- Title: Arabesque
- IMDb: link
Hitchcock-lite, director Stanley Donen‘s 1966 spy thriller Arabesque stars Gregory Peck as a college professor in over his head after being pulled into a world of intrigue involving an Egyptian cypher which killers, the government, and foreign officials all want translated. For a film that doesn’t do anything great, other than properly framing Sophia Loren as the film’s femme fatale whose true loyalties are always in question, Arabesque is only mildly diverting.
The film’s plot is too convoluted while also being too goofy to take seriously and too quirky for the more tense moments of the film (hamfistedly pointed out by the film’s score) to have any impact. Arabesque has moments when you can feel it grasping at trying to capture the madcap sensibilities of North by Northwest (and coming up short). However, at other points is dreadful serious (and quite tedious).
Stepping in for Cary Grant (who had planned to reunite with Donen to cash-in on the success of Charade), Peck feels oddly out of place. Mostly a treasure hunt movie, the film lacks strong villains with Alan Badel as the evil millionaire industrialist being the best of a lukewarm bunch. It’s worth a look, mostly for Loren and some interesting visuals from cinematographer Christopher Challis, but not an extended one.
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