DVD: Peter Sellers: World of Henry Orient (2004)

Peter Sellers stars as Henry Orient, a New York concert pianist whose ego considerably outstrips his meagre talent. Yet this seems to not have blunted his charm for Valerie Boyd (Tippy Walker) and Merrie Spaeth (Marian Gilbert), a pair of barely adolescent girls who have become infatuated with him. The two friends follow the hapless pianist everywhere, making it difficult for him to conduct a discreet romance with Stella (Paula Prentiss), a married woman. The suspicious Stella believes that the girls are spying on behalf of her jealous husband. In addition, Valerie's self-absorbed and adulterous mother, Isabel (Angela Lansbury), has come across a scrapbook the two girls have compiled on the pianist and, believing the worst, barrels into his apartment, accusing the musician of having seduced her daughter. Orient skillfully puts the woman's fears to rest and, before long, is coaxing her into his bed. When Valerie learns of her mother's fling with her idol, she's predictably devastated. To add insult to injury, her mother forbids her to see Merrie. The product of a more innocent time, the comedy retains great appeal as it deftly counterpoints the theme of the pleasures and pains of early adolescence with that of the foibles of adulthood. The cast is uniformly excellent, with comic genius Sellers near the peak of his powers as the eccentric pianist.