HotToastyRag Susan Hayward is my favorite classic actress. I've seen every movie of hers I could get my hands on, and no matter how terrible it was or how small her part was, I've watched every film through to its entirety. The Conqueror is the exception. It's the only Susan Hayward movie I've ever turned off.John Wayne plays Genghis Khan. Take a minute to wrap your head around that ludicrous casting decision. He kidnaps Susan Hayward because he thinks she's beautiful, and because he's The Conqueror so he thinks he can conquer her, too. She hates him at first, but after she realizes she's no match for his macho strength and prowess, she falls in love with him. Not only is this movie so horrifically cheesy, cheap, badly acted, poorly written, and absurd, but there's a very sad backstory attached to this film. It was shot on location in Utah, near where nuclear weapons were tested three years prior. The government assured everyone there was no danger of nuclear fallout, but the director, many of the leads, and about half the crew got cancer in the ensuing decades. Director Dick Powell died of cancer after seven years, Pedro Armendariz got cancer in four years, John Wayne and Agnes Moorehead died of cancer in the 1970s, and Susan Hayward died of a brain tumor, tragically after starring in the remake of Dark Victory.

snicewanger The Conqueror is one of Hollywood's most legendary movies. The Dukes most inept screen portrayal. The only part he wore a mustache for.The role that was to eventually take his life, as well as many of the other cast members and production crew, including Susan Hayward and Dick Powell. I have heard that Oscar Millard wrote the screenplay thinking Marlon Brando would be reciting the lines. Brando wisely deferred from taking the role.To say the Wayne was miscast just isn't enough. Just about everyone in the cast was "Miscast", The redheaded Susan Hayward as a Tartar princess? Come on now!Someone asked actor Leo Gorden, who was in the cast why he never developed cancer. Gordon answered" I was not on the Utah location shoot. When I worked on the RKO sound stage there was none of that radioactive dirt around.'John Hoyt and Lee Van Cleef said pretty much the same thing.Folks, The Conqueror isn't not as terrible as you may have heard. It's entertaining in a laughably bad way. What's really sad is that so many talented people gave their lives to make it.

ironhorse_iv Media Mongol, Howard Hughes meet his match. It wasn't the Great Wall of China that stop him, but this movie! Indeed, Howard Hughes felt guilty about his decisions regarding the film's production, and how the movie bomb at the box office, that he stop making movies, sold his production company RKO to General Tire and conquer all, by buying every print of the film for $12 million and kept it out of circulation for many years until Universal Pictures purchased the film from his estate in 1979. It was indeed that bad! The Conqueror got the better of the cast & crew that made the film, due to the fact, that most of the film was filmed near a nuclear test site. It's not like they didn't know that. They opening joke about it, and choice to ignore the warnings because they thought they were in a safe area from the nuclear test site. Since, the set was contaminated by nuclear fallout, most of the crew and cast end up dying from later stages of cancer. Some people believe that nuclear fallout was the leading cause of John Wayne's death. Indeed the movie was curse. Many had died to terminal cancer, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz (who shot himself soon after learning he had terminal cancer), Agnes Moorehead, John Hoyt and director Dick Powell. What a shame. I really don't think this was a movie, 1950's America was going to watch, anyways. The film deals with Mongols, Merkits, and Tartars struggling for survival in a harsh and arid land that most Americans have no clue nor care about. Most Americans at the time, were into European Medieval Epics, Sci-Fiction or Westerns. Honestly, in a deep conservative time in America, a movie about rape and plunder wouldn't get to pack the movie houses. The movie is about Mongol chief Temujin AKA Genghis Khan (John Wayne) who kidnapped, start war and 'rapes' Bortai (Susan Hayward) of the Tartar clan. Yes, that's the hero, everybody. Enjoy that. I hate the tagline for this movie: 'They conquered each other and then the world'. Yeah, that sounds like an epic romantic love story with Bortai trying to decapitate him behind Temujin's back! That's what 1959's Ben Hur was missing. Rape love subplot! Yeah, that would bring people into seeing your film. Forced romance. While the romantic music by Victor Young is beautiful, it seem to not match what is happening on screen with the Stockholm syndrome love affair. The music also repeated way too much. The dialogue is so awful pseudo-Old English wordy and dodgy. Some sentences don't even make any sense. Everybody sounds stiff. Honestly, I give some credit to John Wayne. He took his role very seriously, and even diet to get fit, but gees. He's so miscast. Seriously, Hollywood, if you going to make a movie about an Asian person. You might as well, cast an Asian actor or at less support your character with some oriental actors as supporting characters. There were no notable oriental actor in this film, at all. John Wayne looks and sounds the same as if he was delivery a Western. Instead of a Western movie set, he went to Chinatown, trade in his cowboy hat and gun, for a Fu Manchu moustache and sword. Then he walk into this film. He looks plain silly. At less, the movie wasn't too offended with the Asian stereotypes. John Wayne sounds like he's reading off cue cards at a high school play with a Western twang. I don't think the movie, original choice, Marlon Brando could do this movie any better. Susan Hayward was indeed sexy, but she's clearly not Asian enough. I don't think, I know a lot of ancient Orientals having red hair during that time. Her acting was just as bad as John Wayne. Why the hell is she always looking off-screen with a blank stare? Is she reading cue cards? Is she bored? Is that all she can do to keep herself from laughing at Wayne's horrible acting? I don't know. The supporting cast was such a bored as well. Look for a Lee Van Cleef in a cameo in this film. While the movie is indeed fiction, it did had some historical inaccuracies regarding the people, places, and tribes involved. I don't think the movie needed to have opening text, mentioning it fiction. It kinda ruin the whole epic history feel. The costuming, direction, cinematography and choreography are all quite well done. I do like the battle scenes. I do hate the day for night, editing. The audio track sounds a little bit off, as if some of the actors were speaking on a loud speaker. This indeed is a real Manchurian Candidate for one of the worst movies ever made. Legend has it that in Howard Hughes's last days, he watched this film over and over, when his Obsessive–compulsive disorder was at its worst. Overall: In my opinion, it's not the worst movie. I watch this movie just because of my interest of Genghis Khan and how much I love the Duke's movies. Still, I find it, watchable, but pretty bad. Genghis Khan (2004 TV series) is far greater a film. I think I'll eat Mongolian BBQ now, just to fill my upset stomach after watching this film.

cworth I give this movie ten zs. I couldn't get through it before falling asleep.The other comments mentioned the groaner lines (i.e. "Farewell, Tarter Woman") but what they didn't mention is that the whole script is a groaner. Seems that Susan Hayward's wardrobe was recycled from a biblical flick. All the roles are over the top, from Wayne looking like a cross between a carpetbagger and the cat Gideon from Pinocchio, to Hayward doing a true biblical vamp. Wayne, not a versatile actor, sounds whiny in this role. Even the action shots of the battles and horses were boring. If a movie is based on a place in a certain time, it should have some relation to that place and period, or at least depart in a witty or funny way. This depiction of Mongolia around 1200 did neither. This movie deserves the "slow death".If you want to see a good Genghis Khan movie that was actually shot in Mongolia and has some realism, see the recent Genghis Khan, by Aoki Okami. If you want to see other movies shot in Mongolia, see Genghis Blues or the movies of Byambasurem Davaa: The Weeping Camel and The Cave of the Yellow Dog.If you want to see some good battle scenes with horses, see Seven Samurai.This movie maybe good for a laugh, but I couldn't stay awake long enough.