The World of Henry Orient
Encyclopedia
The World of Henry Orient is a 1964 American comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 based on the novel of the same name by Nora Johnson
Nora Johnson
Nora Johnson is an American author.-Early life:She was born in daughter of filmmaker Nunnally Johnson in Hollywood, California. She attended the Brearley School, graduated from Smith College in 1954 and soon married and settled in New York.-Writings:Her first novel, The World of Henry Orient, was...

. It was directed by George Roy Hill
George Roy Hill
George Roy Hill was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, which both starred the acting duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford...

 and stars Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

, Paula Prentiss
Paula Prentiss
Paula Ragusa , better known by her stage name Paula Prentiss, is an American actress well-known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View and her co-starring role in the television situation...

, Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...

, Tippy Walker
Tippy Walker
Tippy Walker is a former American child actress, best known for her role in the film The World of Henry Orient .Born Elizabeth Tipton Walker in New York City, her father was an engineer with Allied Chemical Corporation...

, Merrie Spaeth
Merrie Spaeth
Merrie Spaeth is an American political and public relations consultant, and former film actress.She is a regular contributor to several periodicals, including D/CEO Magazine, in addition to her contributions to National Public Radio through radio station KERA in Dallas, Texas...

, Phyllis Thaxter
Phyllis Thaxter
-Early life and career:Born Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter, she was the daughter of Maine Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thaxter and his wife, a former actress. Thaxter worked on Broadway in the 1930s and signed an MGM contract in 1944...

, Bibi Osterwald, and Tom Bosley
Tom Bosley
Thomas Edward "Tom" Bosley was an American actor. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom Happy Days. He also was featured in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote, and Father Dowling Mysteries...

.

Filming started in June 1963 and wrapped in October of that year. The premiere was at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...

 on March 19, 1964. In 1965 the film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 in the category "Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy" and for a Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...

 for "Best Written American Comedy."

Plot

Concert pianist Henry Orient (Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

) is trying to have an affair with a married woman, Stella Dunnworthy (Paula Prentiss
Paula Prentiss
Paula Ragusa , better known by her stage name Paula Prentiss, is an American actress well-known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View and her co-starring role in the television situation...

), while two teenage private-school girls, Valerie Boyd (Tippy Walker
Tippy Walker
Tippy Walker is a former American child actress, best known for her role in the film The World of Henry Orient .Born Elizabeth Tipton Walker in New York City, her father was an engineer with Allied Chemical Corporation...

) and Marian Gilbert (Merrie Spaeth
Merrie Spaeth
Merrie Spaeth is an American political and public relations consultant, and former film actress.She is a regular contributor to several periodicals, including D/CEO Magazine, in addition to her contributions to National Public Radio through radio station KERA in Dallas, Texas...

), stalk him and write their fantasies about him in a diary.

Orient's paranoia leads him to believe that the two girls, who seem to pop up everywhere he goes, are spies sent by the husband of his would-be mistress. When Val's mother, Isabel Boyd (Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...

), finds their diary, she suspects that Henry has acted inappropriately with her daughter. She contacts Orient and they end up having an affair. Val finds out about it, as does her dad.

Cast

  • Merrie Spaeth
    Merrie Spaeth
    Merrie Spaeth is an American political and public relations consultant, and former film actress.She is a regular contributor to several periodicals, including D/CEO Magazine, in addition to her contributions to National Public Radio through radio station KERA in Dallas, Texas...

     as Marian "Gil" Gilbert
  • Tippy Walker
    Tippy Walker
    Tippy Walker is a former American child actress, best known for her role in the film The World of Henry Orient .Born Elizabeth Tipton Walker in New York City, her father was an engineer with Allied Chemical Corporation...

     as Valarie "Val" Campbell Boyd
  • Peter Sellers
    Peter Sellers
    Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

     as Henry Orient
  • Paula Prentiss
    Paula Prentiss
    Paula Ragusa , better known by her stage name Paula Prentiss, is an American actress well-known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View and her co-starring role in the television situation...

     as Stella Dunnworthy
  • Angela Lansbury
    Angela Lansbury
    Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...

     as Isabel Boyd
  • Tom Bosley
    Tom Bosley
    Thomas Edward "Tom" Bosley was an American actor. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom Happy Days. He also was featured in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote, and Father Dowling Mysteries...

     as Frank Boyd
  • Phyllis Thaxter
    Phyllis Thaxter
    -Early life and career:Born Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter, she was the daughter of Maine Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thaxter and his wife, a former actress. Thaxter worked on Broadway in the 1930s and signed an MGM contract in 1944...

     as Mrs. Avis Gilbert
  • Bibi Osterwald as Erica "Boothy" Booth
  • John Fiedler
    John Fiedler
    John Donald Fiedler was an American voice actor and character actor in stage, film, television and radio. He was slight, balding, and bespectacled, with a distinctive, high-pitched voice and a career lasting more than 55 years.He is best remembered for four roles: as the nervous Juror #2 in 12...

     as Sidney
  • Al Lewis as Store Owner
  • Peter Duchin
    Peter Duchin
    -Life and career:Duchin was born in New York City, the son of pianist and band leader Eddy Duchin. His mother was Marjorie Oelrichs, a Newport, Rhode Island and New York City socialite who died unexpectedly when he was just five days old. He was raised by close family friends, statesman W...

     as Joe Daniels
  • Fred Stewart as Doctor
  • Philippa Bevans as Emma Hambler
  • Jane Buchanan as Lillian Kafritz

Production

The pianist's unusual surname, "Orient", came about because Nora Johnson based the character on Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...

, a real-life concert pianist, raconteur and film actor. Since the word "levant" means orient in French (literally the direction from which the Sun rises), the name is a play on words. In the film, several allusions to the pianist's unusual name occur when his two teenage fans put on Chinese conical hats, address their idol as "Oriental Henry," kow-tow to an Asian-style altar, and adopt vaguely Japanese-sounding names for themselves.

Reception

The World of Henry Orient was the official U.S. entry at 1964 Cannes Film Festival
1964 Cannes Film Festival
The 17th Cannes Film Festival was held from 29 April to 14 May 1964. The Palme d’Or is renamed 'Grand Prix International du Festival', the name that will be used until 1975.-Jury:*Fritz Lang *Charles Boyer...

.

The film was well-received by critics and has an 88% rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

. In his review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Bosley Crowther wrote that it was "one of the most joyous and comforting movies about teenagers that we've had in a long time".

It was voted one of the Year's Ten Best Films by the National Board of Review in 1964.

Musical adaptation

A Broadway musical adaptation of The World of Henry Orient called Henry, Sweet Henry
Henry, Sweet Henry
Henry, Sweet Henry is a musical with a book by Nunnally Johnson and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill.Based on the novel The World of Henry Orient by Johnson's daughter Nora and the subsequent film of the same name, the plot focuses on Valerie and Marian, two wealthy, love-struck teenagers who stalk...

, with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill
Bob Merrill
Bob Merrill was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter.Merrill was born Henry Merrill Levan in Atlantic City, New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following a stint with the Army during World War II, he moved to Hollywood, where he worked as a...

, book by Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Hunter Johnson was an American filmmaker who wrote, produced, and directed motion pictures.Johnson was born in Columbus, Georgia. He began his career as a journalist, writing for the Columbus Enquirer Sun, the Savannah Press, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and the New York Herald Tribune...

 (the father of Nora Johnson), direction by George Roy Hill
George Roy Hill
George Roy Hill was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, which both starred the acting duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford...

 and choreography by Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett was an American musical theater director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven....

, opened at the Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, New York
The Palace Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1564 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan.-History:Designed by architects Kirchoff & Rose, the theatre was built by Martin Beck a California vaudeville entrepreneur and Broadway impresario. The project experienced a number of business problems before...

 on October 23, 1967. It starred Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...

 as Henry Orient, Neva Small
Neva Small
Neva Small is an American actress, singer, and puppeteer.-Career:Born in New York City, Small was acclaimed for her three-octave voice from an early age. She made her Broadway debut in the 1964 musical Something More!...

 as Marian Gilbert, Robin Wilson as Valerie Boyd, Milo Bouton as Mr Boyd, Carol Bruce
Carol Bruce
Carol Bruce was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress.Bruce was born Shirley Levy in Great Neck, New York, the daughter of Beatrice and Harry Levy. She began her career as a singer in the late 1930s with Larry Clinton and his band...

 as Mrs. Boyd and Louise Lasser
Louise Lasser
Louise Lasser is an American actress. She is known for her portrayal of the title character on the soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. She was married to Woody Allen and appeared in several of his films.-Personal life:...

 as Stella. Pia Zadora
Pia Zadora
Pia Zadora is an American actress and singer. After working as a child actress on Broadway, in regional theater, and in the film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians , she came to national attention in 1981 when, following her starring role in the highly criticized Butterfly, she won a Golden Globe...

 also appeared in the role of a student. The show ran for 80 performances and closed on December 31, 1967, receiving less than stellar reviews. William Goldman
William Goldman
William Goldman is an American novelist, playwright, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.-Early life and education:...

, in his study of the 1967-68 theater year "The Season", claimed that the musical was of high quality but was old fashioned, and "had the misfortune" to open just a week after all the critics "were overcome by Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...

," which had a modern sound.

Although the show was not a success, one of its performers, Alice Playten
Alice Playten
Alice Playten was an American actress and singer.-Life and career:Born Alice Plotkin in New York City, Playten began her career in the Broadway musical Gypsy...

, received a 1968 Theatre World Award
Theatre World Award
The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...

, and was nominated for a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 for "Best Featured Actress in a Musical" for playing the role of Kafritz, which was enlarged substantially for the play. In addition, Michael Bennett was nominated for a Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

for "Best Choreography."

External links

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