The Conqueror (1956) - John Wayne's inauspicious turn as Genghis Khan

♥♥♥

The colorful poster for Dick Powell's The Conqueror

QUICK REVIEW:

The story of Genghis Khan's becoming the greatest war hero in the world gets told here as a pure, happy cock-and-bull story, or like a western removed to the East, complete with Pedro Armendariz (From Russia With Love (1963)), Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)), Susan Hayward (The Snows of Kilimajaro (1952)) and John Wayne (True Grit (1969)) in the title role.

Particularly Hayward and Wayne seem to compete in trying to be the most absurd in their roles; vampy, horribly mercurial Hayward wins. Although Wayne also does his part (in)justice with hammy lines such as, "I call that women's talk, my mother!" (Script by Oscar Millard (Angel Face (1952)).)
The Conqueror is very stiff throughout and amusingly theatrical, not unlike Yul Brynner's concurrent turn as Cossack war hero in J. Lee Thompson's Taras Bulba (1962).
Yet the film as such is also well-paced, lavishly produced (by Howard Hughes (Hell's Angels (1930)) in his penultimate film) and excitingly colorful, (in rich Technicolor.) It is directed by actor-director Dick Powell (The Hunters (1958)).
The Conqueror has become notorious as 'the film that killed John Wayne.' - Referring to the stomach and lung cancer that killed him in 1979: The movie was filmed near St. George, Utah, about 140 miles from a military site where nuclear tests may have affected the 200 some film crew with radiation, although the government had deemed it safe to be there. Reportedly, by 1981, 91 persons of the film's cast and crew had developed cancers, (leaving 46 dead at that time.) A lawsuit was never filed, and no-one was ever held accountable for the possible disaster.
- But it is said that Hughes felt bad about the film's production, and especially its shoot at the possibly hazardous site; so bad that he bought back all of its prints for 12 mil. $ and kept The Conqueror out of the public loop, (until Universal bought it from his estate in 1979, three years after his death.) Reportedly, Hughes saw the film - and the 1968 espionage thriller Ice Storm Zebra, - obsessively in his last years.

John Wayne ironically really wanted this one of his most inauspicious roles, as Dick Powell's The Conqueror

Titanic also in terms of real human tragedy, some might say. Here's the trailer for the film

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 9-12 mil. $
= Flop
[The film made 4.5 mil. $ of its gross in the US, where it was the 11th biggest hit at the box office of 1956, which, however, wasn't enough to make it a success. The Conqueror became known as one of the worst films of the 50's (and, to some, of all time.) - But not to Film Excess, it isn't!]

What do you think of The Conqueror?
Please, share any trivia knowledge about it that you may have