Product Details

• Actors: Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Alan Badel, Kieron Moore, Carl Duering
• Directors: Stanley Donen
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: March 1, 1992
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300185168
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,821 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #24 in	Video > Art House & International > United Kingdom > Action & Adventure
  #48 in	Video > Action & Adventure > Romantic Adventure

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Part Hitchcock, Part James Bond, All Escapist Fun!, January 6, 2004

By	Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci (Whitehall, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Another fab Universal romantic thriller in the grand CHARADE tradition, including some of the same personnel! If director Stanley Donen's classic 1963 comedy-thriller CHARADE is Hitchcock Lite, then ARABESQUE is Hitchcock Lite after taking a few classes in James Bond 101 (including an opening title sequence by Maurice Binder, who also did the honors for CHARADE as well as for most of the Bond movies). As the hieroglyphics expert embroiled in Middle Eastern intrigue while decoding the cipher everyone's after, Gregory Peck's usual woodenness is oddly effective as he tries to deliver Cary Grant-like witticisms (from co-scripter `Pierre Marton,' a.k.a. the late, great CHARADE alumnus Peter Stone). Peck may not be Mr. Glib, but he seems so delighted to get an opportunity to deliver bon mots after all his serious roles that he's downright endearing, like a child trying out new words for the first time. Co-star Sophia Loren, at her most alluring as an Arab femme fatale, can make any guy look suave and sexy! Christopher Challis's dazzling, inventive cinematography won the BAFTA (the British equivalent of the Oscars), and Christian Dior got a BAFTA nomination for Loren's elegant costumes. Suspenseful and sparkling as this twist-filled adventure is, ARABESQUE's biggest mystery is why it's still only available in VHS format. If this gem ever gets deluxe treatment as a DVD (including letterboxing, please!), I sure hope they get Donen to do the kind of entertaining, informative commentary he did with Stone for Criterion's CHARADE DVD -- perhaps they could even get Loren to put in her two cents!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully shot, suspenseful, Peck and Sophia work so well, August 5, 1999

By A Customer

It is a long time since I have seen this movie but I remember much of it from over 20 years ago. That in itself says a lot about how good some things are. Arabesque is wonderful. Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren work wonderfully well together - their chemistry of a couple caught up in intrigue beyond their initial imaginings is fascinating.

It is beautifully shot in rainy London streets, and out in the glorious summer countrywide. The vividness of the colours remains memorable - her red Mercedes, some of her clothes, the rich colours of the countryside.

I am reminded of the tension and anxiety of the driving scenes in Taxi Driver. Scorsese's photographer did an excellent job of creating a sense of madness and isolation for Robert de Niro.

In Arabesque, Sophia Loren is neither mad nor isolated, but she searches anxiously in her car through busy London streets in the rain trying to catch up with Gregory Peck.

The danger of the scenes in the fields with his pursuers in the air gives Peck and the photographers the chance to film some wonderfully suspenseful footage not dissimilar to chase scenes in North By Northwest.

The title itself is intrigueing and so is the movie. I long to see it again and others like it made in the 50's and 60's.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stylish and Entertaining, Even with Flaws, January 8, 2005

By	Stephen Kaczmarek "Educator, Writer, Consultant" (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Though not as strong as Stanley Donen's earlier Hitchcockian pastiche, "Charade," "Arabesque" has enough going for it to merit repeat viewings--and release some day on DVD! Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren prove that true movie stars can overcome sometimes plodding pacing and creaky scripts to make two imperfect cinematic hours enjoyable. Here, Peck endures threats, chases, doublecrosses, and blows to the head with Cary Grant-ish aplomb (no surprise, as the script was originally written with him in mind). He's matched ably by Sophia Loren, who in addition to looking absolutely gorgeous, seems genuinely to be having fun. The plot involves Peck, an Oxford professor and cipher expert, being pulled into spy goings-on between Middle Eastern factions in England. Like "Charade," it's unclear until the end who is really working for whom, but that really isn't important anyway, as the script is often needlessly murky and sometimes too dry for what is essentially a light comedy-thriller. Alan Badel, though, is terrific as the Cobra-like villain, and the production is sumptuous, from Maurice Binder's stunning opening and closing sequences to Henry Mancini's suitably menacing but energentic score. Special recognition is deserved for the cinematography and Donen's direction, which in addition to being sparklingly beautiful, often reflect inventive photographic choices. Though "Arabesque" generally flies under the radar of today's moviegoers, fans of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" might want to watch this film's assassination sequence, which to me bears remarkable, um, similarity to the one in the sci-fi flick.