The World of Henry Orient
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Actor: Angela Lansbury, Paula Prentiss, Peter Sellers, Phyllis Thaxter, Tom BosleyDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of The World of Henry Orient
DVD Review: An Absolute Gem
Summary: 5 Stars
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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