The World of Henry Orient (1964) on Netflix
Val and Gil become best friends at a New York private school. After Val sees pianist Henry Orient perform, she develops a crush and the girls follow him around the city.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb6.6/104,292 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes91%
Trailer
Plot summary
Val and Gil meet as new students at Norton's School for Girls in New York City and become best friends, sharing a taste for adventure and fantasy. Val's wealthy parents, Frank and Isabel, travel the world on business and leave her with paid caregivers, while Gil lives with her divorced mother, Avis, and Avis's friend Boothie. Roaming the city, the girls keep crossing paths with Henry Orient, a concert pianist who calls himself international and is carrying on an affair with Stella Dunworthy, a married woman who dreads being caught. After watching Henry perform, Val falls for him, and she and Gil begin following him all over town, noting their escapades in Val's diary.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The World of Henry Orient (1964)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Tippy Walker, who was sixteen during filming, later alleged that 44-year-old director George Roy Hill began an inappropriate romantic relationship with her that lasted several years, and that he undermined her acting career after she ended it.
- Nunnally Johnson wrote the role of pianist Henry Orient for Rex Harrison, who turned it down as too small; Peter Sellers then signed in May 1963 for what became his first American film, reportedly available because a broken ankle had cost him another job.
- Nora Johnson based the pianist Henry Orient on Oscar Levant, the real concert pianist, raconteur and film actor she had a crush on as a teenager; the surname is a pun, since "levant" means Orient in French, the direction of sunrise.
- Nora Johnson drew the story in part on her own experiences as a schoolgirl and on a real-life incident involving singer Tony Bennett and two teenage fans.
- Henry Koster urged Richard Zanuck's Fox to buy Nunnally Johnson's script, but when Darryl Zanuck never got around to reading it, Johnson sold it to United Artists, which upset Darryl and ended their formerly close relationship.
- Director George Roy Hill handpicked Tippy Walker from hundreds of actresses who auditioned for the role of Val, and the filmmakers reshaped the film during editing to focus more on her, shooting her snowy Central Park walk months after production had wrapped.
- Merrie Spaeth, who was 15 during filming, had no acting experience beyond a minor role in a school production and was cast after her school's drama department head suggested her to a talent scout; it was her only film appearance.
