The Conqueror (1956)

Director:

Dick Powell

Writer:

Oscar Millard (written by)

Release Date:

28 March 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Biography | History | Romance | War

Tagline:

Surpasses anything ever filmed before!

Plot:

Mongol chief Temujin battles against Tartar armies and for the love of the Tartar princess Bortai. Temujin becomes the emperor Genghis Khan.

Plot Keywords:

Tartar | Battle | Genghis Khan | Palace | Mongolian

Cast

John Wayne	...	Temujin, later Genghis Khan
Susan Hayward	...	Bortai
Pedro Armendáriz	...	Jamuga (as Pedro Armendariz)
Agnes Moorehead	...	Hunlun
Thomas Gomez	...	Wang Khan
John Hoyt	...	Shaman
William Conrad	...	Kasar
Ted de Corsia	...	Kumlek
Leslie Bradley	...	Targutai
Lee Van Cleef	...	Chepei
Peter Mamakos	...	Bogurchi
Leo Gordon	...	Tartar captain
Richard Loo	...	Captain of Wang's guard

Also Known As:

Conqueror of the Desert

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Escalante Desert, St. George, Utah, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

The screenplay was written before John Wayne became involved in the project. The writer had Marlon Brando in mind for the role.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Temujin kills the Shaman and a guard in Wang Khan's bedroom his sword is clean, but when he bangs on the gong outside the bedroom to address his troops, there is blood on the sword.

Quotes:

Kumlek: [to Temujin] Joint by joint from the toe and fingertip upward shall you be cut to pieces, and each carrion piece, hour by hour and day by day, shall be cast to the dogs before your very eyes until they too shall be plucked out as morsels for the vultures.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005) (TV)

Worst Miscasting Ever

John Wayne is the consummate cowboy, only Clint Eastwood comes close to approaching the title. So it's really jarring to the sensibilities to see Wayne standing there in a Mongol costume and a cheesy "fu manchu" moustache spouting barbarian lines in his trademark western drawl. It's like seeing Alec Guinness start acting like Pee-Wee Herman; some serious misalignment of the heavens has happened and maybe that guy on the corner saying "the end of the world is nigh" was right.

That aside, "The Conqueror" plays like an epic Cecil B. DeMille movie, with epic lines, epic scenery, and epic music. Say what you want about modern cinema, recent movies as a whole tend to be better researched, with characters, clothing, and sets that are historically accurate. This movie makes it clear they had no concept what Genghis Khan and his time was like. People, Wayne included, simply say grandiose lines without any inflection, as if they had no idea how to act the part.

Through it all, I kept expecting Susan Hayward to claim she was an alien or had fallen through a time machine. I doubt very many 12th century Mogolian women had red permed hair and wore low cut dresses. "The Conqueror" is either one of the worst movies you ever saw or one of the funniest.