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The World of Henry Orient


The World of Henry Orient
Despite lovely Manhattan scenery and a handful of terrific performances, the 1964 black comedy The World of Henry Orient is difficult to stay invested in due to a lethargic screenplay that makes a jarring transition from slapstick comedy to sloppy melodrama that doesn't make sense.

The film is about a teenage troublemaker named Valerie Boyd who drags her new BFF Marian Gilbert into all kinds of crazy advenures, most of them revolving a world famous but terrible concert pianist named Henry Orient, who the girls begin stalking which brings out the paranoia in Henry and Stella Dunworthy, the married woman with whom Henry is having an affair.

Famed screenwriter Nunally Johnson adapted the screenplay from a book written by his daughter, Nora, that actually starts off a little confusing because it takes a little too much time establishing the relationship between these two girls, making it difficult to figure out which one the story is really about. We're a good 30-40 minutes into the film befire it is revealed that Valerie is not only in constant trouble in school, but is also in therapy due to the very troubled marriage of her parents. This film probably stirred up a bit of controversy during its release with the idea of a teenager in therapy at the forefront. An autobographical slant to the story is also suspected since Nora named her best friend in the story after her mother, also named Marian.

After watching opening scenes of Valerie and Marian running through Central Park and jumping over garbage cans and fire hydrants, the movie starts to kick into gear when, seemingly out of nowhere, we learn that Valerie is obsessed with this neurotic concert pianist, which is when the girls begin stalking him, which is probably the strongest part of the film, thanks primarilyto Peter Sellers' hilarious performance in the title role, his first after The Pink Panther, sadly, Sellers' screentime is a little limited and when he's not onscreen the film pretty much screeches to a halt until the appearance of the fabulous Angela Lansbury as Valerie's mother. This is the point where the comic elements of the story begin to drain away, despite the always watchable Lansbury appropriately chewing the scenery.

George Roy Hill's direction is a little pedestrian, but this was a decade before he would win a Best Director Oscar for The Sting. Paula Prentiss also garners major laughs as Stella Dunworthy until her character abruptly disappears from the story and Tippy Walker is a revelation as Valerie. Tom Bosley makes an early film appearance as Valerie's dad and he's so young the makeup people actually had to put gray streaks in his hair. it's definitely worth a look for hardcore Sellers and Lansbury fans.