John Wayne is improbably cast (to say the least!) as Mongol chief Temujin, later Genghis Khan, leading his Mongolian army in a battle against the Tartars, falling for the enemy leader's fiery, beautiful daughter. With three cinematographers credited, the picture certainly looks good, but director Dick Powell can't seem to pick up the pace, and it quickly becomes a leaden affair punctuated by inane dialogue. Princess Susan Hayward and the supporting players are all ridiculously miscast, but none more so than the Duke, whose performance might have passed muster had he been encouraged to play it strictly for laughs. Produced for RKO by Howard Hughes, who reportedly was obsessed with this movie and later bought sole rights to it, effectively keeping it out of circulations for years. Filmed partly on-location in Utah near an atomic weapons test site, with many in the cast and crew later succumbing to cancer-related deaths. *1/2 from ****
Review of The Conqueror
