Omar Khayyam (1957)

Director:

William Dieterle

Writer:

Barré Lyndon (writer)

Release Date:

23 August 1957 (Finland)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot:

Omar Khayyam was one of the greatest Persian poets. He was also a brilliant mathematician. Though his quatrains were written in the 11th century...

Plot Keywords:

Assassin | Poet | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Cornel Wilde	...	Omar Khayyam
Michael Rennie	...	Hasani Sabah
Debra Paget	...	Sharain
John Derek	...	Young Prince Malik
Raymond Massey	...	The Shah
Yma Sumac	...	Karina
Margaret Hayes	...	Queen Zarada
Joan Taylor	...	Yaffa
Sebastian Cabot	...	The Nizam
Perry Lopez	...	Prince Ahmud
Morris Ankrum	...	Imam Nowaffak
Abraham Sofaer	...	Tutush
Edward Platt	...	Jayhan
James Griffith	...	Buzorg
Peter Adams	...	Master Herald

Also Known As:

The Life, Loves and Adventures of Omar Khayyam
The Loves of Omar Khayyam (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

This picture marked the last film-score credit for Victor Young, the accomplished Hollywood composer, recording artist and songwriter of melodic standards - "Street of Dreams", "Love Letters", "Stella by Starlight", "My Foolish Heart", "When I Fall in Love", "Around the World".

Quotes:

Omar Khayyam: They call you Chosen One... the Seventh Excellent Creature.Are you also to be appointed Caliph, interpreting the Will of God, Supreme Ruler above all earthly kings?
Hasani Sabah: If it were not so, I could not wear these robes nor hold this office.
Omar Khayyam: You have named me your Counsellor, but
[pause]
Omar Khayyam: I am happier with lesser matters, like this strip of vellum on which I have reduced the year to better reckoning. These figures will guide the lives of men when our mouths have been stopped with the dust of a thousand years, and the name Omar Khayyam is just as long forgotten...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Take My Heart

Typical "Arabian Nights" film of the 1950s

The 11th century mathematician-poet Omar Khayyam who lived in Baghdad wrote quatrains in Persian which are still quoted. The exact details of his life are unknown, so Hollywood wrote a biography on the tabula rasa of his life. Cornel Wilde plays the often-drunk Omar Khayyam who longs for his sweetheart who the Sultan keeps in his harem as his third wife. Omar Khayyam works in the Sultan's court as a mathematician who is drawing up a new calendar. When the Sultan dies, Omar Khayyam stumbles upon a plot to kill off the Sultan's successor. The poet then goes off to foil the plot. He crosses swords with the Assassin sect whose members are deluded by their leader into thinking that they are in paradise when they actually are in a hashish-induced zombie-like state. In fact, the word "assassin" means "hashish-eaters".

Cornel Wilde who plays Omar Khayyam is unable to be a debonair swashbuckler because he has to play a tortured poet. Michael Rennie as the sinister Hasani is wonderful. His aquiline features suit his Arab role. The rest of the cast is unremarkable. "Omar Khayyam" has all the Arabian Nights cliches - harems, slaves, sultans, thieves and intrigues. It is a type of movie which will not be made again because, these days, the Middle East brings up visions of fanatical terrorists, not innocuous fables of highly intellectual Arabs amidst the magnificence of ancient Baghdad.

(Reviewed by Sundar Narayan)