Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

michellez-82344 This movie was obviously enjoyed by a number of people based on the reviews but I suspect that a good deal of the enjoyment was of a nostalgic nature, older reviewers fondly remembering a movie seen in their youth. It reminds me of some of the old classic Walt Disney family movies of the 1960s that would feature wholesome stories, young children coming of age, and fairly innocuous, harmless adventures. At their worst, overly sentimental and cloyingly sweet with a somewhat heavy-handed moral lesson. THIS particular film hardly even seems to have those redeeming features or a message beyond the girls still being friends and one girl's dad becoming a proper father, all previous issues magically resolved. Although even there the 'awww factor' is dulled by the last lines of dialogue between the 2 young girls: "You know what I'd like?" "What?" "A mouth like a CRIMSON GASH!" "Hey, that's a cool idea!" Continuing to apply more makeup than the average woman owns. Sorry, that line is just 'ew' and a jarring transition from girlish hijinx to more "adult" things. (I get the feeling that the makers of this film may have had in mind a film of a much more mature nature than the film that was made.)One reviewer who did enjoy this entitled her review: "The Giddy Magic of Girls." I would have said, "The annoying antics of brats" but this movie did not work for me, obviously. Two negatives were that the movie was touted by cable channels as featuring Peter Sellers or Angela Landsbury headlining. TWOHO does NOT "feature" either of those actors. That sets it up to be a disappointment from that perspective. So if you planned to watch it because those two are listed as the stars in this film, don't.Mr. Sellers IS important to the plot but hardly featured and not particularly hilarious as others have alleged. Amusing at best. He does change accents throughout but for no good reason other than apparent boredom with his part in this extremely limited role. Ms. Landsbury is notably absent from the first half of the movie, doesn't have many lines and seems to have been miscast somewhat curiously as something of a femme fatale to Mr. Sellers' "worldly" concert pianist. Angela Landsbury is a quite good actress but seems past it in 1964 for such a role. She DOES play well as an unhappily married woman who is frustrated that her child is interfering with her own fun. As someone who has NO maternal instincts whatsoever and very little loyalty to her husband, let alone the family.The story centers on 2 young ladies, in their mid teens, and on their developing friendship. To some extent they seem to me to be infantilized, depicted playing games well below their perceived age, and mentality, such as Follow the Leader, each jumping over things in turn. (And what's up with the crotch shots? Are camera angles from the ground as the girls jump hydrants, etc., splay-legged in skirts really necessary?) Pursuing pointless pranks that only elementary school children would find funny. The girls then go from that very childlike/childish behaviour to obsessing about and stalking a much older male, Mr. Henry Orient, who is apparently a philanderer specializing in married women. The girls have unusual home situations which would be revolutionary for those times, if explored: 2 unrelated women raising one child, no one really raising the other but this fertile area is only cursorily covered as it relates to the "quirkiness" of each girl and in the latter case, as a way to highlight what an unpleasant character Ms. Landsbury plays. This movie just isn't particularly funny. It is that rather odd brand of mildly amusing story, that apparently passed for humorous in the olden days, with an adequate script no one bothered to improve on or edit. Neither Sellers nor the other adults have much to work with, the situations do not ever seem intriguing, and the girls' pranks just seem idiotic and off-putting. It's just a movie but what moron falls for the movie's final prank and is going to just accept the story/lie that 2 completely dissimilar looking girls are Jane Mansfield's daughters and that they are simply waiting by a random shop for the ostensible "kidnappers" to release a famous star to them, no ransom, in plain view on an otherwise busy street? (Although as with most scenes, the streets are oddly deserted of people.) And what adult alerts the police based on this slip of a story and in what world do the police believe such a gullible adult and such a far-fetched tale of kidnapping, mobilizing a dozen men to capture no one? All of this scene played mostly in an oddly straight manner, although Mr. Sellers does attempt slapstick as he retreats to his apartment when the swat team leaps into action, somehow mistaking his lone paramour for the kidnappers, ignoring the fact that there is no kidnappee.As a comedy, this is feeble stuff, barely eliciting a few smiles, the occasional chuckle. If this is a story about family, and exploring the travails inherent within families and all human relations, it is all too shallowly explored and not at all in a satisfying way. Neither zany nor introspective, it tries for both and fails at both. If you enjoy the old Disney Family Movies, and don't mind the inevitable, telegraphed happy ending without much of an explanation about how they got there, you may like this. If you think you are going to see a lot of Angela Landsbury at her dramatic best or Peter Sellers at his zaniest, you will be disappointed. For what it's worth, the two young ladies are quite good, (Oddly neither of them had much of a career in acting afterward.), but that is not enough to carry this overlong, repetitive, trite, stale yet implausible tale.

capone666 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

Ritag2 The World of Henry Orient is lots of fun to watch. Both Paula Prentiss and Peter Sellers are very funny. Peter Sellers uses a great New York accent when he is being his real self, and Paula Prentiss' jittery reaction to his tries to seduce her are hilarious. Angela Lansbury is the ultimate bad mother and is somewhat like her character in The Manchurian Candidate. The two young girls who play the main characters are wonderful, and if they had a career after this movie it wasn't a memorable one. Their characters are portrayed a little too youthful for fourteen yearolds, even for the early sixties, but both of the characters are interesting and lots of fun to watch as they run around the New York City of the early 1960's. This is a great movie to watch when you want to forget the real world and step back into an America of a bygone era.

theowinthrop It was 1964 and the great wave of fascination with Peter Sellers as an actor who could do anything well - could flesh out any character - was in full bloom. His films were growing an international audience that would culminate with his "Clouseau" performances and his multiple performances in DR. STRANGELOVE. But his films did show some odd choices, one of which was this unexpected study of adolescent puppy love. Sellers played avant garde (or self-appointed avant garde) pianist Henry Orient, who manages to pick up two acolytes, Tippy Walker as Val Boyd and Merrie Spaeth as Gil Gilbert. Both come from Manhattan homes with some claims to privilege (they attend the same girls school), but Walker is from a family with more money. Both girls also have family problems: Spaeth's parents are divorced, and Walker's parents are in a state of marriage doldrums. Walker's mother is Angela Lansbury (at her most irritatingly snobbish) and her father is Tom Bosley, a decent man who is increasingly showing strains putting up with his wife's behavior and even her possible infidelities. He is a loving father, and this despite his uncertainty if Walker is his daughter or not. Spaeth's mother (Phyllis Thaxter) is a decent woman raising her daughter with the help of her friend (Bibi Osterwald).The girls decide on being devoted followers of a "cult" of Orient, a concert pianist of dubious popularity whose records they collect and whose photos they pick up. Gradually they also invade his personal life, following Sellers all over the place. He starts getting a complex about them, wondering if they are detectives. They certainly spoil his personal lifestyle - especially his relationship with wealthy Paula Prentice.Sellers had some choice, but minor moments in this film - his trying to put a curse on the girls at one point, or his running from backfire (thinking it is a jealous husband). Prentice had a hysterically funny scene when her tryst with Sellers is spoiled - a scene where Al Lewis popped up as a nosy shop-keeper who signals the police. There was also a concert sequence with the conductor getting angry at the "embellishments" in the score that Sellers puts into the concerto he is playing.But the bulk of the film was really carried by the two girls, who are shown growing up and trying to maintain their friendship. And the equally trying problems concerning Walker and her mother. It was sold as a Peter Sellers movie, and he has a sizable part, but it was really not his film at all. It was a film that featured him in support of Walker and Spaeth. That it was a good film is not in doubt, but for a person interested in Seller's mad, creative artistry it was not as important as the earlier British comedies, or some of his later international films.