I can't figure out which depresses me more: 1) How gut-wrenchingly awful this movie is, or 2) That so many IMDb commenters LOVE it! What is wrong with the world when this movie has become people's "favorite" film??!! This movie is EXCRUCIATINGLY bad. I had my finger hovering over the "Stop" button on the remote at 20 minutes into this fiasco, but due to the praise on this site, figured I would give it a bit more time because I assumed ALL of these people couldn't be delusional. Well, I came to discover that they are.
At first I thought the problem was that the script was idiotic, but I paused long enough to try and imagine different actors interpreting the same lines and I realized that it was strictly the fact that Mr. Peck is a one-note actor who should NEVER have been allowed anywhere near a comedy. Now, "one-note actor" is not necessarily a bad thing, as he was brilliant in "To Kill A Mockingbird", "Guns of Navarone", "The Gunfighter", "The Omen", etc., but was the absolute WORST possible element of this film. It was like watching your own father try and use the lingo of the day and sound like a fool attempting to be "hip & mod". Dreadful. I literally cringed watching him be lecherous toward Sophia Loren...cringed again at his fumbling of some very basic comedy...and cringed again at his psychedelic bullfight with cars on a busy street. That's when I turned this movie off. If it got great after the drug scene, then I will never know.
Sophia Loren: there is no question she was drop-dead gorgeous, and even the site of her naked back in the shower is enough to steam up any room, but she is wasted in this stupid movie and all I could do was feel bad for her predicament. The supporting cast was okay, but was anyone fooled, then or now, by the blatantly Caucasian/British character actors with heavy makeup and dyed hair forced to pretend they were Middle Eastern/Bedouin? Give me a break.
Do you want to see this kind of film done right? Do you want to see actors adept at this kind of dialogue? Please, please, please avoid "Arabesque" and rent/buy "Charade" with two of the greatest stars in the history of film: Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Is "Charade" a perfect film? No. But the two stars make it a magically enjoyable experience.
Now I must run to my DVD collection and watch "Moby Dick", or "Spellbound", or any of the previous Peck films listed to get the foul flavor of "Arabesque" out of my mouth.
At first I thought the problem was that the script was idiotic, but I paused long enough to try and imagine different actors interpreting the same lines and I realized that it was strictly the fact that Mr. Peck is a one-note actor who should NEVER have been allowed anywhere near a comedy. Now, "one-note actor" is not necessarily a bad thing, as he was brilliant in "To Kill A Mockingbird", "Guns of Navarone", "The Gunfighter", "The Omen", etc., but was the absolute WORST possible element of this film. It was like watching your own father try and use the lingo of the day and sound like a fool attempting to be "hip & mod". Dreadful. I literally cringed watching him be lecherous toward Sophia Loren...cringed again at his fumbling of some very basic comedy...and cringed again at his psychedelic bullfight with cars on a busy street. That's when I turned this movie off. If it got great after the drug scene, then I will never know.
Sophia Loren: there is no question she was drop-dead gorgeous, and even the site of her naked back in the shower is enough to steam up any room, but she is wasted in this stupid movie and all I could do was feel bad for her predicament. The supporting cast was okay, but was anyone fooled, then or now, by the blatantly Caucasian/British character actors with heavy makeup and dyed hair forced to pretend they were Middle Eastern/Bedouin? Give me a break.
Do you want to see this kind of film done right? Do you want to see actors adept at this kind of dialogue? Please, please, please avoid "Arabesque" and rent/buy "Charade" with two of the greatest stars in the history of film: Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Is "Charade" a perfect film? No. But the two stars make it a magically enjoyable experience.
Now I must run to my DVD collection and watch "Moby Dick", or "Spellbound", or any of the previous Peck films listed to get the foul flavor of "Arabesque" out of my mouth.