Arabesque Reviews

Colossal, stylish and unique

'Arabesque' surprised me in the way is filmed and edit.

Fantastic imposed scenes, mostly with glass reflection / mirroring and underwater images of fish tanks aquariums overlapping the actions scenes.

Sophia Lauren gives a great performance and you can see how a woman get engaged in the action of the plot in the movie but keeping her genuine feminine presence. (thinking this movie was released late 60's - women's liberation).

All the characters are well chosen in this movie with great performances, this include Gregory Peck - An Oxford professor of languages who is hired to decipher an Egyptian message.

The overall visual is stylish, sensual and definitely a movie to see again and again - Colossal.

Arabesque

I am a railfan and I wached it for the shots of the Crumlin viaduct! sorry!

[Highly rated reviewer]

It longs to be 'Charade' but isn't even close

The two leads try too hard for Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn charm, and though they are both very talented in their way, and photogenic to die for, they never manageany chemistry, and without that they cannot lift this convoluted 'thriller' off the ground. Plot is lame, their shower scene is silly compared to the one in Charade, and the dialogue just doesn't help.

The third star is really just because it has curiosity value, a time piece And for her clothes. A '60's date movie for married couples?

Customer Review

Stanley Donen had a varied career, directing a wide range of films. He made a number of very succcessful muscials in the early fifties, before switching to romantic comedies in the late fifties, and then comedy thrillers in the early 60's. The most enjoyable and successful of these was "Charade", released in 1963, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, with fine support from Walter Matthau, James Coburn and others.

However, after Charade Donen seemed to lose his touch for a while, making first "Arabesque" with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren, and then "Two for the Road" with Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn.

Neither film works for me, and the problems are pretty much the same in each case. In Arabesque, Gregory Peck is horribly miscast as an American Professor of ancient languages who is paid a large sum of money by Alan Badel, hamming it up as a wealthy and corrupt foreign businessman, to translate a mysterious document containing a cryptic message in what looks to be an ancient language. Peck has also been asked for help by an Arabian politician who is later to be the target of an assassination attempt. Held against his will until he completes his task, Peck escapes from Badel's London mansion with Sophia Loren and the document, and the chase is on to find out what the document really means and then to prevent the assassination.

So many things are wrong with the film that it is difficult to know where to begin. Gregory Peck is a very fine serious actor, but he does not do comedy well. The serious stoicism that works well in films like Moby Dick and The Big Country makes him seem wooden here. There is no sexual chemistry at all between him and Sophia Loren. Loren is nice to look at, as usual, but she cannot handle rapid-fire, witty dialogue in English. The tortured camera work is often distracting, and many of the stunts and special effects are just badly done.

You may want to watch this for completeness if you like Peck and Loren, and clearly one reviewer enjoyed it very much. Each to his or her own. My own advice though is to see Donen's earlier works "Charade" and "The Grass is Greener", then skip "Arabesque" and especially "Two for the Road", which is even worse. Fortunately Donen found his way again with the original version of "Beddazled", so go straight on to that.

Gregory Peck it out !! (Geddit!!)

I rember watching this film when it was premiered on television on Christmas Day evening in 1971 or possibly 1972; as an impressionable youngster this struck me as a glamourous thriller so I was intrigued to watch it again and was not disappointed. A film undoubtedly of it's time with some marvellous throwbacks to life of a bygone age.......was it really possible to drive up and meet someone in the middle of Trafalgar Square? A remarkable amount of phoneboxes here as well. The acting in this film is first class with it's tongue placed firmly in it's cheek; indeed you could not find more ham in a supermarket delicatessen. Mirrors................ much use of mirrors in this film..........is it worth reflecting on this ? It is a 60's film, it looks good, so probably not. Well worth watching.......treat yourself.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Loved Sophia's Wardrobe...

I like to view a film and report on its own merits.

I love both Gregory Peck and Sohia Loren and I exspected the film to be alot better having both those names in the film. The storyline was long and I lost what was going on after an hour.

Worth a watch though... if just to see the lovely clothes worn by Sophia Loren..by Christian Dior I believe.

Doesn't hold up

This film was probably good in its day, but it just doesn't hold up with time