Pssst, want to check out Arabesque in our new look?
Information
- Year
- 1966
- Runtime
- 105 min.
- Director
- Stanley Donen
- Genres
- Action, Crime, Drama, Romance, Adventure, Thriller, Mystery
- Rating *
- 6.5
- Votes *
- 5,420
- Checks
- 424
- Favs
- 18
- Dislikes
- 7
- Favs/checks
- 4.2% (1:24)
- Favs/dislikes
- 3:1
Top comments
-
Siskoid
Evidently trying to recapture the charm of Charade, Stanley Donen's Arabesque isn't quite as successful. Obviously there's the annoying use of white actors as Middle Eastern characters, but the stakes are something musty, Gregory Peck's character's motivations from moment to moment mustier, and the more overt attempts at comedy (plonky music, slaptstick) rather tedious. That said, it progressively won me over on other elements. The dialog is very clever, and even when the plot fails them, the leads are good (even if I find this rather slight for actors of Peck's and Loren's caliber). There are plenty of interesting characters supporting them too. Donen has some great directorial ideas for and I like the way he uses mirrors, gets us into scenes, and oh, that hallucinatory sequence. What took it over the top for me were the exciting and novel action set pieces set in and around London. Fun stuff and it convinced me to ignore the lackluster MacGuffin chase and stop worrying about who's doing what for what reason. 1 year 6 months ago