Omar Khayyam (1957)

Set in the 11th century Persian city of Nishapur. The poet, astronomer and military strategist Omar Khayyam (Cornel Wilde) loses the woman (Debra Paget) he loves to the ruling Shah (Raymond Massey) and attempts to foil a plot by assassins to dethrone the Shah. Directed by William Dieterle (STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR), this exotic combination of romance and action contains very little historical accuracy. While the film looks great thanks to Ernest Laszlo's (KISS ME DEADLY) wide screen VistaVision lensing, it's a potboiler of an Arabian nights fantasy. Not a good movie but not bad enough to qualify as camp. If it had been done at Universal in the mid 1940s, it would have had Jon Hall and Maria Montez in the Wilde and Paget roles. The last film score of Victor Young (AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS) who died before the film was released. With Michael Rennie, John Derek, Margaret Hayes, Sebastian Cabot, Perry Lopez, Yma Sumac and Joan Taylor.