The Conqueror
 Theatrical release poster | ||
| Starring | John Wayne Susan Hayward Lee Van Cleef Agnes Moorehead Pedro Armendáriz Thomas Gomez John Hoyt | |
| Directed by | Dick Powell | |
| Produced by | Dick Powell Howard Hughes | |
| Written by | Oscar Millard | |
| Editing by | Stuart Gilmore | |
| Music by | Victor Young | |
| Cinematography | Joseph LaShelle | |
| Distributed by | RKO Pictures | |
| Released | March 28, 1956 | |
| Runtime | 111 minutes | |
| Country | USA | |
| language | English | |
| Budget | $6,000,000 | |
The Conqueror is a 1956 CinemaScope epic film produced by Howard Hughes and starring John Wayne as the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. Other performers included Susan Hayward, Lee Van Cleef, 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.
Plot
Mongol chief Temujin (later to be known as Genghis Khan) falls for Bortai, the daughter of the Tartar leader, and steals her away, precipitating war. Bortai spurns Temujin and is taken back in a raid. Temujin is later captured. Bortai falls in love with him and helps him escape. Temujin suspects he was betrayed by a fellow Mongol and sets out to find the traitor and to overcome the Tartars.
Cancer controversy
See also: Downwinders#Health Effects of Nuclear Testing
The exterior scenes were shot on location near St. George, Utah, 137 miles (220 km) downwind of the United States government's Nevada Test Site. In 1953, extensive above-ground nuclear weapons testing occurred at the test site, as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole. The cast and crew spent many difficult weeks on location, and in addition Hughes later shipped 60 tons of dirt back to Hollywood in order to match the Utah terrain and lend verisimilitude to studio re-shoots. The film-makers knew about the nuclear tests but the federal government reassured residents that the tests caused no hazard to public health.
Powell died of cancer in January 1963, only a few years after the picture's completion. Pedro Armendáriz was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1960 and committed suicide in 1963 after he learned his condition had become terminal. Hayward, Wayne, and Moorehead all died of cancer in the mid to late 1970s. Cast member actor John Hoyt died of lung cancer in 1991. Skeptics point to other factors such as the wide use of tobacco — Wayne and Moorehead in particular were heavy smokers — and the notion that cancer resulting from radiation exposure does not have such a long incubation period. The cast and crew totaled 220 people. By 1981, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer and 46 had died of the disease.
Dr. Robert Pendleton, professor of biology at the University of Utah, 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.
See also Saint George
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See also: "Conqueror" disambiguation page: a list of articles (perhaps associated) with similar titles. |
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In 1980, People magazine revealed some consequences of continental nuclear testing for American citizens. The magazine disclosed that of some 220 cast and crew who filmed a 1956 film, The Conqueror, (produced by Howard Hughes) on location near St. George, Utah, ninety-one had come down with cancer, with an unheard of 41 per cent morbidity rate. Of these, forty-six had died of cancer by 1980. Among the victims were John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead, Pedro Armendáriz, John Hoyt, Lee Van Cleef and Susan Hayward, the stars of the film. See also [ downwinders ] |
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:The_Conqueror ]
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