A worthy successor to the silent films' "Man with a Thousand Faces," Lon Chaney, the incredibly facile Peter Sellers has just completed a film, The World of Henry Orient, in which he plays the title role, a concert pianist who has Liberace's technique onstage and Lothario's off. In the midst of working out the complexities of his part, Sellers found time to discuss with one of our editors the contrast between the great love scenes of pictures past and the frankly sexual approach taken in movies today. Which led us to wonder what those magic screen moments would be like if they were to be remade today, what with Hollywood's burgeoning emphasis on female nudity. No sooner conjectured than done, for Peter promptly agreed to restage these scenes especially for the Playboy camera. On the following pages you'll find the remarkable and riotous results of Sellers' near-miraculous metamorphoses to the celluloid amorists of yesteryear. (Sharp-eyed Playboy readers, incidentally, will recognize Henry Orient's expressive aide-de-camp on the last page of this pictorial parody as Lynn Karrol, our lissome December 1961 Playmate.) The choice of screen lovers is very much Sellers' own, ranging from Valentino's Sheik to such offbeat playboys as Lugosi's Dracula. But the enjoyment of Peter's antic updating of famous love scenes from film classics, as you will soon discover for yourself, is quite universal and devastatingly comedic. And, now, if someone will dim the houselights, we'll start the projector. Enter Peter the great, next page.
