I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The first must-see film of the year.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The World of Henry Orient is a film about growing up and the pain of that first celebrity crush.....Come on! Admit it! All of us has had that love affair with a celebrity and the pain of finding out our illusions or gods had feet of clay.Set in the majestic scenes of New York City in the early Sixties, we meet the two central characters, Marion Gilbert, a somewhat curious girl, eager and adventurous and Val Boyd, a lonely but boisterous in need of a friend because of her parent marriage is falling apart at home. The girls become fast friends and Val confides that she is in love with a pianist named Henry Orient played by the talented Peter Sellers. Even though the film is named after Henry Orient we don't see too much of the character in a lot of scenes. Henry Orient is really a shallow, untalented pianist who is more interested in womanizing than perfecting his art. Will Val discover her dreams of love are just youthful dreams or will fate deal her a unkind hand to shatter her fantasies? The World of Henry Orient is one of those films that I encourage the young to see. It is a story of innocent youth maturing in a quiet sweet way. Perfect for that tween age between childhood and adult when a girl copes with the feeling of "falling in love". It is also a film where most adults look back at some fond memories The scenes of New York are visually beautiful and compelling---very much "New Yorkish" with it's scenes of Central Park and row townhouses. So if you are looking for one of those sweet silent comedy films---this would be the one!

Intermittenly charming and funny courtesy of the 2 young actresses who perform with commendable believability and whose friendship supplies the film's most captivating and original moments. Unfortunately, the adults are less interesting and the girls' infatuation with Sellers is not persuasive. Sellers who starred in Lolita, The Pink Panther and Dr. Strangelove has nothing to do, but is forced by the script to do it over and over while Paula Prentiss and Angela Lansbury have their moments, but Tom Bosely, Phyllis Thaxter and Bibi Osterwald bring the film down. Location shooting on NYC streets help, but the film feels overly long. Directed by George Roy Hill whose 1972 film Slaughterhouse-5 is a neglected gem.

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.

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.