Arabesque (1966)

I wanted to but couldn't!

Absolutely Fantastic

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

ARABESQUE is Stanley Donen's follow-up to his own CHARADE, which was a breezy spy comedy featuring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. This one feels very much like CHARADE, and merely recasts the central roles in the form of Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. Peck pays a professor working at a British university who is tasked with deciphering some hieroglyphics only to be drawn into a plot involving a ruthless mastermind who commits murder to further his aims.Peck has always been one of my very favourite stars and he's a delight here as a slightly buffoonish character. He's very much in the Grant mould, but without the slight air of smugness that Grant sometimes has. And Sophia Loren, as his rival/love interest, is simply stunning and outdoes Hepburn with ease. The plot is fast-paced and consistently funny, mixing up the tropes ably and delivering some great and unique set-pieces; the shower scene in particular manages to be racy, risqué, endearing, and very, very humorous. Only a few scenes, like the bit where Peck is drunk on truth serum, fall foul. Yes, ARABESQUE is dated, but endearingly so, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Of course it is silly and Gregory Peck is not the right man, it was written for Cary Grant after all, but it is also irresistible. The film begins with a standard enough thriller set-up and ends stunningly with a similarly effective Hitchcockian chase through the countryside and over a magnificent metal bridge chased by agricultural machinery and a helicopter. In between, however, director Stanley Donen lets it all hang loose and despite the often engaging, more often mundane dialogue, rumbling on takes to making a film with images. We see reflections in shop windows, reflections in car windscreens, coloured lights also adding to the reflections. Upside down images, sideways images, shots through lights, fish-tanks, people's legs. the screen shines with constant and curious op-art images, constantly surprising and complementing whatever action is being played out. Oh and among the wondrous sights is, of course, Sophia Loren, shot lovingly in a multitude of costumes and shoes and boots and reflected here there and everywhere. A joy to watch. An actress and a director having fun.

Definitely not Peck's best effort. A potentially interesting idea that is let down by some poor acting, inane dialogue and some ham-fisted editing, most noticeable in action sequences i.e. when someone is struck, etc. Loren is quite beautiful but appears to be running on autopilot. Compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, Peck's acting doesn't find its feet and he appears unsure of whether to be serious or play it for laughs; all in all an uncomfortable performance. Both principals have done better. Some minor characters are quite annoying though probably because of the inanities of the script. Easily eclipsed by some telemovies of the period. Camera work is typical of the era but nowhere near as arty as The Thomas Crown Affair. Forget it. It comes across like one of those eastern European flicks where they blew the budget (such as it was) on the principal actors and had nothing left over to refine the script or hire better supporters. Watch Charade instead.

"Professor David Pollock" (Gregory Peck) is an expert on ancient hieroglyphics and while teaching in London is approached by a man named "Maj. Sylvester Pennington Sloane" (John Merivale) to meet with his boss who is a Middle Eastern shipping magnate by the name of "Nejim Beshraavi" (Alan Badel). Essentially, Beshraavi wants Professor Pollock to interpret some ancient Hittite hieroglyphics which were written on a small piece of paper. At first Professor Pollock refuses but when asked personally by Arab Prime Minister "Hassan Jena" (Carl Duering) reconsiders and then accepts Beshraavi invitation to meet him at his house. It's there that he also makes the acquaintance of Beshraavi's mistress, "Yasmin Azir" (Sophia Loren) who then proceeds to get him involved in one extremely dangerous scenario after another. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a fairly decent espionage thriller for the most part. I especially liked the performances of both Gregory Peck and the lovely Sophia Loren. Having said that, although I really liked some of the humorous quips tossed around by Gregory Peck, others seemed to really fall flat and weakened the overall effect. In any case, I liked this movie and rate it as slightly above average.