{"id":27040,"date":"2021-09-06T21:02:30","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T04:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=27040"},"modified":"2021-09-06T21:02:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T04:02:30","slug":"review-arabesque-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2021\/09\/review-arabesque-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Arabesque Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Arabesque<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t perfect and pales in comparison with the likes of North by Northwest<\/em> or Charade<\/em>, but the enigmatic performances from Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren was so much fun to watch.<\/p>\n

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Arabesque<\/span>
\n(1966)
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Genre(s): <\/strong>Espionage Thriller, Romance, Comedy<\/span>
\nKino Lorber| NR \u2013 105 min. \u2013 $24.95 | September 14, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

Date Published:<\/strong> 09\/06\/2021 | Author:<\/strong> The Movieman<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/u><\/strong>Director: <\/strong>Stanley Donen
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Gordon Colter (novel \u2018The Cipher\u2019); Julian Mitchell, Stanley Price and Pierre Marton (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Alan Badel, Kieron Moore<\/p>\n
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DISC INFO:
\n<\/u><\/strong>Features: <\/strong>Commentary, Featurette, Trailers, TV Spots, Poster Gallery
\nSlip Cover: <\/strong>No
\nDigital Copy: <\/strong>No
\nFormats Included: <\/strong>Blu-ray
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>1<\/span><\/p>\n
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Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 2.0)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 2.35
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>39.55 GB
\nTotal Bitrate: <\/strong>43.26 Mbps
\nCodecs: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A<\/span><\/p>\n
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Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
\nThe opinions I share are my own.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE \u2014 3\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Plot Synopsis: <\/strong>An American hieroglyphics professor (GREGORY PECK) is hired by a mysterious Arab oil magnate to decipher a secret message. When the hidden meaning is revealed, the chase is on as he and the oil magnate\u2019s exotic yet unpredictable companion (SOPHIA LOREN) find themselves caught in the middle of an assassination plot.<\/p>\n

Quick Hit Review: Arabesque<\/em><\/strong>, based on a novel entitled \u201cThe Cipher\u201d, is a fun 1960s espionage romantic-thriller, which is pretty similar to Charade<\/em> (1963), which makes sense considering the two films share the same writer (Peter Stone, credited here as Pierre Marton) and director (Stanley Donen). This one isn\u2019t as precise as Charade<\/em> but still has its charms thanks to the wonderful banter\/romance between Gregory Peck and the amazingly gorgeous Sophia Loren.<\/p>\n

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While I would say the middle part does drag a bit and the finale was on the convoluted side of things, I can\u2019t say I was never entertained or engaged. Plus, the few action set pieces, that did remind me a bit of North by Northwest<\/em> (1959), which does miss Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s eye yet still has its moments as our bad guys chase down the heroes in a helicopter, wildly missing shooting (they did strike one character, but merely a flesh would it seems).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also an issue with the whole cipher. I\u2019m still a bit confused by why it needed to be deciphered in the first place; by bringing in the professor, their plans were doomed. Of course, the antagonist, albeit rich, isn\u2019t the smartest and his minions are even more incompetent, so maybe there is method to his madness…<\/p>\n

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In the end, Arabesque<\/em><\/strong> is still well worth checking out, if nothing else but for Peck and Loren.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 2\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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This release comes with a matted slip cover<\/strong> and comes with a set of new features as the 2019 Blu-ray from Universal appeared to be bare bones. Included is a new Audio Commentary<\/u><\/strong> by Film Historians Howard S. Berger, Steven Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson; Music by Mancini (9:33)<\/u><\/strong>, an archival featurette with Henry Mancini and Columnist Leonard Feather; Theatrical Trailer & TV Spots<\/u><\/strong>; TV Trailer & TV Spots<\/u><\/strong> and lastly a Poster Gallery<\/u><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 4\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Kino Lorber releases Arabesque<\/em><\/strong> onto Blu-ray after Universal had previously released it only two years ago. Since I don\u2019t own that copy I\u2019m not sure how it compares but from what I saw while watching the movie, and closely inspecting a variety of scenes, it does look fairly good. Detail was quite good and the natural film noise was thankfully present. Colors are generally vibrant and bright throughout. There was no obvious or major flaws like dust marks or film damage so it is relatively clean.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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AUDIO \u2013 4\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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The included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is more than adequate for a film of this age and, outside of the third act, really doesn\u2019t have a whole lot of action is mostly filled either with dialogue, which came across with fine clarity and no signs of pops or hissing, or Henry Mancini\u2019s catchy score.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 3\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Arabesque<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t perfect and pales in comparison with the likes of North by Northwest<\/em> or Charade<\/em>, but the enigmatic performances from Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren was so much fun to watch, even when the plot can get convoluted at times.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers<\/strong>.
\nThese are only here to give an idea of the movie\u2019s video quality and may not be truly representative of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Arabesque<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Arabesque isn\u2019t perfect and pales in comparison with the likes of North by Northwest or Charade, but the enigmatic performances from Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren was so much fun to watch.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,970],"tags":[4968,3852,6603],"class_list":["post-27040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","category-quick-hit-reviews","tag-gregory-peck","tag-kino-lorber","tag-sophia-loren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27041,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27040\/revisions\/27041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}