During the 60's every actor had to make a spy flick, this is Gregory Peck's attempt. Greg's a college professor hired by a shifty Arab type played by an English actor of course, to decode a cipher of some kind. The Arab is evil because he has a hawk for a pet that flies around the house attacking servants he is upset with. Sophia Loren an Italian who of course plays a hot Arab beauty who may or may not be helping Peck solve the mystery of the cipher. No one was going to cast an actual middle eastern actor to play opposite Caucasian Peck.
The director is the highly stylish and talented Stanley Donen who moved from 50's musicals to sophisticated love stories and thrillers in the 60's after the musical form had played itself out. Donen had made Charade with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn a few years earlier, and had done a pretty good job at making a Hitchock type of light thriller with two big stars. Probably hoping to hit pay dirt again, Donen reworked Charade as Arabesque, keeping the same basic "who can I trust" situation as he used in the first film. The problem for Donen was the realization that the script was pretty bad.
Gregory Peck was a professional, but he really wasn't known for his light comedy touch. Sophia Loren is a great beauty but she wears some of the strangest outfits ever inflicted on an actress.
To compensate for these problems, Donen and his cinematographer photographed the film with as many nutty camera angles as they could think of. There are shots underneath tables, through glass, under the water, fuzzy, distorted, you name it. It's fun for a while but soon the realization sets in that there is nothing going on in the movie.
The movie is a harmless time killer assembled by professionals who tried to spin straw into gold and got pyrite instead.
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