Arabesque (film)

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Movie
German title arabesque
Original title Arabesque
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1966
length 101 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Stanley Donen
script Julian Mitchell ,
Stanley Price ,
Peter Stone
production Stanley Donen,
Denis Holt / Universal Pictures
music Henry Mancini
camera Christopher Challis
cut Frederick Wilson
occupation
synchronization

Arabesque (Original title: Arabesque ) is an American feature film directed by Stanley Donen from 1966 with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren in the lead roles. The novel The Cipher by Gordon Cotler served as a template .

action

The American professor David Pollock is an expert on ancient languages ​​and teaches at Oxford University in the UK . One day the seedy Major Sloane asks him to decipher a Hittite inscription (cf. Hieroglyphic Luwish ). Unimpressed by the financial offer, Pollock turned it down. Shortly thereafter, Hassan Jena, the prime minister of an Arab state who is incognito in England, asks him for a favor. He is said to be spying on the shipowner Nejim Beshraavi, who is allegedly planning a coup and is working on behalf of Sloane. Pollock agrees and begins deciphering the characters in Beshraavi 's city ​​villa in London for a payment of 30,000 dollars. His already uncomfortable stay takes on additional drama when he is warned by Yasmin Azir, Beshraavi's lover, that Beshraavi intends to kill him after work is done. In desperation, Pollock takes the slip of paper with the logograms and flees the villa with Yasmin as a hostage.

After a chase through the London Zoo , Pollock and Yasmin meet the CID agent Webster, who brings them to safety from Beshraavi's crude servant. The supposed savior turns out to be Yussef Kasim's helper, resistance fighter and arch-rival Beshraavis, who is playing an equally opaque game. Pollock is drugged by Kasim in a van to reveal where the inscription is hidden and, after unsuccessful efforts, abandoned on a busy road outside London. He remains unharmed and is visited the next day by Yasmin in his apartment, who manages to win back his trust with questionable explanations about her family fate back home.

Webster, apparently suffering from a loyalty conflict, finds the characters in Kasim's van and arranges a meeting with Beshraavi in Ascot for delivery. With a breakneck action on the local racecourse, Pollock brings the note back into his possession. His own research again raises doubts about Yasmin's true identity. Back in London, both of them are lured to an abandoned construction site by Kasim, who feels he has been betrayed. After several attacks with a wrecking ball , Pollock and Yasmin barely get away with their lives, and Kasim himself is electrocuted.

The next day it turns out that the alleged characters only symbolize a simple nursery rhyme, but the original note reveals a hidden message in micro-writing: According to this, Beshraavi is planning an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Jena on the same day. Pollock and Yasmin go to London Airport, where Jena is holding a press conference on the occasion of his official state visit. After arrival, shots are actually fired, which initially miss their target due to a rescue act by Pollock. A little later, however, Jena is murdered by one of his companions.

Yasmin reveals himself to be a spy and finds out from the TV recording that the real prime minister was exchanged for a doppelganger immediately after his landing. He was hired to make a false political statement not to sign a treaty that would have ruined Beshraavi financially. The real Prime Minister was kidnapped by Beshraavi's followers and hidden in a box. Pollock and Yasmin climb into the back of the delivery truck and free Jena during the journey. When they arrived at the Beshraavis country estate, the three of them, besieged by harvesting machines , flee through a wheat field and then on horseback. With a helicopter Beshraavi and Sloane give chase. Jena is hit in the arm by a shot, but is able to save herself with his companions on a disused bridge. There Pollock crashes the helicopter with a discarded ladder and ensures a happy ending.

Remarks

  • The exterior shots were taken in Ascot (England) and on the former Crumlin Viaduct in Caerphilly (Wales) , among others .
  • Originally, Cary Grant was intended as the male lead. Whenever Gregory Peck failed to get to the point of the comedic scenes, he jokingly said to director Stanley Donen: “ Remember, I'm no Cary Grant ” (German: “As a reminder: I'm not a Cary Grant”).
  • Gregory Peck struggled with the stunts due to an old leg injury . In the cornfield scene, he had to ask his film partner Sophia Loren to ride slower, otherwise it would look like she was saving him and not the other way around.

Reviews

"Imaginative agent comedy, imaginatively staged in a lavish decor."

- Lexicon of international film

"The idea and implementation are only moderately entertaining, but the packaging is dignified and in some points (color technology) first-class."

- Protestant film observer , review No. 337/1966

Awards

synchronization

The German synchronization of arabesque.

role actor Dubbing voice
Prof. David Pollock Gregory Peck Martin Hirthe
Yasmin Azir Sophia Loren Marion Degler
Nejim Beshraavi Alan Badel Friedrich W. Building School
Yussef Kasim Kieron Moore Jan Hendriks
Prime Minister Hassan Jena Carl Duering Hans Hessling
Maj. Sylvester Pennington Sloane John Merivale Jürgen Thormann
Webster Duncan Lamont Hans Wiegner
Prof. Ragheeb George Coulouris Konrad Wagner
Beauchamp Ernest Clark Dietrich Frauboes

DVD release

  • Arabesque , Universal / DVD 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Approval certificate for arabesque . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2006 (PDF; re-examination with changed youth approval).
  2. ↑ arabesque. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 23, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Arabesque in German synchronous card index