Arabesque (1966)

Wonderful character development!

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Modern espionage escapism story of international intrigue involving a college professor , an Arab prime minister , a ruthless businessman , an ambiguous spy and hieroglyphics . Ingenuous Gregory Peck and enigmatic Sophia Loren involved in sinister goings-on around . Both of them adrift in a tourist-eye as well as beautifully photographed London and on the run from sinister crooks and death-dealing , double secret agents who want to take a hieroglyph .This is a sparklingly sophisticated comedy/thriller/romance with Donen's stylish direction and full of plot twists , suspense , fast moving , red herrings and adding enough effects gimmicks . Exciting and clever ¨pursuit film¨ about a naive professor and his unsettling involvement with all kind of baddies along with a beautiful as well a suspicious woman . From the opening credits by Maurice Binder to the ending entertainment and amusement are well provided . It is thrilling and intelligent at times , but results to be pretty amusing , being very sub-Hitchcock and in James Bond style . Interesting screenplay by Peter Stone , alias Pierre Marton , being much flashier than Donen's earlier ¨Charade¨ also written by Stone . Although the part of David Pollock was originally scripted for Cary Grant . Stanley Donen is prepared to resort to all the tricks in the cinematic trade to make this a fascinating thriller and he carries out a conscious effort to capture the peculiar look of the sixties . It packs fun scenes with Gregory Peck in the shower , along with moving action sequences . Peck is perfect as a botcher professor who is drawn into espionage . However , Gregory found the stunts particularly difficult because of an old leg injury due to horseback riding . This was last picture Peck made for three years while he concentrated on his humanitarian efforts that included the American Cancer Society . Gorgeous Sophia Loren is amusingly enigmatic and provides the glamorous mystery element in the plot , she manages to change her Christian Dor's dresses at various scenes . Support cast is frankly good , such as Alan Badel , George Coulouris , Carl Duering , Duncan Lamont and last feature of John Merivale . Colorful and glimmering cinematography in Panavision by Christopher Challis . Enjoyable score by Henry Mancini , including catching musical leitmotif .This espionage adventure picture was stunningly directed by Stanley Donen who made in similar style ¨Charade¨ with Gary Grant and Audrey Hepburn who was never more beautiful . Donen directed some of the best musicals of history such as ¨On the town¨, ¨Singing in the rain¨, ¨Royal Wedding¨ , ¨It's always fair weather¨, ¨Seven brides for seven brothers ¨, ¨Funny face¨ , among others . The posterior Donen films were heavy-handed , exception of ¨Two for the road¨ again with Hepburn , and too few to show if the magic had really gone . ¨Arabesque¨ rating : 6,5/10 . Agreeable film , enough to entertain young and eldest people . It is essentially a hollow and calculated attempt to cash on the Continental spy trend -the Eurospy Subgenre- of the time .

After the success of CHARADE in 1963 Stanley Donen followed it up with another romantic comedy/spy caper called ARABESQUE. And I really enjoyed it. OK, so it's not quite as good or as witty as CHARADE (which I gave a 9/10) but it's a very solid follow-up. Some of the camera angles/tricks in this one (courtesy of cinematographer Christopher Challis - who also shot A SHOT IN THE DARK) are simply amazing!!! They give the film a certain psychedelic feel/quality to it which is very reflective of the times - mid-to-late 60s. Plus the score is by the great Henry Mancini. And Maurice Binder (who did the titles for the Bond films) does the title sequence here. Both Mancini and Binder also worked on CHARADE. And I gotta say that you'll never see a hotter Sophia Loren than in this flick. It's impossible for a woman to look any hotter than Sophia in this one!! That alone is reason enough for checking this movie out! It was also fairly interesting to see the typically no-nonsense Gregory Peck in a comedy role but I thought he handled himself quite well here. He obviously wasn't as good as Cary Grant was in CHARADE (Grant is a natural with this material) but he was better than I would have imagined him to be. Plus I really enjoyed Alan Badel as the villain - he has a falcon for a pet/weapon. He really looked like Peter Sellers for some reason. Oh and it has a creepy opening at the eye doctor's office. I won't spoil it for anyone. Let's just say that I will definitely think of this film the next time I go to see the eye doctor. It's as unsettling as the dentist scene in MARATHON MAN.

This isn't a great movie, but it's pretty fun to watch. It's basically a crazed version of "North by Northwest", down to the crop-duster sequence. The plot quit making sense to me halfway through (if not sooner), but I didn't care much by that point, as it was obviously not a movie that required a delicate understanding of the storyline in order to extract pleasure from what's good about it, which is 1) Sophia Loren is various tight and/or ripped dresses 2) Wile E. Coyote set-piece action sequences and 3) the fantastic opening title sequence. Everything else you can live with our without. Charade (which I saw on a double bill with this) is a much better movie, in part because of better writing, but also because by '66, Arabesque is starting to show some of the cheesier artifacts of late 60's style (forced psychedelia, etc.). But Arabesque is fun for what it is: a campy, pulpy, slightly over-the-top spy action jamboree.

i saw this movie in a public a channel in new york city sometime ago i am not a fan of Sophia Loren and in this movie she was not good she look fat and weird, the movie is a copy of charade the one with the sublime Audrey Hepburn , in this one Loren and her costar play some type of spy she look very bad and her acting is horrible i never understand why this woman became an actress in the first place she should be in a circus and horror of horror she became a major star thank to her husband Carlo Ponti, one thing i learn in watching this bad movie its never again watch a movie with Loren after all we have Brigitte Bardot and Silvana Mangano