Arabesque

Arabesque is a very '60s movie that tries to be both a suspense film and a spy spoof, but doesn't entirely succeed at either.

Director Stanley Donen knew Arabesque's story didn't make a lick of sense (seriously, this is not so much a story full of holes as it is a hole with some story sprinkled in it), so he went for razzle dazzle. The memorable opening scene is heavily influenced by German Expressionism, the scene in the zoo has a Wellesian quality, and the influence of Hitchcock pops up periodically.

In the beginning this works pretty well. But all the most notable scenes, like zoo chase or the silly shower sequence, happen in the first half. After that, the movie is a series of unlikely plot twists, general confusion, and Sophia Loren wardrobe changes. And at the end, any attempt to make sense of the story will only cause you to realize it makes even less sense than you thought.

Even at it's best, this is a pretty cheesy movie. But if it had managed to stay at that cheesy best all the way through, it would have been a far more enjoyable one.

Gregory Peck, (Professor David Pollack), "Old Gringo", plays a professor who is kidnapped for a brief period and is told to reveal the secrets of an Arabic writing which is his specialty. He is shot at, hit on the head and thrown out of a truck and meets up with Sophia Loren, (Yasmin Azir), "The Black Orchid", who runs into him all the time and decides to help him escape from his captives. However, Yasmin tells so many lies that David does not believe her and begins to think she is working against him. There is plenty of comedy, drama, romance and action. This is not exactly an easy film to just sit back and relax, it keeps you wondering just what is really Going ON

In a few more years when movies from the 1960's are studied clinically with an eye to their historical development, this one will be a technical standout. For sheer visual beauty, cinematic virtuosity, and musical score, it ought to have been a big winner in its own time. That it was not can be deduced from the few comments recorded here with respect to its failures in text and casting, all of which are obvious and quite fatal.

Not to be repetitious, I nevertheless agree that Peck was miscast. Moreover, his character as conceived was a ludicrous echo of the typical 1960's hero, and I doubt that any actor could have carried it off -- even Sean Connery and certainly not Cary Grant. Add to that several other cartoonish elements in the plot and you have the sad spectre of beauty defiled.

Watch it for Sophia Loren and the Mancini score alone and you will be delighted.

A man kills Professor Ragheeb (George Coulouris) and takes a hieroglyphic from his glasses. Then he seeks out the American Professor David Pollock (Gregory Peck), who is an expert in hieroglyphics at the Oxford University, and tells that his name is Major Sylvester Pennington Sloane (John Merivale). He invites Pollock to travel to London to meet the wealthy Nejim Beshraavi (Alan Badel) to translate a cipher in a hieroglyphic, but Pollock refuses the work.

Soon Pollock is summoned by the Arabian Prime Minister Hassan Jena (Carl Duering), who is unofficially in England and asks him to accept the assignment and spy the activities of Beshraavi that might be plotting something evil.

Beshraavi offers 30,000 dollars to Pollock to work in his mansion deciphering the hieroglyphic. Pollock meets Beshraavi's mistress Yasmin Azir (Sophia Loren), who tells him that he is in danger and Beshraavi will kill him in the end of his work the same way he did with Professor Ragheeb. Pollock and Yasmin flee from the mansion with the hieroglyphic, but he is double-crossed by Yasmin and captured by Yussef Kasim (Kieron Moore). Soon the professor is deeply involved in an international conspiracy where everybody wants the cipher and he does not know who is trustworthy.

"Arabesque" is a funny rip-off of "007" movies combined with "North by Northwest". The story of a clumsy professor from Oxford that is involved in an international conspiracy in London has hilarious moments, like for example the shower scene with Sophia Loren that makes this movie worthwhile. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Arabesque"

This movie is reminiscent of Charade in that it is a thriller that is lighthearted in places. Highlights of Arabesque are Gregory Peck playing the somewhat bumbling type, Sophia Loren's exotic beauty, and some memorable humorous situations like Pollack hiding in the shower with Jasmin while being questioned and later the two of them trailing the guy who drops the candy wrappers. The ending action sequence with the press conference, the horse chase, and the helicopter were also well done. All in all, very good entertainment, 7/10.