Columbus and Isabella

In this irreverent silent-era burlesque, the hallowed annals of history are dismantled through a slapstick lens as Christopher Columbus navigates the labyrinthine politics of the Spanish court. Beyond the mere quest for funding, the narrative pivots on the domestic friction between Queen Isabella and a pathologically envious King Ferdinand. The voyage itself descends into a kinetic farce; Columbus is pursued across the rigging by a mutinous crew whose grievances are as absurd as their choreography. The film reaches a zenith of visual wit when a perceived horizon line—the long-awaited land—is revealed to be nothing more than the glistening pate of a bald man obstructing the telescope's view. Upon arrival in the New World, the expected grandeur is subverted by the stark reality of the 1920s American zeitgeist: an indigenous constable enforces a three-mile limit, confiscating the explorer's libations and forcing Columbus to engage in a series of clandestine maneuvers to smuggle his spirits ashore, effectively reframing the discovery of a continent as a desperate bootlegging operation.