'THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT'.......GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE GUM......

The World Of Henry Orient (1964).......is always fondly remembered for turning New York City into a sweet, gentle playground for two equally benevolent 14 year old schoolgirls......the New York depicted here seems as mythical as the Main Street midwest towns in Disney films......in 1964, Hollywood was still a few years away from portraying New York as a Dante's Inferno of crime, grime and depravity.

           The film and and its title misrepresented itself as a Peter Sellers vehicle...... while Sellers did have the pivotal supporting role of no-talent concert pianist Henry Orient,  the starring roles belonged to newcomers Merrie Spaeth and Tippy Walker, playing the adorably innocent, bubble-gum popping teens, not yet overtaken by adolescent angst,  who indulge their crush on Orient by stalking him around the city.

           Sellers' Orient, a self-invented continental sophisticate who fancies himself a Lothario, grows increasingly hysterical and reverts back to his Brooklyn street guy accent (which Sellers modeled off his previous director, Stanley Kubrick)......especially when the girls constantly interrupt his fruitless seduction of a skittish married woman (Paula Prentiss) on the edge of nervous breakdown herself. (At one point Sellers contemplates first plying her with sedatives......yes, you could still get away with staying stuff like that in the more innocent 60's....)

           Director George Roy Hill deliberately fashioned the film like a self-contained, live-action snow globe,(including beautiful postcard-worthy shots of Central Park) and it may stand as one of the last studio movies where you'd still see children still behaving.....well, childishly.  A invaluable gift to the film's lighter-than-air tone came from, of all people, composer Elmer Bernstein, at this point in his career mostly known for robust, muscular dramatic scores. Bernstein layered the film with warm-hearted themes that instantly captured its playful spirit and touches of sadness with remarkable precision....

            Hill also deftly extracted perfectly pitched work from his two young actors......Walker as the lost soul, emotionally bruised child of an about-to-be-broken home and Spaeth as her more grounded, down to earth acolyte........(you can hear in Spaeth's clipped, no nonsense delivery, the enormously successful Republican operative and businesswoman she became as an adult....)

             As a delightful bonus, the film throws in the oddest couple imaginable as Walker's wealthy, unhappy parents......Angela Lansbury as her monstrous mom, a slightly toned down version of Lansbury's 'Manchurian Candidate' harpy, and Tom Bosley, in full avuncular "Happy Days'" mode as the dad. No one could possibly envision how these two ended up as husband and wife.......you almost expect Lansbury to start calling Spaeth a communist tart and invite Walker to play a little solitaire.....

             Befitting the film's benign, compassionate tone, the story ends exactly as you want it to......though we couldn't quite join in the ironic humor of the film's final shot (the girls, having left fantasy adventures of childhood behind them, now converted to full-fledged 'Bye Bye Birdie' teens obsessed with boys, make-up and clothes)......cause let's face it, the film renders them far more interesting and engaging as kids, leaping over fire hydrants and tormenting Peter Sellers, than as the TV sitcom ready teeny-boppers they become......lucky they've got the "Happy Days" Dad to see them through........and the movie still remains one of our favorites, 4 stars (****)