Why so much hype?

Pretty Good

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

ARABESQUE is Stanley Donen's follow-up to his own CHARADE, which was a breezy spy comedy featuring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. This one feels very much like CHARADE, and merely recasts the central roles in the form of Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. Peck pays a professor working at a British university who is tasked with deciphering some hieroglyphics only to be drawn into a plot involving a ruthless mastermind who commits murder to further his aims.Peck has always been one of my very favourite stars and he's a delight here as a slightly buffoonish character. He's very much in the Grant mould, but without the slight air of smugness that Grant sometimes has. And Sophia Loren, as his rival/love interest, is simply stunning and outdoes Hepburn with ease. The plot is fast-paced and consistently funny, mixing up the tropes ably and delivering some great and unique set-pieces; the shower scene in particular manages to be racy, risqué, endearing, and very, very humorous. Only a few scenes, like the bit where Peck is drunk on truth serum, fall foul. Yes, ARABESQUE is dated, but endearingly so, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Definitely not Peck's best effort. A potentially interesting idea that is let down by some poor acting, inane dialogue and some ham-fisted editing, most noticeable in action sequences i.e. when someone is struck, etc. Loren is quite beautiful but appears to be running on autopilot. Compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, Peck's acting doesn't find its feet and he appears unsure of whether to be serious or play it for laughs; all in all an uncomfortable performance. Both principals have done better. Some minor characters are quite annoying though probably because of the inanities of the script. Easily eclipsed by some telemovies of the period. Camera work is typical of the era but nowhere near as arty as The Thomas Crown Affair. Forget it. It comes across like one of those eastern European flicks where they blew the budget (such as it was) on the principal actors and had nothing left over to refine the script or hire better supporters. Watch Charade instead.

When James Bond was so successful, a lot of folks went to the London studios are tried to make their own film. This one enlisted a top director, Stanley Roper (kidding), Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Christian Dior, and the MGM British Unit of the 1960's.The best features of this film - the cast, the opening and closing credits and the scenery. The worst part is the script. I mean if your going to try and clone James Bond, at least find someone who can write a good script to do so. If your going to fake Hitchcock, well even Hitch knew the writing was super important in his work. Most clever touch in the film - Peck using a wooden ladder to take down the bad guys helicopter. Worst touch, the total insane crazy plot and the way the sequencing was done. It was kind of cool seeing a bad guy blast open a fish tank in an aquarium but that touch could have been done more effectively.Sometimes, imitation of success does not really come off. The cast looks like they have fun, and I envy Peck being able to look at Loren nude and taking a shower in front of him. Could this have been better, yes and 007 did so. Legend has it Peck was supposed to be Cary Grant. I think in 1966 that Peck was the better option. He can even make bad lines sound like they have real authority.

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"