World of Henry Orient [VHS] | Peter Sellers, Tippy Walker

World of Henry Orient [VHS] | Peter Sellers, Tippy Walker | Loved it Then, Love it Now

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	World of Henry Orient [VHS] Peter Sellers, Tippy Walker MGM (Video & DVD), 1994 average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Absolute Gem

George Roy Hill gets my vote for most underrated director. I don't know if it was intentional but Hill seems to have specialized in directing extremely difficult films ("Slaughterhouse Five", "The World According to Garp", "The Sting", and "Slap Shot") and did them all quite well. "The World of Henry Orient" (1964) certainly falls into this difficult category as his two inexperienced young stars were featured in almost every scene and alternated between location shooting and studio sound stage work.

This will probably be regarded as Hill's best film, not because it is technically perfect but because few (if any) films have successfully interpreted an ambitious screenplay in such a subtle and lyrical manner.

It is a story seen from the point-of-view of two 14-year old girls who the viewer first meets at the moment they first meet each other. Gil (Merrie Spaeth) and Val (Elizabeth Walker in an extraordinarily good performance) are prep school students in New York City who immediately connect despite coming from very different backgrounds and being in different developmental stages. What distinguishes this from most film friendships is that both are loners who are comfortable enough with each other to maintain their own individuality, even dressing differently.

Hill managed to put the two young actresses at ease in front of the camera and to capture their natural energy, this is what gives their characters an unexpected authenticity. I was struck by the true-to-life qualities of these two girls.

They keep accidentally bumping into the title character, a vain concert pianist (Peter Sellers), and become his youngest fans. Dressed in Chinese hats (insert "Orient" here), the two girls stake out his apartment. He is engaged in a long-term and frustratingly unsuccessful attempt to seduce an ultra-paranoid married woman, nervous Stella Dunnworthy (Paula Prentiss). Henry and Stella fuel each other's paranoia and finally convince themselves that Stella's husband is employing the girls as detectives.

The film's funniest scene occurs when Gil and Val convince Al Lewis (Grandpa Munster) that their mother is Jayne Mansfield.

"The World of Henry Orient" is the only film I know of that takes the world of 13 and 14 year-old girls seriously. "Ghost World" (which placed a "Henry Orient" poster on the wall of Enid's bedroom), New Waterford Girl, and "Times Square" could be considered sequels-stories, what Gil and Val would become a couple years into the future when they were a couple years older and a little worn down by the additional experience with the world. It's also the first credible portrayal of the effects of divorce and parental neglect on children.

"The World of Henry Orient" is more a coming of age story than a comedy although it does have some comic moments. Most of these involve the title character played by Peter Sellers. But don't expect the over-the-top performances of the older Sellers, his Henry Orient is more along the eccentrically restrained lines of his Fred Kite-trade union leader character in "I'm All Right Jack". Paula Prentiss is also quite funny in a restrained portrayal.

Ultimately it is Hill's subtlety and nuance that are most memorable. Watch the expressions change on Gil's face as Val takes her on a fantasy trip involving the "wished for" return of her father in time for Christmas. Val quickly moves on to another subject as Gil quietly finishes processing the dream.

Tom Bosley is especially good as Frank Boyd, Val's father. He does not appear until midway into the film. You learn that he has long doubted that he is actually Val's biological father and has kept the father- daughter relationship distanced, with both parents constantly traveling and Val left at school. With minimal dialogue Bosley shows Frank's slow realization that he loves his daughter more than anything in the world, despite his earlier doubts.

This leads to one of cinema's most amazing climatic scenes, coming unexpectedly at least 10 minutes before the actual ending. Val returns home after accidentally discovering that her mother (Angela Lansbury) and Henry are having an affair. Although she does not reveal this to her father, watch how Hill almost wordlessly illustrates the climatic revelations and the process of father and daughter finally finding each other. This visual narrative is why film is so powerful in the hands of a skilled and visionary director like Hill.

This is a nice 16x9 print that could greatly benefit from captioning as the audio track is quite poor.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

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Loved it Then, Love it Now

It was my favorite movie when I was about 11, not really for Peter Sellers, but for the girls and mostly Manhattan. From the first time I saw that movie growing up in a small North Carolina town, I knew that one day I would live in Manhattan. So after high school I moved to midtown Manhattan where I lived for over 30 years. Now I've moved closeby to a rural area of New Jersey, but I can still get the train back in when I want to. And I own this movie to remind me how I fell in love with a city.

movie transaction

I recieved this movie immediately after purchase, and the process was ver quick and easy!

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My response is similar to another movie of same era

A wonderful movie with not so obvious depth. It is a bit odd, in a way, because Peter Sellers' presence indicates a certain type of picture--and in some ways it is. But what resonates most for me in this picture is the story of the friendship of the two girls, wonderfully played by the young actresses. Val is really a heartbreaking character and Tippy Walker's performance is really quite remarkable.

I saw this movie for the first time on TCM relatively recently and I might love it even more if I had seen it when it first came out. It is very similar in some ways to another movie of the same era that I did see, as a youngster, when it did come out: "The Trouble with Angels".

The core of both movies is the deep friendship between two girls who are in many ways disimilar but have a sort of loneliness that draws them to each other. One of each of these pairs is effected and respond (but in different ways) by what can only be described as parental neglect--and they are both very bright and creative. In both movies, the more serious story is interspersed by blatently comedic scenes (Peter Sellers in this one, the girls' pranks in TTWA).

The adult characters are well drawn (also in both movies) and their actions deeply affect the girls. In both movies, there is sophistication in the stories of the adults (the parents in this one, Mother Superior in TTW) that will be above younger viewers although it won't prevent them from enjoying the movie--but it makes the films more enjoyable for adults!

In both movies, the broad comedy is, at least for me, the least successful element of the films while the human stories are deeply effecting. I don't want to sound too serious, but these films are more than just cute comedies.

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