I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The World of Henry Orient The key to being a successful groupie is being a woman.And while the fans in this comedy are females, they're drastically underage.Obsessed with concert pianist Henry Orient (Peter Sellers), school girls Val (Tippy Walker) and Gil (Merrie Spaeth) secretly follow him around Manhattan, taking notes on his affair with a married woman, and concocting fantasies about their lives with him.When Val's mother (Angela Lansbury) stumbles on the girls' journal, she accuses Orient of seducing her daughter, only to end up having an affair with him at the expense of her marriage to Val's workaholic father (Tom Bosley).A perfect portrayal of precocious teenage girls, their odd fashion choices, and their naïve views on love, The World of Henry Orient deals with mature matters of the heart with caprice and candor.Besides, the best way to get close to a concert pianist is to impersonate a piano bench.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

*SPOILERS*The 60 year-old women on IMDb who recall this as a favorite childhood memory should perhaps re-watch this from the jaded 21st century point of view, knowing that the filmmakers squeezed as much sex as they thought they could get away with in this film.I recently watched this for the first time, and was surprised at the blatant and not-so-blatant innuendos.The first thing that struck me was the opening scene, where director Hill got as many up-skirt panty shots as possible. If you pay attention, he does this again later. Why were panty shots needed, George?One of the reviewers here asked about the necessity of Boothy. It was pretty obvious to me this was a closeted lesbian relationship.Paula Prentiss wants to commit adultery, and c**k teases Henry Orient quite a bit.Henry Orient becomes the sex fantasy of mother and daughter, with one having intercourse, and the pubescent one thinking about it to the point of tears.The end of the movies shows the pubescent girls putting on heavy make- up, including "lipstick the color of a scarlet gash".Now that I have all of you prudes up in arms, let me say this-- It was an enjoyable film, mostly due to Tippy Walker. She showed such promise I'm sorry she didn't get into more films.The music and cinematography were great.Many reviewers here say they wanted more Peter Sellers, and that he wasn't funny enough. I disagree. Just the right amount, and he was very funny, especially the accents.I watched this movie because it got 3 1/2 stars out of 4 on Xfinity. Sorry, but it doesn't hold up that well. And denying the constant message of sex, however undertone, is simply wrong.

This film has been described as being charming, and it is to a point. There is also a welcome (if unintentional) quaintness to it, considering that it was shot between June and October 1963, before Beatlemania and the assassination of President Kennedy. By the time of the film's release, those social and political events had changed the world markedly.Although the friendship between the girls starts out fresh and interesting, it progressively becomes silly and tiresome, with much energy waisted on contrived vignettes that don't lead anywhere. Their dynamic serves as a template for later and better girl-buddy pictures like "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" and "The Trouble With Angels"While on the subject of waisted, the then red-hot Peter Sellers seems painfully underutilized here. Ditto for the wonderfully ditsy Paula Prentiss. I couldn't help but wonder if his presence here was dictated only because he 'owed' someone a picture. The one glowing exception is the fantastic concert segment which is hysterically funny in its droll subtlety and its send-up of avant garde artistic expression. His other potentially funny scenes, especially those with Prentis, come off like jokes without punch lines. The remaining adult cast, featuring Angela Lansbury among others, is good in its own competent way.One great unexpected joy of the film was its many scenes of a beautiful and mostly vacant New York City. Having never lived there and seldom visited, this viewer still was very taken by the evocative cityscapes which wonderfully saturate this film. For me, this is where the real charm of the film comes through.

Merrie Spaeth and Tippy Walker play two rather eccentric teenage girls (is there any other kind?) who find fascination in the comings and goings of Henry Orient (Peter Sellers), a world renowned pianist they come upon kissing his married mistress (Paula Prentiss) in the Ramble in Central Park. Like Doris Day's victim (a perplexed movie producer) in "It's a Great Feeling", Sellers gets paranoid every time he sees these two girls. In real life, having someone appearing in comical ways out of the blue rather frequently would drive a person to become unglued, and the publicity shy Sellers is truly put off by their childish pranks. Walker, the neglected daughter of wealthy but unhappily married Tom Bosley and Angela Lansbury, likes to play "fantasy" games of acting like somebody totally different. Today, we just call it a desperate cry for attention. At one point, she feigns a medical crisis; At another point, she claims to shopkeeper Al Lewis ("Grandpa Munster") that she's waiting for her mother, Jayne Mansfield! Each time gets the two girls into trouble. When mama Lansbury and papa Bosley come back from a trip, the two girls are separated, but when they get back together for one last visit to the shy Sellers, mama Lansbury gets involved which brings a show-down over the neglect Walker feels.Some people may not find these two girl's antics amusing, but there are a few moments that are truly funny. The film drags here and there, and finally settles into domestic drama that unleashes the reasons for the wealthy girl's strange behavior. Spaeth and Walker aren't your Patty Duke/Sally Field 60's teen; They reminded me of Hayley Mills' two "Parent Trap" characters needing a good dosage of Ritalin. Other than perhaps being raised without a father, there's no explanation for Spaeth's character's willingness to follow in Walker's footsteps. Phyllis Thaxter is Spaeth's sensible mother, and that wonderful rather obscure character actress Bibi Osterwald is hysterically funny as her eccentric pal. Lansbury plays one of her typically typecast harridan mothers, although in her Christmas party scene, she looks a lot like how she would just a few years later in "Mame". Her future "Murder She Wrote" co-star Tom Bosley adds a lot of heart as her unhappy husband. This is a comedy that will require the viewer to think a bit more psychologically than normal in movies. A good usage of Manhattan scenery is another one of the film's pluses. I do not see how this could be musicalized, as it was for the 1967 Broadway flop "Henry Sweet Henry". As for Peter Sellers, he is always hysterically funny, and especially so when he is expressing exasperation at the girls' constant sudden appearances during awkward moments. But basically his character is a cad, sort of a continuation of his role in "Lolita" minus the desire for "jail bait".