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How others will see it. This mystery/romance/spy movie will likely remind of about a dozen other similar movies, most of which are undoubtedly better. The humor doesn't work (particularly a drugged Peck riding a bicycle in heavy traffic to a calliope version of "Daisy.") But the genre is highly popular, and most people will find it to be passable, albeit preposterous, entertainment.
How I felt about it. If Arabesque especially reminds you of Charade, there's a good reason for it. Both films share the same director, Stanley Donen, and it was natural for Donen to follow the commercial success of 1963's Charade with another film of the same style. That is, an imitation of Hitchcock's "Wrong Man" movies, particularly North by Northwest.
The themes are the same. An innocent tall, dark, and single man (Peck instead of Cary Grant) is brought into a web of international intrigue involving a rich, ruthless man (Badel instead of James Mason) with a gorgeous girlfriend (Loren instead of Eva Marie Saint). Our plucky hero (Peck) romances the girl, despite the fact she could be setting him up. In fact, he is nearly killed on several occasions, and is accused of a murder he didn't commit, but it all it works out, and he even gets the girl, who turns out to be working for good after all. Donen even copies the scene where a Grant, drugged by bad guys, drives recklessly down a dangerous mountain road. Arabesque instead puts Peck, drugged by bad guys, on a bicycle weaving stupidly through traffic. Good thing he wasn't hurt when he was pushed out of a speeding car onto a cement road in front of oncoming cars.
Needless to say, the original (North by Northwest) is better than its more dubious copy (Arabesque). Much of the reason is that Hitchcock was a better director than Donen. Part of the problem, though, is that Arabesque is less original than Charade, its predecessor. At least Charade switched the gender roles, so that the girl was innocent, and her lover was suspicious. The henchmen were also more memorable, particularly Coburn and Kennedy. All that Arabesque adds to the mystery/romance/spy genre is that the rich bad guy has a pet peregrine falcon that will attack upon command.
Perhaps the real problem, though, is that Peck's actions never get him taken to a police station. He breaks into a zoo, where a shootout occurs, he breaks into a press conference with the Nowhereistan potentate, who is then assassinated, he runs out onto a racetrack during a race, and he wanders across a busy highway at night both on foot and on a bicycle. Just what do you have to do to get arrested in London?