If anybody asks in a trivia contest in what film did Jack Palance play the son of John Wayne, it's metaphorical because it's not an actual film, the characters in common. Genghis Khan, when's character from "The Conqueror", was the father of Ogatai Khan, played by Palance in this elaborate but silly historical epic. The Italian born Roldano Lupi plays Genghis Khan here (later played by Omar Sharif in a 1965 epic), and Palance is his war loving son who defies his father who longs for peace with the Europeans after conquering part of the continent, now in conflict with Poland. Anita Ekberg goes the campy distance as his evil blonde mistress who delivers each threat of death as if she was trying to outdo Judith Anderson's legendary performance as Medea and Lady MacBeth, and just gets laughs but for all the wrong reasons.
An attractive production, but as convoluted it as trying to compare a map of Europe in the middle ages as to what it looks now. Palance, who started off his career with some wonderful critically-acclaimed Academy Award nominated performances, had sunk to these absurd European peplum films, and every performance seems to be an effort to outdo the last one in melodramatic campiness. However it's Ekberg who chews the scenery the most, and frankly, Palance and Ekberg are overshadowed by the subtlety of Lupi as Genghis and Franco Silva as the Polish ambassador. It's interesting that Palance's character is pretty much forgotten in Mongolian history, while his father and nephew Kublai are the ones remembered. Same goes for this film which doesn't have delightful ridiculousness of the John Wayne/Susan Hayward epic "The Conqueror" which deserves its place in history as one of the worst movies ever. This one is just dull and quickly forgettable.
An attractive production, but as convoluted it as trying to compare a map of Europe in the middle ages as to what it looks now. Palance, who started off his career with some wonderful critically-acclaimed Academy Award nominated performances, had sunk to these absurd European peplum films, and every performance seems to be an effort to outdo the last one in melodramatic campiness. However it's Ekberg who chews the scenery the most, and frankly, Palance and Ekberg are overshadowed by the subtlety of Lupi as Genghis and Franco Silva as the Polish ambassador. It's interesting that Palance's character is pretty much forgotten in Mongolian history, while his father and nephew Kublai are the ones remembered. Same goes for this film which doesn't have delightful ridiculousness of the John Wayne/Susan Hayward epic "The Conqueror" which deserves its place in history as one of the worst movies ever. This one is just dull and quickly forgettable.