The Conqueror
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| The Conqueror | |
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 DVD cover for The Conqueror |
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| Directed by | Dick Powell |
| Produced by | Dick Powell Howard Hughes |
| Written by | Oscar Millard |
| Starring | John Wayne Susan Hayward Agnes Moorehead Pedro Armendáriz Thomas Gomez John Hoyt |
| Music by | Victor Young |
| Cinematography | Joseph LaShelle |
| Editing by | Stuart Gilmore |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Running time | 111 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
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For the 15th-Century Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, see Mehmed II.
The Conqueror is a 1956 film produced by Howard Hughes and starring John Wayne as the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. Other performers included Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendáriz. The picture was directed by actor/director Dick Powell. The film was principally shot near St. George, Utah
The picture was a critical and commercial failure (often ranked as one of the worst films of the 1950s), which is remarkable given the stature of the cast. Wayne, who was at the height of his career, had lobbied for the role after seeing the script and was widely believed to have been grossly miscast. (He was so "honored" by The Golden Turkey Awards.)
Reportedly, Howard Hughes felt guilty about his decisions regarding the film's production (see cancer controversy below) and kept the film from view until 1974 when it was first broadcast on TV. The Conqueror, along with Ice Station Zebra, is said to be one of the films Hughes watched endlessly during his last years.
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[edit] Cancer controversy
The exterior scenes were shot on location near St. George, Utah, and this location was 137 miles downwind of the United States Government's Nevada Test Site, Operation Upshot-Knothole, where extensive above-ground nuclear weapons testing occurred during the 1950s. The cast and crew spent many difficult weeks on the site. In addition, Hughes later shipped 60 tons of dirt back to Hollywood for re-shoots. The cast and crew knew about the nuclear tests, there are pictures of Wayne holding a Geiger counter during production, but the link between exposure to radioactive fallout and cancer was poorly understood then.
Powell died of cancer in January 1963, only a few years after the picture's completion. Hayward, Wayne, and Moorehead all died of cancer in the mid to late 1970s. Pedro Armendáriz was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1960 and committed suicide after he learned the cancer was terminal. Skeptics point to other factors such as tobacco use—Wayne and Moorehead were heavy smokers—and the notion that cancer resulting from exposure to radiation does not have such a long incubation period. The cast and crew totaled 220. Of that number, 91 had developed some form of cancer by 1981 and 46 had died of cancer by then.
Dr. Robert Pendleton, professor of biology at the University of Utah, has described the incidence of cancer among cast and crew of The Conqueror as an "epidemic". Noting that 91 members of the cast and crew had contracted cancer by 1984, with more than half of them dying, Dr. Pendleton stated, "With these numbers, this case could qualify as an epidemic. The connection between fallout radiation and cancer in individual cases has been practically impossible to prove conclusively. But in a group this size you'd expect only 30 some cancers to develop...I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of The Conqueror would hold up in a court of law."[1]
[edit] Quotes about The Conqueror
Even decades after movie's release, reviewers seem to attempt to out-do themselves in describing The Conqueror. For example:
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- ONE OF THE funniest, strangest, and saddest movies of all time is RKO's 1956 epic The Conqueror, starring John Wayne, certified American Hero, as ... Genghis Khan. Believe it or not, that's the sanest part of the movie. At least John Wayne could ride a horse. The Tartar queen who steals Khan's heart is played by Susan Hayward, a pale Irish woman with bright red hair. Imagine Nicole Kidman trying to pass for Connie Chung and you've pretty much got the idea. Khan's mother is played by Agnes Moorehead, who went on to play Samantha's mother on Bewitched. And Genghis Khan's "blood brother" is played by Pedro Armendariz, a Mexican heartthrob who doesn't look remotely related to John Wayne or the Mongols. Bizarre enough? We haven't even started. Ever try to cast an entire horde? The producers couldn't quite come up with several hundred actual Mongolians to ride along as Khan's rampaging minions, so they hired ... a bunch of American Indians.
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- One of the most jarring moments in the entire film arrives about halfway through, when two actual Chinese guys appear briefly as extras. After a full hour of trying to convince yourself that John Wayne and this weird menagerie of Europeans, Mexicans, and American Indians are all from Mongolia, actual Asians look positively otherworldly.[2]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Olson, James (2002). Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer and History. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801869366.
- ^ Harris, Bob. "'The Conqueror' and other bombs" - Sonoma County Independent - (c/o Atomic Rage at MetroActive.com) - June 11-17, 1998
