A 1966 American comedy thriller directed by Stanley Donen that has a story of international intrigue that involves a professor (Gregory Peck), an Arab prime minister (Carl Duering), a businessman (Alan Badel) and a beautiful spy (Sophia Loren) and hieroglyphics.
The movie also stars Kieron Moore, John Merivale, Duncan Lamont, George Coulouris, Ernest Clark, and Harold Kasket.
It was released on May 5, 1966 in New York, May 24, 1966 in the rest of the US, and July 28, 1966 in the UK.
Tropes for the film:
- Action Dress Rip: Prof. David Pollock (Peck) tears open the side seam of Yasmin Azir's (Loren) light skirt so she can ride a horse.
- Don't Ask/You Do Not Want To Know: When Yasmin and Pollock find themselves in a sticky situation:Yasmin: This is like a recurring dream I used to have.
Pollock: How did it end?
Yasmin: Don't ask! - Double Take: Pollock has one when he first meets Yasmin.
- Eye Scream: In the opening scene, Sloane, posing as an eye doctor, murders Professor Ragheeb with poisonous eyedrops.
- The Film of the Book: Based on Alex Gordon's book, The Cipher.
- Follow That Car: After Prof. Pollock says this, the taxi driver immediately answers: "All my life I have waited for somebody to say that!"
- Helicopter Blender: Completely averted, when Pollock defeats the Big Bad, by dropping a ladder on his helicopter, completely shattering the rotor, and causing the airlift to fall.
- Hellish Copter: Pollock drops a steel ladder into the rotors of the Big Bad's helicopter, sending it crashing into a river.
- Improvised Weapon: The climax shows Pollock killing the villains with a ladder - by jamming it down through the girders under a bridge into the rotor of their helicopter as they fly below trying to shoot him.
- Invisible Writing: Pollock comes across this at one point, and lights a match to expose it, which Yasmin is puzzled by:Pollock: Weren't you ever in the Boy Scouts?
Yasmin: I flunked the physical.
Pollock: Should have tried my troop. We'd have waived it. - I Was Never Here: A variation - when Pollock recognizes the Prime Minister, and says he didn't know they were in England, the Prime Minister responds, "You're right. I am not here." As it turns out, that's not even the Prime Minister, but an imposter.
- One-Word Title: Arabesque.
- Zip Me Up: When Yasmin and Pollock first meet, she asks him to zip up her dress.
