Rent Arabesque (1966)

Ersatz Hitchcock. - Arabesque review by Steve

Chic Euro-caper of the sort that became popular after Topkapi (1964). Everything has been done before, but better. There’s a disappointing loungecore score from Henry Mancini. Stanley Donen directs with a little style but covered similar territory with the superior Charade in ’63.

Except that was in Paris and this is London. Now Gregory Peck is in the Cary Grant role. He is an expert in ancient hieroglyphs chased around Trafalgar Square and Regent’s Park by factions in a middle eastern coup who are anxious for him to break a fiendish code…

But that’s all MacGuffin. This is really about Peck swapping cute innuendo with Sophia Loren while he works out which side she’s on and they get into a few scrapes before bedtime. Her fashionable Dior costumes are a letdown, but she looks incredible anyway.

And the stars do generate a little romantic heat, which carries the whole film. They are fine at the screwball dialogue, and make this a fun, if unexceptional comedy-thriller.