Arabesque ***½ (1966, Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Alan Badel, Kieron Moore) – Classic Movie Review 2,912

Arabesque (1966)

Stanley Donen’s 1966 film Arabesque tries to repeat the success of his Charade (1963) with another romantic pair (Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren) thrown into another escapist Hitchcock-style thriller plot, with spies, intrigue, double cross and a MacGuffin. 

Producer-director Stanley Donen in 1966 tries to repeat the success of his Charade (1963) with another sleekly handsome romantic pair (Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren) thrown into another jokey, escapist Hitchcock-style thriller plot, complete with spies, international intrigue, double cross and a MacGuffin.

Peck plays Professor David Pollock, an American don at Oxford and an expert in ancient Arabic hieroglyphics, thrown into a maelstrom of murder when he’s hired by Arab oilmen to puzzle out a hieroglyphic message. The very Italian Loren stars as beautiful spy Yasmin Azir, Alan Badel plays ruthless businessman Beshraavi and Kieron Moore is Arab Prime Minister Yussef Kasim.

The Middle Eastern Premier convinces Pollock to infiltrate Beshraavi’s organisation that wants to kill him in a plot to be found in a hieroglyphic code. Pollock needs the help of Beshraavi’s mistress Yasmin but she seems repeatedly to double-cross him.

Once again, it is shot (by cinematographer Christopher Challis) with bags of Swinging Sixties style, relishing the Technicolor and Panavision images, and is filmed to move at an ultra-quick pace that prevents any need for thought or reflection, and is accompanied by a lively Henry Mancini score. However, the result, though entertaining, is at least one notch down from Charade because this time the yarn is so ridiculously inconsequential and the carefree mood sometimes forced.

And, OMG, the irritation arising from those bizarre flashy Sixties visuals that get in the way of the actors and the story! The camera gets everywhere, even shooting from under a glass coffee table! Alternatively, you could find the fascinatingly arty cinematography wildly inventive and entertaining.

However, the sparkling stars and oozingly villainous Alan Badel (as Loren’s sadistically evil rich tycoon lover) keep it lingering happily in the memory. Stylish and excellent though Peck, Loren and Badel are, they can’t quite repeat the trick that Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn and Walter Matthau performed in Charade.

It’s not their fault by any means, it is the script they are working on. More specifically, it is the truly preposterous plot, based on the 1961 novel The Cypher [The Cipher] by American writer Gordon Cotler under the pseudonym of Alex Gordon, with a screenplay by talented writers Julian Mitchell, Stanley Price and Peter Stone (credited as Pierre Marton).

Also in the cast are Kieron Moore, Carl Duering, George Coulouris, Gordon Griffin, Harold Kasket, Ernest Clark, Duncan Lamont and John Merivale.

Arabesque is directed by Stanley Donen, runs 105 minutes, is made by Stanley Donen Enterprises, is distributed by Universal Pictures, is written by Julian Mitchell, Stanley Price and Peter Stone (as Pierre Marton), based on The Cipher 1961 novel by Alex Gordon [Gordon Cotler], is produced by Stanley Donen, is shot in Technicolor and Panavision by Christopher Challis, is scored by Henry Mancini.

Release dates: May 5, 1966 (New York), May 24, 1966 (US) and July 28, 1966 (UK).

The cast are Gregory Peck as Professor David Pollock, Sophia Loren as Yasmin Azir, Alan Badel as Nejim Beshraavi, Kieron Moore as Yussef Kasim, Carl Duering as Prime Minister Hassan Jena, John Merivale as Major Sylvester Pennington Sloane, Duncan Lamont as Kyle Webster, George Coulouris as Ragheeb, Ernest Clark as Beauchamp, Harold Kasket as Mohammed Lufti, Gordon Griffin as Fanshaw, and John Merivale.

Sophia Loren

Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (Sophia Loren) was born on 20 September 1934.

She is the first performer to win an Oscar for a non-English-language performance. Her performance in Two Women (1960), directed by Vittorio De Sica, won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

She has a record of seven David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress: Two Women; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963); Marriage Italian Style (1964, also nominated for a second Oscar); Sunflower (1970); The Voyage (1974); A Special Day (1977) and The Life Ahead (2020).

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,912

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