The World of Henry Orient (1964) and Jennifer on My Mind (1971)
Back with another cluster of reviews, starting with The World of Henry Orient (1964), new on Blu from Twilight Time in a great special edition featuring Elmer Bernstein’s lovely score on an isolated track, and another solid commentary from Julie Kirgo + Jeff Bond + Nick Redman.
The film’s also unique for starring (besides Peter Sellers) a pair of newcomers to film, teen actresses Merrie Spaeth and Tippy Walker. Both deliver natural performances of gawky, fantasy-obsessed kids, but only Walker chose to continue with acting, appearing in a few TV series and a trio of feature films.
I tracked down her last film role, Jennifer on My Mind (1971), co-starring Michael Brandon (Four Flies on Grey Velvet) with Robert De Niro playing a pot-smoking cabby. It’s a frankly disastrous black comedy about a heroin-addicted heiress and her pothead boyfriend, but in spite of its awfulness, it should be on DVD, if not Blu, purely for Andrew Laszlo’s gorgeous NYC and Venice, Italy, cinematography. It’s also kind of a fascinating mess, which means I spent more time than necessary analyzing why it’s such a turkey.
Note how the tag lines in these two UA posters branded the film a tragedy, and a drama, downplaying its dark comedic elements in favour of some kind of hip youth drama about the hell of drug use.
“Actually they’re dying.”
But also “trying to love.”
Coming next: reviews of Anchor Bay’s Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (2015), and Twilight Time’s excellent special edition Blu of Summer Lovers (1980), followed by another set of soundtrack reviews and a podcast interview with Roar (1981) composer Terence P. Minogue.
Cheers,
Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com
Category: EDITOR'S BLOG
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