film has its serious moments but most of it is low-key humorous. I saw it in a drive-in in Riverhead, Long Island. You probably won't regret watching it.

An unexpectedly pleasurable gem!

[gregcouture · 23 April 2003]

I wasn't quite prepared for how much I enjoyed this sophisticated (but certainly not too much so) romp when I caught it during its first-run release. I thought it so well-executed in every department that I was delighted to note that it's now available in a DVD edition with its Panavision widescreen ratio restored. But unfortunately the audio element is so bad (requiring turning the volume way up to even begin to hear the dialogue, and a music score that's mangled beyond belief) that I had to return the disc for a refund. Fortunately Turner Classic Movies recently showed it and the soundtrack was not a problem, making possible a fairly decent high-fidelity VHS recording.

The two young actresses who played the very natural but entirely madcap duo who precipitate most of the plot's ins-'n-outs are completely charming and they are supported by an extraordinarily well-chosen cast of top-notch professionals. Angela Lansbury, never an actress to shrink from the somewhat less savory aspects of a character she's playing, strikes just the right note as a socialite whose maternal instincts are close to non-existent. I do remember wishing that Paula Prentiss had been given more to do, but I suppose getting mistaken for Jayne Mansfield (in one of the film's funnier sequences) wasn't something to be sneezed at. As the film's title character, Peter Sellers wasn't permitted by director George Roy Hill to unbalance the proceedings. And it certainly seems that scenarist Nora Johnson had inherited more than a modicum of her father Nunnally's professional good taste. This one is a treat for all but the dyspeptic and the excessively demanding.

Despite Title, Not A Sellers Movie

[dgz78 · 7/10 · 10 July 2006]

Is there another movie where the lead actor has his characters name in the title and yet his part is almost irrelevant to the film? This can hardly be called a Peter Sellers movie.

The movie really belongs to the two girls with a crush on the Sellers character, Henry Orient, a schlocky avant-garde pianist. Gil (Merrie Spaeth) has a the big crush on Orient and her friend Val (Tippy Walker) is her cohort in the 2 member fan club. Their relationship seems so natural you forget they are acting. Neither girl had a long career in movies (few child actors do) and it's nice to see child actors carry a movie so effortlessly. So many times kid actors can only play cute and you are quickly reminded that real kids never act that way. I suspect George Roy Hill deserves some credit for their performances - I know he got good performances from Diane Lane and Thelonious Bernard in A Little Romance. Their performance doesn't rank up there with Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon but are still very good. Considering it was the first movie for each of them, their performances are even more remarkable.

After the girls the performance by Paula Prentiss stands out. Playing a much more glamorous role than she had previously (think Tuggle in Where The Boys Are) she is funny and sexy as the married object of Seller's affections. A pleasant surprise and an indication that she should have been a bigger star than she was. Why couldn't she have had more roles like this?

Tom Bosley also plays a warm father to Val - a more sentimental version of his role as Mr C on Happy Days. Angela Lansbury practically reprises her role from The Manchurian Candidate as the worst mother she could be.

As for Sellers, his accent shifts continually. Maybe he thought he was playing numerous characters as he did in Dr Strangelove and never realized when he changed costume he was still Henry Orient. As much as I love and respect Sellers, I could see other actors in the role without hurting the movie.

If you want to see teenagers do a good job of acting like teenagers (albeit in 1964 and having a crush on a concert pianist instead of the Beatles) this is a good flick. Plus New York looks really good - you almost believe it's safe for teenage girls to wander the city late at night.

As a side note, I was surprised to discover that Merrie Spaeth was the founder of Spaeth Communications. She may not have had a long career as an actress but she sure became a success as an adult.

the changing world and Henry Orient

[jgoodrich63 · 7/10 · 3 May 2005]

Such an interesting film, HENRY ORIENT, poised as it is---as other viewers' comments have pointed out---between the world BTB (Before The Beatles) and ATB (no explanation necessary). In retrospect, at least, the film hints at the enormous changes to come. The film-making reflects that, as well: note George Roy Hill's cautious approximations of the Nouvelle Vague in the lyrical running-and-jumping-through-NYC section with Val and Gil. (Note, too, the androgyny of the girls' names...) I read the book many years ago and remember it as a darker, more Salinger-esquire work. But that's not to diminish the playful, often painful strengths of the film. Paula Prentiss must rank high among its charms; as must Tippy Walker. There's inchoate youth for you in those years. Val is as imaginative as she is troubled. The old ways no longer work but the new ways have yet to appear. Elizabeth ('Tippy') Walker is really wonderful, and it's been most interesting (to say the least) and a real pleasure that Ms. Walker has shared so truthfully and fully her memories of the film and a part of her life story with us. I know all fans of ORIENT wish her all the best.

Another pleasure of the film is the way it captures NYC as it was then. Being a devotee of the city, it makes me both happy and sad to see it in its 40-some year old glory. Happy because I can vicariously experience what it was like; sad because it can only be vicarious. I love NYC, it's still a fantastic city---even though Disneyfication has robbed it of so much---but I get a special thrill when I see it like it was in ORIENT.

A lot has changed,yes. Adolescence hasn't, though, and that's why the film continues to resonate. And that's why THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT continues to be watched and written about. That's why we care.

Halcyon Days

[charlie_bucket · 9/10 · 31 January 2005]

George Roy Hill is a perhaps neglected name in any 'top ten' list of great directors we are likely to see, but his filmography speaks for itself, with a number of quiet classics among a few heavyweight top 100 films--all within a somewhat small oeuvre. Each of these classics shows to good effect Hill's marvelous aesthetic moods and attention to detail, combined with absolutely expert casting, obtaining winning performances from all of the principles, with superior character acting from the secondaries.

Peter Sellers is actually something of a secondary in this one as the title role, but his portrayal of Henry Orient is so ludicrous and wonderful that he steals the show every time he's on screen. He was really something. Sellers plays it very large here, as a pretentious, NYC-based, avant-garde pianist of meagre talent--a charlatan, egoist, and ersatz Lothario who cultivates a faux-Euro accent but slides back into his 'native' Brooklyn (Sellers is probably the greatest accent-mimic ever) jargon every time he gets rattled, who has Paderewski hair that he continuously primps, and who entices women who've actually fallen for his schtick by hurling continuous salvos of romance-novel drivel at them until they (hopefully) relent.

Oddly, although it is made plain and obvious in the dialogue that Henry Orient is more or less a hack, and although Sellers plays his usual skillful physical shenanigans, I found that the pianist on the soundtrack played the piano quite well, despite the ridiculous material. There's a hilarious, gushing theme that is edited into almost every scene that Henry is in. His mannerisms during the piano concerto and the ostentatious buffoonery from scene to scene show Sellers in his element, and he never misses the chance to exploit the full range of available comedic ingredients in any moment to the utmost. Every time I watch him cross his arms to play two notes four octaves apart at the end of the concerto, and he does the little wiggle of the finger as if he's depressing the string on a violin to get vibrato out of it, I let out a belly laugh. I never get tired of that.

The two protagonists (or rather, Sellers's perceived antagonists) are played with mesmerising enthusiasm by the two adolescent leads. Tippy Walker is particularly radiant in this movie as the talented, attention-starved, sensitive, hyperkinetic Val, who develops a crush on Henry. Her pixie features, infectious retainer-filled smile, and wide-eyed, bubblegummy girlishness shine on, and share honors with Sellers for scene-steal appeal. She plays off the hurt, pouty ingenue angle beautifully too. Her counterpart, Merrie Spaeth, is no slouch either, although she had the disadvantage here of having the 'straight man' role. No matter! They don't compete for space at all (the scene-stealing qualities of Ms Walker notwithstanding),and they get equal attention and equally precocious dialogue, with the simpatico theme being so stressed as to tell us purposely that they are equal partners through and through.

Ultimately the film leaves me feeling bittersweet, partially through nostalgia--Hill's 1963 NYC is beautiful--but also because the movie has that theme of fleeting innocence in the face of oncoming adolescent desire. George Roy Hill's great movies have a sparkle to them, and this qualifies as one of the quieter greats. In any case, as time buries this one, those halcyon days of youth go with it, but the legacies of Sellers and Hill should mark it for at least cult-status immortality, which by proxy should give the girls their deserved legacy too.

Fun nostalgia trip for early '60s teens

[regina989 · 7/10 · 3 July 2000]

I just watched this film again today after not having seen it for many years. I grew up in 1960's New York and was reminded of a lot of the good times there and feelings I had as an adolescent girl, struggling to grow up and figure out what it all meant. Since I love classical music, it's always fun to watch a movie where it plays even a peripheral part. Someone here said the film portrays a New York that never really existed. I don't think that's true - it did, and perhaps still does, exist for a young girl full of hopes and dreams, imagining all the possibilities of a future that lies ahead. Yes, "The World of Henry Orient" is basically an innocent movie. Well, what's wrong with that? It's also charming and funny and aware. Be sure to get a copy for your young daughter or niece, and watch it with her!

This was also the Sixties

[jacksflicks · 9/10 · 31 December 1998]

The sixties became The Sixties around the time of this film, 1964. There was a time, believe it or not, when kids played grown-up, instead of the other way around, as is the case today. Two cute girls are venturing from childhood to youth, in a benign Manhattan. They have a crush on a pianist-Lothario who happens to be Peter Sellers. You can imagine the complications - and the hilarity.

What makes this film so appealing is the way it portrays adolescent awakening as a completely unsordid and sweet experience. Yes, there is pathos, when the two discover how adults have turned their world into Henry Orient's world.

Although the cast is sterling all around, Tom Bosley is a standout as father to one of the girls, who helps put things to rights.

If the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam are cultural watersheds, then this film is a refreshing antidote; it gives the lie to the glib put-downs of the era by the current generation.

"Splitzing"

[Steffi_P · 6/10 · 1 January 2011]

In 1964, after the success of Lolita and The Pink Panther, British comedian Peter Sellers was suddenly very much in demand in Hollywood, and found himself being called upon to lend his comic talents to all manner of pictures. The World of Henry Orient, a coming-of-age comedy drama, is among his most unusual vehicles – for him at least.

For one thing, The World of Henry Orient is not really anything much to do with Sellers or the titular character that he plays. Its central story about two free-spirited teenage girls was written by Nora Johnson, daughter of acclaimed screenwriter Nunnally, and is a rather charming and realistic portrait, if a little unfocused at times. Appropriately, the story gains maturity as it progresses, acquiring a little more meaning and even poignancy. The lead roles are played by unknowns Merrie Spaeth and Tippy Walker, both of whom give lively and very naturalistic performances, more than anything it seems enjoying themselves. Although Spaeth in particular shows a lot of promise, neither of them had lengthy careers on the screen.

This was an early directorial assignment for George Roy Hill, who would later go on to make some very fine pictures indeed. He shows intelligence and sensitivity in his handling of scenes, often using long unbroken takes and wonderfully simple set-ups. A good example is a shot when Gil first comes round to Val's house, where Walker is lying on the bed and Spaeth is sitting on the floor. It's such a typical-looking way for two teenage friends to relax, and it allows both to face the camera while the scene simply plays out without the need for cutting or changing the angle. The only moment that really interrupts the flow is the street scene early on with lots of Dutch angles and slow motion. Funny how with the Henry Orient character this movie pokes fun at avant-garde music, because all this camera trickery comes dangerously close to the cinematic equivalent.

Speaking of which, the Henry Orient character is a bit of a misfit here. Sellers acts funny and makes a decent comedy character out of Orient, but there simply isn't anything really very funny for him to say or do. This is right in a way, because you wouldn't want him to steal the movie, but it means his performance is rather frustrating to watch because he constantly seems on the verge of being hilarious, except he isn't. It's as if his parts of the story are out of step with the rest, and the picture is pulling in opposite directions. Even more bizarre (but mercifully short) is the business with Al Lewis as a crazy storekeeper, which looks like a bit of half-arsed comic relief from the 1940s. The World of Henry Orient is like a cobbling together of two different ideas, both of which – with a little development – could work very well on their own. The 1960s were a strange time in cinema, and produced many little oddities such as this.

A film in need of adult supervision

[bobvend · 5/10 · 26 June 2013]

This film has been described as being charming, and it is to a point. There is also a welcome (if unintentional) quaintness to it, considering that it was shot between June and October 1963, before Beatlemania and the assassination of President Kennedy. By the time of the film's release, those social and political events had changed the world markedly.

Although the friendship between the girls starts out fresh and interesting, it progressively becomes silly and tiresome, with much energy waisted on contrived vignettes that don't lead anywhere. Their dynamic serves as a template for later and better girl-buddy pictures like "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" and "The Trouble With Angels"

While on the subject of waisted, the then red-hot Peter Sellers seems painfully underutilized here. Ditto for the wonderfully ditsy Paula Prentiss. I couldn't help but wonder if his presence here was dictated only because he 'owed' someone a picture. The one glowing exception is the fantastic concert segment which is hysterically funny in its droll subtlety and its send-up of avant garde artistic expression. His other potentially funny scenes, especially those with Prentis, come off like jokes without punch lines. The remaining adult cast, featuring Angela Lansbury among others, is good in its own competent way.

One great unexpected joy of the film was its many scenes of a beautiful and mostly vacant New York City. Having never lived there and seldom visited, this viewer still was very taken by the evocative cityscapes which wonderfully saturate this film. For me, this is where the real charm of the film comes through.

Possibly the best teenage-girlfriend movie ever made

[lisalapp · 10/10 · 4 February 2005]

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.

In the orient or occident, this is quite a movie.

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 2 July 2005]

The same year that Peter Sellers starred in "Dr. Strangelove", he starred in "The World of Henry Orient", in which he played a pianist pursued by two girls. They're not stalkers, but rather two teenyboppers who have the hots for him. Unfortunately for everyone, Henry is having an affair with Stella Dunnworthy (Paula Prentiss), and believes that the girls have been sent to spy on him. Naturally, things get more and more complicated from there.

This movie is, in some way, one of those movies that you see many years later and it looks totally different. It's not just that the "Murder, She Wrote" woman plays the mother of one of the girls; in this case, the future Howard Cunningham plays the father, and the "Munsters" grandpa also appears. In any case, it's an interesting movie.

Is this what passed for funny

[princebansal1982 · 2/10 · 25 May 2011]

This movie hasn't got that good of a rating. So I don't think it was really that good even when it was released. But with time it has really dated making it unwatchable. I couldn't even understand what we were supposed to like about the movie or where we were supposed to laugh.

It is about two fourteen year old girls who are friends. One of them develops a crush on an mature guy, and they start following him. They meet him once. Then they meet him again. Then they meet him again. I know it is kind of repetitive, but so was the movie.

Maybe it will be somewhat liked by the people of that time, but things have changed too much now. Give this one a miss.

Paula Prentiss, Paula Prentiss, Paula Prentiss

[gregorybnyc · 18 May 2004]

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.

cute but not especially memorable

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 11 January 2006]

I was sure to watch this on TV a while back because the Leonard Maltin Guide gave such a glowing review, I was surprised how ordinary and slight the film was. I cute idea but not the least bit memorable. It was kind of a one-joke movie. Because this was a pretty funny joke, the movie does at least get a score of 7, but the acting of Peter Sellers didn't particularly hurt or help the score, as his role could have been played by many people. Instead of this being a Sellers movie, it's more a movie about the teenage girls in the film. So, overall, I'd say it's worth seeing and is well-made--just don't expect it to be a Peter Sellers movie.

If you see these girls outside your building, HIDE!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 11 July 2012]

Merrie Spaeth and Tippy Walker play two rather eccentric teenage girls (is there any other kind?) who find fascination in the comings and goings of Henry Orient (Peter Sellers), a world renowned pianist they come upon kissing his married mistress (Paula Prentiss) in the Ramble in Central Park. Like Doris Day's victim (a perplexed movie producer) in "It's a Great Feeling", Sellers gets paranoid every time he sees these two girls. In real life, having someone appearing in comical ways out of the blue rather frequently would drive a person to become unglued, and the publicity shy Sellers is truly put off by their childish pranks. Walker, the neglected daughter of wealthy but unhappily married Tom Bosley and Angela Lansbury, likes to play "fantasy" games of acting like somebody totally different. Today, we just call it a desperate cry for attention. At one point, she feigns a medical crisis; At another point, she claims to shopkeeper Al Lewis ("Grandpa Munster") that she's waiting for her mother, Jayne Mansfield! Each time gets the two girls into trouble. When mama Lansbury and papa Bosley come back from a trip, the two girls are separated, but when they get back together for one last visit to the shy Sellers, mama Lansbury gets involved which brings a show-down over the neglect Walker feels.

Some people may not find these two girl's antics amusing, but there are a few moments that are truly funny. The film drags here and there, and finally settles into domestic drama that unleashes the reasons for the wealthy girl's strange behavior. Spaeth and Walker aren't your Patty Duke/Sally Field 60's teen; They reminded me of Hayley Mills' two "Parent Trap" characters needing a good dosage of Ritalin. Other than perhaps being raised without a father, there's no explanation for Spaeth's character's willingness to follow in Walker's footsteps. Phyllis Thaxter is Spaeth's sensible mother, and that wonderful rather obscure character actress Bibi Osterwald is hysterically funny as her eccentric pal. Lansbury plays one of her typically typecast harridan mothers, although in her Christmas party scene, she looks a lot like how she would just a few years later in "Mame". Her future "Murder She Wrote" co-star Tom Bosley adds a lot of heart as her unhappy husband. This is a comedy that will require the viewer to think a bit more psychologically than normal in movies. A good usage of Manhattan scenery is another one of the film's pluses. I do not see how this could be musicalized, as it was for the 1967 Broadway flop "Henry Sweet Henry". As for Peter Sellers, he is always hysterically funny, and especially so when he is expressing exasperation at the girls' constant sudden appearances during awkward moments. But basically his character is a cad, sort of a continuation of his role in "Lolita" minus the desire for "jail bait".

A magical film

[tjw-8 · 10/10 · 24 November 1999]

I first saw this movie when it came out in 1964. I must have been about 8 years old. I loved it then, and have watched it many times since. It is one of those rare, quiet films that not only succeeds as a comedy, amusing to both children and adults, but also as a touching drama, with many poignant moments.

The cast is uniformly excellent, with Peter Sellers and Paula Prentiss providing most of the comedy, as they try to have an illicit romance while being pursued all over New York by the love-struck teenagers, played with charming veracity by Merrie Spaeth and Tippy Walker.

I was particularly impressed by the way George Roy Hill was able to convey the thoughts and emotions of the two girls with such nuance and understatement. For example, when the clock strikes 6:00pm and the girls glance at each other we immediately know what they are both thinking. I sorely miss this kind of film-making.

I enjoyed George Roy Hill's later films such as Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and The Sting, but for my money, this is his masterpiece.

The Vidiot Reviews...

[capone666 · 7/10 · 17 April 2015]

The World of Henry Orient

The key to being a successful groupie is being a woman.

And while the fans in this comedy are females, they're drastically underage.

Obsessed with concert pianist Henry Orient (Peter Sellers), school girls Val (Tippy Walker) and Gil (Merrie Spaeth) secretly follow him around Manhattan, taking notes on his affair with a married woman, and concocting fantasies about their lives with him.

When Val's mother (Angela Lansbury) stumbles on the girls' journal, she accuses Orient of seducing her daughter, only to end up having an affair with him at the expense of her marriage to Val's workaholic father (Tom Bosley).

A perfect portrayal of precocious teenage girls, their odd fashion choices, and their naïve views on love, The World of Henry Orient deals with mature matters of the heart with caprice and candor.

Besides, the best way to get close to a concert pianist is to impersonate a piano bench.

Green Light

vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

The Giddy Magic of Girls

[tpatti · 10/10 · 8 December 2004]

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.

Too bad about Sellers

[Euphorbia · 7/10 · 2 October 2004]

This is a lively, intelligent, mostly enjoyable film, but it misses perfection because of the affected cornball performance of Peter Sellers. Sellers plays Henry Orient, but he seems to be performing in some completely different movie.

If this was the performance the director wanted, shame on the director. But if this wasn't flawed planning (and writing), but rather mis-casting, then double-shame on the director for failing to replace Sellers when he found he could not control him.

Great physical comedians such as Sellers, or Robin Williams, or Steve Martin, must be held on a tight rein in the intimate arena of cinema, or their manic energy kicks out the frame, and tramples the rest of the cast. What saves this movie is that Sellers does not have a lot of screen time, and almost none on the same sets with the rest of the principal players.

Instead of Sellers, Hill should have cast Elvis Presley... Really! Elvis would have been a perfect and totally plausible Henry Orient. And the movie would have been both a huge hit, and an enduring classic. Thanks to Sellers it is merely a curious period piece.

7/10

Forced comedy-drama always gets good notices...but it doesn't even allow Peter Sellers anything funny to do

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 27 November 2005]

Tiresome, uneven comedy-drama has two precocious (and, I thought, unengaging) teenage girls in New York making life miserable for an increasingly paranoid concert pianist (Peter Sellers). The kids are this young and they're hung up on a pianist?? Square screenplay makes its biggest mistake focusing on the strident youngsters and not giving Sellers ample opportunity to display his brilliant comic timing (perhaps the filmmakers thought his sheer presence would be enough). The entire last-half slips into teen-time melodrama and is a wash-out, losing the film's initial comic bearings and turning Angela Lansbury's society mother into an unnecessary monster. Director George Roy Hill once cited this as his personal favorite, but the film's schizo personality is unappealing. ** from ****

A Stylish Delight!

[rljsax · 10/10 · 6 February 2003]

Who writes screenplays like this anymore? The dialogue between the two young, naive and wildly imaginative girls was so apt that my face almost got tired from smiling. Obviously, father and daughter screenwriters Nora and Nunnally Johnson had the time and took care to get it all just right. The direction could hardly have been better, particularly with the two highly-talented young actresses (who seem to have since disappeared from the screen), but above all else, the cinematography was brilliant. The director and cinematographer unleashed an entire arsenal of corny 60's cinematic devices (the camera swivelling upside down, a lyrical romp through the city streets, slow motion and speeded up bits, etc.) but pulled them off so well that corn never tasted so delicious. Also, the frequently unusual camera placement, for instance, bringing the camera almost down to ground level for many of the scenes between the young girls lent an unlikely, but totally convincing perspective to the story. I went to the theater expecting to see a Peter Seller's film, and while he is brilliant in this role, this turned out to be so much more than merely a vehicle for Seller's comedic gifts. So many of the other reviewers in this thread seem to have interpreted this film through the prism of their own experiences. Obviously the story hit home, but they're missing the point - this was film-making at its finest!

It's sex, sex, and sex

[gpaltrow2001 · 6/10 · 1 February 2015]

*SPOILERS*

The 60 year-old women on IMDb who recall this as a favorite childhood memory should perhaps re-watch this from the jaded 21st century point of view, knowing that the filmmakers squeezed as much sex as they thought they could get away with in this film.

I recently watched this for the first time, and was surprised at the blatant and not-so-blatant innuendos.

The first thing that struck me was the opening scene, where director Hill got as many up-skirt panty shots as possible. If you pay attention, he does this again later. Why were panty shots needed, George?

One of the reviewers here asked about the necessity of Boothy. It was pretty obvious to me this was a closeted lesbian relationship.

Paula Prentiss wants to commit adultery, and c**k teases Henry Orient quite a bit.

Henry Orient becomes the sex fantasy of mother and daughter, with one having intercourse, and the pubescent one thinking about it to the point of tears.

The end of the movies shows the pubescent girls putting on heavy make- up, including "lipstick the color of a scarlet gash".

Now that I have all of you prudes up in arms, let me say this-- It was an enjoyable film, mostly due to Tippy Walker. She showed such promise I'm sorry she didn't get into more films.

The music and cinematography were great.

Many reviewers here say they wanted more Peter Sellers, and that he wasn't funny enough. I disagree. Just the right amount, and he was very funny, especially the accents.

I watched this movie because it got 3 1/2 stars out of 4 on Xfinity. Sorry, but it doesn't hold up that well. And denying the constant message of sex, however undertone, is simply wrong.

Glib and now badly dated

[xredgarnetx · 5/10 · 7 January 2006]

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.