- published: 13 Jun 2007
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Arabesque is a 1966 thriller starring Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. The movie is based on Gordon Cotler's novel The Cypher and directed by Stanley Donen.
Professor David Pollock (Peck) is an expert in ancient hieroglyphics at Oxford University. A Middle Eastern Prime Minister convinces Pollock to infiltrate the organization of a man named Beshraavi (Alan Badel), who is involved in a plot against the Prime Minister. The nature of the plot is believed to be found in a hieroglyphic code. Beshraavi's mistress, Yasmin Azir (Loren) is a mystery intertwined in the plot. Pollock needs her help, but when she repeatedly seems to double cross him in one escapade after another, he can't decide on whose side she is working. Eventually working together, Pollock and Yasmin decipher the plot and set out to stop an assassination of the Prime Minister. Ultimately they succeed, but the heroes are later pursued onto a high railway bridge by the vengeful villains who shoot at them from a helicopter, which Pollock eventually defeats by dropping a metal ladder down into the rotors as it passes underneath the bridge.