Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Feb 12, 2026 3/4

The stars enjoy tremendous chemistry, and Henry Mancini's score is flat-out terrific and arguably one of his best.

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Paine Knickerbocker San Francisco Chronicle Feb 4, 2026

The screenplay...often lacks the deft touch, but the amiability of the performers, the richness of their surroundings, and the determination of the evildoers...make "Arabesque" an engaging offering despite its occasional stumbles.

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Joseph Gelmis Newsday Feb 4, 2026

Under Donen's direction, Peck is less stiff than usual. And Miss Loren is funny and provocative.

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Patrick Gibbs Daily Telegraph (UK) Feb 4, 2026

...three scriptwriters have obviously worked overtime on the fanciful intertwining business, to such an extent that some may have difficulty in following the plot.

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Sara Davidson Boston Globe Feb 4, 2026

...the film...gets off to an unremarkable start and has a tendency to drag from cliche to redundant corn, despite the director's attempt to jazz up the beat with trick camera angles and contrived composition. But Loren and Peck save the day.

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Carolyn Kolb Times-Picayune Feb 4, 2026

Where "Arabesque" fails is in dialogue. Gregory Peck delivers each line as if it were a detergent commercial.

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Arthur Steele Birmingham Mail Feb 4, 2026

Well, it is a pretty entertaining piece. And, while I don't think the whole will stay long in the memory, it has two scenes that will no doubt be quoted and recalled for a long time.

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Sandra Saunders Philadelphia Daily News Feb 4, 2026

"Arabesque" is a movie impossible to follow and just as impossible not to enjoy.

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Bernard Drew Gannett News Service Feb 4, 2026

Sophia and Peck are prettier than ever, and it's just the sort of thing to see on a rainy spring night - never, never on a nice one-when you don't want to think about anything too strenuous, and wish to be diverted...

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Wanda Hale New York Daily News Feb 4, 2026 4/4

Donen, directing with tongue-in-cheek, has outdone all the recent spy pictures in thrills, suspense and delicious humor.

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George Bourke Miami Herald Feb 4, 2026

...taken for its way-out, devil-may-care quality, "Arabesque" qualifies as a good night at the movies. As for the plot, itself, it never settles down long enough to analyze. And that's good.

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Dick Richards Sunday Mirror (UK) Feb 4, 2026

[The] rip-roaring climax can hold its own with any recent spy adventure, even if "Arabesque," as a whole, outsmarts itself.

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Anne Miller Tinsley Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com Feb 4, 2026

Stanley Donen has produced a film with more twists than a belly-dancer's hips. The film is entertaining, but not spectacularly so.

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Jeff Millar Houston Chronicle Feb 4, 2026

Miss Loren was excellent. Peck did well enough with a role that cried, moaned, begged for Cary Grant.

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W. Ward Marsh Cleveland Plain Dealer Feb 4, 2026

It's a slick, swift and exciting melodrama, keenly directed by Donen who has built up every situation with thrills lasting from one set to the next.

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Giles M. Fowler Kansas City Star Feb 4, 2026

Here are all sorts of tricky camera shots - multiple reflections, distortions, wild angles - and all in color as gaudy as a Persian mosaic. But as eye-dazzling as these things are, they are sometimes irrelevant and therefore distracting.

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Myles Standish St. Louis Post-Dispatch Feb 4, 2026

This espionage thriller, laid in London, is a combination of wild, pell-mell action-moving with roller-coaster recklessness-sinister characters, evil plotting, mystifying schemes, done with superb style, elan and sophisticated wit.

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John Bustin Austin American-Statesman Feb 4, 2026

It's a deftly done romp all the way through (not the least of the credit going to director Stanley Donen, let me add), and viewers will find it a most engaging entertainment in which gaiety and thrills combine to delightful effect.

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Terry Kay Atlanta Journal-Constitution Feb 4, 2026

[The film] is not unusual to the degree that it is strikingly different, but it has neatly contrived a quality of commercialism which never fails. Perhaps it is nothing more than Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. That, however, is almost enough.

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Diane Thomas Atlanta Journal-Constitution Feb 4, 2026

"Arabesque" is the type of film usually described as "all right." It's not great, but it's certainly not awful.

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