Mar. 19, 1964 - Opening today is “The World of Henry Orient,” a comedy-drama film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Peter Sellers, Paula Prentiss, Angela Lansbury, and Tom Bosley. It is based on the novel of the same name by Nora Johnson, who co-wrote the screenplay with her father, Nunnally Johnson.
The original story was inspired in part by Nora Johnson’s own experiences as a schoolgirl as well as by a real-life incident involving singer Tony Bennett and two teenage fans. In the film’s story, concert pianist Henry Orient pursues an affair with a married woman, Stella Dunnworthy, while two adolescent private-school girls stalk him and write their fantasies about him in a diary. Henry’s paranoia leads him to believe that the two girls, who seem to pop up everywhere he goes, are spies sent by his would-be mistress’s husband.
The pianist's unusual surname, “Orient” came about because Nora Johnson based the character on Oscar Levant, a real-life concert pianist, raconteur, and film actor on whom she had a crush as a teenager.
