The Conqueror

Not up to Stagecoach standards, little slow but an ok John Wayne movie!

Critic's were overly harsh on this epic tale of Genghis Khan. But then again when it comes to entertainment when are the critic's known to be all that accurate? I think critic's & people that where hard core John Wayne fans were a bit shocked to see this American hero playing a Eastern Icon! But if you stop and really think about it when this was made Hollywood was still casting blue eyed white actors as Native American's, Yul Brynner as a Asian King, Anthony Quinn as a Eskimo & even Rex Harrison as the Arabian warlord Saladin so casting America's biggest tough guy as a man that probably conquered as much in land mass as Alexander the Great makes sense! Other than being much taller than the real Genghis Khan, John Wayne looks pretty good with his natural narrow shaped eye's. Some people warn off John Wayne fans against this movie but I like John Wayne's diversity & think this movie is a must have for John Wayne collector's! This movie has all the grand color & opulent set design's you would expect from a epic movie from this era. I think everyone delivers good performances & the cinematography is great. It is a shame that they filmed this movie on land that was radio active...they say that over half of the cast died from or contracted cancer. This film is not 100% historically accurate but I haven't seen many that are & they do touch on some relevant historical facts. I don't know how everyone feels but I really like John Wayne's divertive movies like " The Quite Man", " The Shepard of the Hills", "Hell Fighters" & " Hatari!" & of course this one probably " The Dukes" most extreme character stretch. If you love history, Sword fighting swashbucklers & John Wayne you might like this a lot better than the critic's did all those years ago. I think if critic's were to review this movie today they might have a different opinion. This movie is collectable for a lot of reasons... " The Cursed movie" aspect, its relationship to one of America's very enigmatic figures Howard Hugh's & of course John Wayne's unusual character portrayal. If you like the splendid color & grandiose production of Epic's made from this era & high adventure you will probably like this film.

A little different for John Wayne but a good movie

My coworker wanted this movie because he has a big John Wayne movie collection and he wanted was worst movie that John Wayne ever made so I bought him this one and he was very happy with my decision have a nice day

This movie is a laugh riot. Picture Susan Hayward in this farce. Entertaining and bizarre.

This movie regularly turns up on the worse movie of all time lists, but honestly , it isn't really that bad. It is a masterpiece of bad casting, true..and not just John Wayne as Genghis Khan, but also Agnes Moorehead as his mother. Ms Moorehead was usually a more than competent actress but here, it just doesn't work. Wayne was actually rather underrated as an actor, and he does turn in comptent job here, its just thought of John Wayne as an Asian conquering warlord struck people then as ludicrous and still does. But the overall job here is...well..at least watchable...not great but not as bad as most believe. But of course, the movie is also known as 'The Death Movie'..the movie was filmed downwind of nuclear test sites on sands that proved to be radioactive..Wayne, Susan Hayward,Moorehead, co-star Pedro Armdariz, director Dick Powell and many others, all died of cancer...almost half of those involved with making the movie in fact...But as a pure movie, particuarly if you can regard as Wayne Western but without the six guns, it does stand up fairly well...

This is totally campy, John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Pedro Armendariz, John Hoyt, Thomas Gomez, William Conrad, Lee Van Cleef, Ted deCorsia, and the ONLY Chinese guy, born in Hawaii, Richard Loo. This was when Hollywood didn't care about historical accuracy or the appearance of the actors. Just slap on a Foo Man Chu mustache a few furs and poof, you've got instant Genghis Khan and his band of wacky warriors. And Susan Hayward, her only contact with China, was she walked by Grauman's Chinese Theater one day on Hollywood Boulevard. This "epic" movie was filmed in the desert at Yucca Flats, Nevada, where they did several nuclear test above ground and under ground. Many say that a high number of the cast contracted cancer because of radiation.

Bought it to show some folks the worst film Wayne was in. A real stinker.

This film is a car crash of casting, with John Wayne as Genghis Khan (Oh Please!) But the script is worse than you can imagine, with stilted hackneyed dialogue and somewhat blandly shot too.Not only this, but this was the last film Howard Hughes produced and was the last RKO Radio Pictures film, dubbed an RKO Radioactive Picture because it was rather ill-advisedly shot on a nuclear test site, later unknowingly shipping 60 tons of radioactive soil to Hollywood for studio shoots! Hughes paid out much in compensation as 91 cast and crew members developed cancer as a result of the film shoot.The film itself suffers from strange sound - mono, I think. And is presented in 4:3 letterbox. You can zoom in to give yourself the Widescreen format, and it is watchable.

The Conqueror has taken a good deal of kicking over the years, not least because of it's ill-deserved inclusion in Harry and Michael Medved's book, The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time. They, like most writers who poke fun at this film, omit to mention that while the critics hated it, the paying public made it a huge hit at the time. Most of the criticism - and mockery - is usually levelled at the clunky dialogue, which very often verges on the unsayable - or should that be unspeakable? - of which the Duke gets, easily, the lion's share. By 1956, when this film was originally released, Wayne had enough clout to have had the script seriously doctored to suit his style of delivery and he certainly should have. However, when he saw the script, on director Dick Powell's desk, so the story goes, he insisted on taking the role - which was never written with him in mind - regardless. Though many consider him to be miscast, he certainly looks more comortable in this role than in, say, The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958), which was the only Wayne film to lose money - ever.Stilted dialogue aside, The Conqueror is a quite spectacular, action packed epic, which makes excellent use of the panoramic Utah locations. This was R.K.O.'s first and only use of CinemaScope, under licence from 20th Century-Fox, a fact that irked Howard Hughes so much that he ordered the developement of his own widescreen lens, Superscope and, subsequently, Superscope 235 (RKO Scope in its 2:1 aspect ratio variant), the latter still being in use today in the form of Super 35, James Cameron's favourite format.The plot takes a few liberties with history, but not nearly so many as Irving Allen's 1965 version, Genghis Khan, which starred Omar Sharif. And it has to said that Wayne is a much more impressive Temujin than Sharif, any day. He is backed up by a host of familiar faces, most of whom are usually to be found in westerns: Pedro Armendariz, Lee Van Cleef, Leo Gordon, John Hoyt and William Conrad, and the beautiful Susan Hayward is a fiery Bortai, the Khan's spirited Tartar wife.This package includes both Blu ray and DVD versions, with several sets of optional subtitle languages, except English, which doesn't really matter as playback defaults to the original English language version.The picture is fine and clear, with excellent colour and a some grain present - not surprising in a 'Scope film of this vintage - and there is virtually no print damage, although some of the titles are a little wobbly in both versions, which has to be down to the print used. The aspect ratio is approximately 2.35:1, enhanced for 16:9. Sound is stereo, with clearly audible dialogue throughout.The Conqueror was supposed to be Howard Hughes' personal favourite of all the films he made and he would watch it over and over again, it was said. He bought back all the prints at one stage and the film was never seen for more than twenty years, becoming a 'lost' film, much sought after by collectors.This is a welcome addition to the steadily growing list of fifties CinemaScope costume spectaculars available in Blu ray format, and as such, is not to be missed - even if the dialogue makes you smile a little!

Strange role for Wayne,..

Wonderful!

Moderate