Omar Khayyam (1957)

Omar Khayyam was one of the greatest Persian poets. He was also a brilliant mathematician. Though his quatrains were written in the 11th century, they are still popular the world over. The details of his life are unknown, so this movie invents a biography for him and includes in it his real achievements - the invention of a new calendar and the penning of those epigrammatic poems. This film has him romancing a sultan's bride and foiling the assassin sect's plot to kill the sultan's son.

Directed by: William Dieterle

Starring: Cornel Wilde, Michael Rennie, Debra Paget, John Derek, Raymond Massey, Yma Sumac

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