I love this movie so much

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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.

I caught this film entirely by accident as you do. i'm usually working so I tend to more listen than watch.At first I thought it was another John Wayne cowboy movie. It sounded John Wayne, it sounded sort of cowboy, but something was wrong.I started watching to see him in some kind of fake Mongol costume with other obviously fake mongol\Chinese actors (white Americans). This wasn't so bad except that John Wayne was totally unfit for the position.He does absolutely NOTHING at all to be or move or sound even a tiny bit like a vicious Mongol warrior. It's like watching a cowboy film without guns set in Mongolia. You just can't divorce Wayne from it and so the movie literally collapses the moment he opens his mouth. Seriously, it does. It's a facepalm moment.On top of that, the script is awful, something a small child would do for his first class story. Wayne delivers it like he's alseep, all the way through the movie.Like others have said, it's so bad you just have to laugh. People in the 1950s surely must have seen this as rubbish once out. Even they could not possibly have liked this.This probably helped future historical film makers know what NOT to do as well as make them laugh out loud. It's worth watching for that.2 stars for the unintentional humour.

Back in 2001 I reviewed this kitsch masterpiece here and focused on its sheer badness. I recently acquired a new remastered DVD which allowed me to throw away my junky, ancient, badly cut VHS version. And I also watched it on a 54" TV screen.Well...it IS spectacular. The locations are gorgeous, if hardly Mongolian, although the yurts look pretty authentic. Except for the ridiculous dancing girls, the costumes are terrific, if sometimes obviously Greco-Roman rather than Asian. Susan Hayward is very beautiful in her trademark petulant way. And John Wayne actually does have some good moments in an impossible role. The battle scenes are clumsily handled, though, and watching all those tripped-up horses is pretty painful.My previous review also slightly misquoted the wonderfully awful dialogue, which will never pale for me as the most unforgettable element of this movie. But I kept to its true spirit. However, I left out one shimmering verbal gem, the closing words of the film: "The riches of Cathay he laid at the feet of his Tartar woman. For a hundred years the children of their loins ruled half the world." Just simply, The Conqueror is immortal.

John Wayne is at his worst here but it is not as obvious why he made this movie as you think. This film was the brain child of Howard Hughes. This film is cinema "Spruce Goose" & it is possible it didn't even fly that far.A large part of the cast & crew of this film died from Cancer including Wayne. It was shot on the New Mexico desert near the a-bomb test areas which is speculated as the cause. This is an RKO production 1 year before the studio was sold to Desi & Lucy. Maybe this is why the studio was sold. I mean, the once proud studio of King Kong putting out a movie that could be named Ding Dong?Sadly, a talented cast goes down too. This film might be why Hughes was a recluse in his later years. The joke goes that this film set is where Howard Hughes hid his will. Maybe while someone was out in the desert looking for that document they found the first trace of the real genius who wanted this movie made - Irwin R Shyster?