Director George Roy Hill certainly proved himself throughout his career a versatile director ably handling such diverse movie genres as musicals (Thoroughly Modern Millie), rollicking adventure (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), epics (Hawaii), and the con game to end them all (his Oscar-winning work in The Sting). He could handle mixed genres, too, as evidenced by his work in The World of Henry Orient, a semi-farce, more closely resembling today’s dramedies but in actuality a film that really defies easy classification. It’s the best realization of girls’ emerging adolescence ever caught on screen and remains today a singularly entertaining achievement.
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Twilight Time
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HDMA (Mono)
Subtitles: English SDH
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 42 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
keep caseDisc Type: BD50 (dual layer)
Region: All
Release Date: 07/14/2015
MSRP: $29.95
The Production Rating: 4/5
Two misfit eighth graders Marian 'Gil' Gilbert (Merrie Spaeth) and Valarie 'Val' Boyd (Tippy Walker) meet at private school and have an instant bond commiserating over their braces and the stupid boys their own age and finding joy in play acting and simply talking about everything. They stumble upon second tier classical pianist Henry Orient (Peter Sellers) having a liaison with his married lover Stella Dunnworthy (Paula Prentiss) in Central Park and seem to continually run into him until even he begins to notice their presence. Val, something of a piano prodigy herself, develops a deep crush on the lazy Orient and concocts a fantasy life for them together while the two girls do everything they can to trace his steps around Manhattan, something irritatingly inconvenient for someone who’s interested in continual seduction of beautiful women.
Author Nora Johnson has adapted her novel to the screen with assistance from her famous award-winning father Nunnally Johnson, and it’s a wry mixture of the farcical and the dramatic never sacrificing one for the other but blending the emotions together in an uncanny mixture that’s truly effective. The laughs are more heavily featured early on as the girls frolic and play act around Manhattan (George Roy Hill directs a tremendously exhilarating montage of the girls breezily enjoying their last months of preadolescence when they don’t care about skinned knees, shabby clothes, or unkempt hair as they caper around the city), and their coincidental run-ins with the conceited Orient and his frazzled lover Mrs. Dunnworthy gain in comic heft as the accidental meetings begin to accumulate and then become deliberate acts of innocent stalking. Hill has given Sellers a wonderful showcase in a concert scene where the orchestra and he play an avant-garde piece where the audience is mostly confounded by its weirdness and Sellers’ Orient improvises racket on the piano because he hasn’t rehearsed enough with the orchestra to know his music. The picture moves into more serious territory as we explore the troubled marriage of Val’s wealthy parents (Angela Lansbury, Tom Bosley) where her affairs are not very discreet and his feelings of guilt about abandoning his daughter as he jets around the world on business become earnestly and deeply felt, accentuated by the Christmas season which ordinarily would be one of good cheer but for Val is anything but.
The movie belongs to the two young actresses Merrie Spaeth and especially Tippy Walker who, despite no formal training, convey their feelings without a trace of artifice and are delightfully kooky and charming companions throughout. It’s hard to imagine anyone could steal a movie from Peter Sellers, but it was well known at the time that Sellers had difficulty fitting his work in this movie with all of the other commitments he was under as this had become his breakthrough year with Dr. Strangelove and The Pink Panther as other parts of his cinematic output in 1964. His character affects a variety of seductive accents (Italian and Arabian seem the most frequently used) to hide his Bronx rasp, all allowing the actor to play around with his role. As fine as he is, this is the least impressive of his three film appearances that year. Angela Lansbury plays beautifully another of her viper mothers here, callously making decisions for a daughter she doesn’t know or care about and showing her lack of class continually despite her expensive clothes and a (possibly put-on) Park Avenue accent. Paula Prentiss doesn’t get to display as many colors as the constantly flustered philanderer, but she looks smashing and can always get a laugh with her unique way with a line. Tom Bosley gains in respect as the film plays learning how to prize what’s really important while Phyllis Thaxter and Bibi Osterwald as Gil’s guardians are warm, loving, and yet fun-loving adults. In small roles are John Fiedler as Orient’s concerned manager, and celebrated pianist Peter Duchin as one of Mrs. Boyd’s current inamoratas.
Video Rating: 4.5/5 3D Rating: NA
The Panavision theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is faithfully reproduced in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Engineers have done a thorough job cleaning up any age-related artifacts leaving behind a pristine picture that’s wonderfully ingratiating. Apart from a few long shots in outdoor New York locations, sharpness is first-rate with excellent detail to be found in hair, clothes, and facial features. Color is solid throughout with appealing and realistic skin tones. Black levels may not be the deepest, but they’re plenty fine enough, and contrast has been consistently maintained. The movie has been divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Rating: 4/5
The transfer offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mix. It’s a very typical mono sound mix of the era with the well-recorded dialogue, Elmer Bernstein’s fine music score, and the city sound effects all blending effortlessly into a single track. No age-related problems with hiss, crackle, thumps, or flutter are present.
Special Features Rating: 3/5
Audio Commentary: film historians Nick Redman, Julie Kirgo, and Jeff Bond have an enjoyable conversation about the movie pointing out its many strengths and few weaknesses which fans of the movie will undoubtedly enjoy hearing.
Isolated Score Track: Elmer Bernstein’s score is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo.
Theatrical Trailer (2:38, HD)
MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (2:06, HD)
Six-Page Booklet: contains some color and black and white stills, original poster art on the rear cover, and film historian Julie Kirgo’s enthusiastic endorsement for the movie.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Still a warm and marvelously funny motion picture, The World of Henry Orient returns us to a more innocent time in New York City with comedy and drama which are a pleasure to watch and an even greater privilege to revisit. There are only 3,000 copies of this Blu-ray available. Those interested should go to www.screenarchives.com to see if product is still in stock. Information about the movie can also be found via their website at www.twilighttimemovies.com or via Facebook at www.facebook.com/twilighttimemovies.
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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