After the colorful and swirling opening credits, Professor Ragheeb (George Colouris) visits Sloane (John Merivale), a substitute pharmacist. When Sloane places pupil-dilating eye-drops into Ragheeb's eyes, the latter screams in pain, collapses, and dies. Sloane takes Ragheeb's eyeglasses and extracts a tiny manuscript from the side-frame. The manuscript is encrypted in ancient hieroglyphics (apparently Hittite). The next scene shows the hieroglyphics class of Professor David Pollock (Gregory Peck) at Oxford University. At the end of class Sloane approaches Pollock and introduces himself as a retired military major. He tells Pollock about a lucrative offer that an Arab, Nejim Beshraavi (Adam Badel), has for him in London. "Not on Wednesday," retorts Pollock. Later, while jogging, Pollock is forcibly picked up and plopped into the Rolls Royce of Prime Minister Hassan Jena (Carl Duering), of an unspecified Arab nation. He tells Pollock two things (1) to take Beshraavi's offer to see what he is up to, and (2) not to disclose that the prime minister is in London. Enthralled with the man, Pollock is happy to agree. At his mansion, Beshraavi offers Pollock $30,000 to decipher the hieroglyphics. While the professor works on the document, Yasmin Azir (Sophia Loren) strolls into his room and introduces herself. She is obviously Beshraavi's mistress. She says the mansion is really her own. It is not, and why she said so is not clear. At dinner, another man named Beauchamp (Ernest Clark) tells Beshraavi that Prime Minister Jena plans to sign a particular treaty that will go against his interests. It will never happen, insists Beshraavi. Later, after Yasmin smuggles him a message and newspaper clipping (about Ragheeb's death) at the dinner table, Pollock finds himself with Yasmin in the famous shower scene that features great dialogue. Later Pollock wraps the cipher around a small candy in his pocket. Pollock takes Yasmin away from the mansion where the two traverse the Zoological Gardens (London Zoo). Inspector Webster (Duncan Lamont) saves Pollock from an assassin known as Mustapha; Webster works with Yussef Kasim (Kieron Moore). Then Yussef grabs Pollock (as he wants the manuscript deciphered) and whisks him away in a van, along with Yasmin, whose loyalty is dubious. Pollock refuses to cooperate, after which he is given truth serum in a hypodermic needle. He's soon thrown out of the vehicle into a busy highway (weird scene). Yasmin returns to Beshraavi with a covering story. Pollock grabs a bicycle and manages to find his way to his apartment; he speaks briefly with Jena on the telephone. Then Yasmin returns to Pollock with another story. She claims that her mother and sisters are being held captive in the old country (unspecified) by a General Ali, so Yasmin must co-operate with their wishes and decode the cipher. Teaming up with Yasmin, and after several adventures, the two protagonists retrieve the manuscript, which had been in Webster's possession, at the Ascot Racecourse. Webster, who had in the meantime broken from Yussef Kasim and sold out to Beshraavi, is inadvertently killed by Sloane as he was struggling with Pollock. As the newspapers blame Pollock for the "murder" he is on the run. Pollock visits Ragheeb's widow who tells him that Yasmin has been telling lies.At Beshraavi's place there is the famous mirror scene with Yasmin, who tries on shoes. Beshraavi wants her to team up with Pollock for his benefit. Pollock, though, has become wary of her. When they venture onto the construction site of Yussef Kasim, he tries to kill them both with a wrecking ball and crane, but is outsmarted by Pollock and dies by electrocution. When Yasmin explains to Pollock that she is a spy, all is forgiven. Then, in a car during a rainstorm, Pollock realizes that the hieroglyphics are just a decoy for a microdot in the message. He soon reads the microdot: BESHRAAVI PLANS ASSASSINATE JENA TWELVE THIRTY JUNE 18. That is twenty minutes away at the airport.Rushing to the airport, the duo tries to stop the assassination. They appear to succeed, but fail when Jena is assassinated by Mohammed Lufti (Harold Kasket). Wait a moment! Yasmin says that Jena had a double (Yes, this is convoluted!). The real prime minister has been kidnapped by Beshraavi, and is being whisked away in a box truck. Now there is a dramatic denouement with several chases, including one in the wheat field, with the baddies using farming equipment as weapons to crush our heroes. In the end a helicopter crashes dramatically. Although Arabesque is overloaded with plot holes, it is exciting and beautifully photographed. Filmed in England, it has several classic sets and charm. The score is by the always reliable Henry Mancini. Sophia Loren never looked as incredibly gorgeous as she did. And she makes a fashion statement with her clothing. Around 1966, a famous magazine proclaimed the 32 year-old Italian actress as the most beautiful in the world. But it may be difficult for some to look at the classic Italian as an Arab.PLOT HOLES: Blame the screenwriters Julian Mitchell, Stanley Price, and Pierre Marton for the plot holes. Here they are: 1. In the beginning of the movie, how would Jena grasp – assuming he was the real prime minister – that Beshraavi was up to something? Pollock should have said something like, "How did you know?" 2. How did Sloane / Beshraavi even know that Ragheeb had a concealed manuscript inside his eyeglass frame?3. Why did Ragheeb even go through the trouble of creating the hieroglyphics in the first place? Was the reason just to inform Yussef Kasim that Beshraavi planned to murder Jena? Ragheeb simply could have called Kasim or sent him a note. Whose side was Kasim on anyway? 4. Why would Beshraavi have Mustapha attempt to kill David at the zoo before he had deciphered the hieroglyphics? He could have done that any time AFTER David's job was completed!

In the mid-1960s, director Stanley Donen made 2 films that remind me so much of each other -- this film and "Charade". Although "Charade" was more successful financially, I always felt there was something not quite right with the film (although I never figured out what), while this film seems pretty much perfect. Both films have actors I very much admire -- Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn - versus - Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren, but this match-up of Peck and Hepburn seems to have just a bit more chemistry working.The story line works pretty well (there are a few minor spots where connections just seem to happen out of pure lock, but that's okay). Mostly, things develop at a pace that is logical for the story, and tells you just enough at each point to make you want to get to the next point. And the climax of this film -- the demise of helicopter -- is one of my all-time favorite film scenarios. And, unlike today's films that would be bursting with CGI effects that you know are damn-well impossible, here, everything seems like something that could happen. The tension in parts of the script is perfect. And, like with Hitchcock, the story works because it's the story of a common man caught up in an uncommon situation. Oh, and there are some rather nice and sophisticated camera angles throughout the film...not enough to distract, but enough to make you think several times, "Hey, that's cool".Gregory Peck is perfect. Just perfect. Professorish without being a prude, brave enough to do what has to be done. And adequately tongue-in-check. The same can be said for Sophia Loren, although she's not the common woman here. But she plays it too a tee with just enough mystery to make you wonder.Alan Badel is delicious as the villain! This is a film where you should just sit back and revel in sly comments, a great script, and the chemistry between Peck and Loren.Highly recommended.

This isn't a great movie, but it's pretty fun to watch. It's basically a crazed version of "North by Northwest", down to the crop-duster sequence. The plot quit making sense to me halfway through (if not sooner), but I didn't care much by that point, as it was obviously not a movie that required a delicate understanding of the storyline in order to extract pleasure from what's good about it, which is 1) Sophia Loren is various tight and/or ripped dresses 2) Wile E. Coyote set-piece action sequences and 3) the fantastic opening title sequence. Everything else you can live with our without. Charade (which I saw on a double bill with this) is a much better movie, in part because of better writing, but also because by '66, Arabesque is starting to show some of the cheesier artifacts of late 60's style (forced psychedelia, etc.). But Arabesque is fun for what it is: a campy, pulpy, slightly over-the-top spy action jamboree.

i saw this movie in a public a channel in new york city sometime ago i am not a fan of Sophia Loren and in this movie she was not good she look fat and weird, the movie is a copy of charade the one with the sublime Audrey Hepburn , in this one Loren and her costar play some type of spy she look very bad and her acting is horrible i never understand why this woman became an actress in the first place she should be in a circus and horror of horror she became a major star thank to her husband Carlo Ponti, one thing i learn in watching this bad movie its never again watch a movie with Loren after all we have Brigitte Bardot and Silvana Mangano