Christopher Columbus

1949
Approved
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Action Adventure Biography Drama History

Christopher Columbus overcomes intrigue at the Spanish court and convinces Queen Isabella that his plan to reach the East by sailing west is practical.Christopher Columbus overcomes intrigue at the Spanish court and convinces Queen Isabella that his plan to reach the East by sailing west is practical.Christopher Columbus overcomes intrigue at the Spanish court and convinces Queen Isabella that his plan to reach the East by sailing west is practical.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

624

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Trivia
Budgeted at a then-very expensive £500,000, J. Arthur Rank was convinced that this would be one of his biggest hits. He was severely hurt by the fact it only recouped £121,000.

Goofs
In the film, Columbus seems to realize that he never landed in India, whereas in real life, he never realized it. He also talks constantly about having found "new worlds", as if he knew that he had discovered America.

Quotes
Father Perez: I see you're a scholar, my son, as well as a traveler.
Christopher Columbus: Certainly a traveler, Father. I've sailed as far north as Iceland, as far south as Guinea, and eastward to the Golden Horn.
Father Perez: But that is to have reached the limits of the World.
Christopher Columbus: Of the known world? Yes, Father, but the actual world... not by a thousand leagues.
Father Perez: How can you say that - never having seen it?
Christopher Columbus: Have you ever seen Heaven or Hell?
Father Perez: We have sound reasons for believing they exist.
Christopher Columbus: I have sound reasons too.
Father Perez: What are they?
Christopher Columbus: The same as yours, Father, and revelations to which I can add cosmography and mathematics.

Connections
Featured in The Last Cigarette (1999)

User reviews11

Review

Featured review

3/10

Rank should have stuck to making bread

This dreadfully dull film was one of three great financial failures in the 1940s. London Town and Caesar and Cleopatra being the others. So by 1950 he had a massive overdraft which led to the closing of studios and companies, Gainsborough included. Rank just never had any true feelings for film in the way that say Korda had.

There are so many questions you can ask about this film. Why choose March for the lead role,he was already over the hill as a star attraction. Why use the peculiar sepia colour to photograph this film. Finally why bother to watch this turgid mess.