I have read about this movie for years...and today I was finally able to watch it. According to my John Wayne Cogerson Movie Score page...this is the worst John Wayne movie of his career according to critics and audiences. In this one Wayne plays Genghis Khan and Susan Hayward plays his wife. The good: Costume design, movie locale and the amount of extras used is impressive. The bad: Casting is horrible....John Wayne playing the head of the Mongrels...just plain silly, the dialogue is even sillier and the action sequences are pretty lame. Final thoughts of review: Not as bad as I thought it would be....but certainly not a good movie.

Some sad history about this movie. From IMDB. The film…

'I feel this Tartar woman is for me, my blood says "Take her!"'

John Wayne as Genghis Khan?!

The idea is so outlandish that some people laugh at the mere mention of this film; well, watching it is no joke, either, but Wayne himself had the sense to see that this was merely another Western, if set on the Steppes of Asia.

Co-star Susan Hayward's idea of playing a Tartar princess is to flare her nostrils and look indignant, which she has every right to do given the kind of dialogue she has to spout, poor girl!

Her kidnapping gives rise to a number of skirmishes involving Pedro Armendariz - Wayne's 'blood brother' - as well as Thomas Gomez and…

A trainwreck of historic proportions.

Where do I start with this one? A pet project of reclusive aviator Howard Hughes (his last production in fact) this western epic from director Dick Powell cost $6 million to make, and premiered in February of 1956. Clearly blinded by its recognizable stars audiences helped this clumsy film earn some $9 million in proceeds. The approved-rated story hilariously features John Wayne in the title role as Temujin - a Mongol warrior in the 13th century who would rise to power to become Genghis Khan.

Let that sink in for a minute... America's most recognizable cowboy, at the prime of his career, was selected to play an Asian warrior. Racial insensitivity notwithstanding, this might be…

Surely John Wayne as Gengis Khan is the devastatingly worst casting decision in cinema history. Thank God that the Duke was at the apex of his career (The Searchers was released soon after) during this time, so this travesty can somewhat be overlooked. Even so, it's painful to watch my all-time hero in the role.

I hadn't seen The Conqueror in such a long time, literally since I was a kid, and I was approaching this viewing with some anticipation and intrigue. It's cringeworthy from start to finish. Everything about the film is cringeworthy: the dialogue, the acting and so forth. I don't want to go on anymore! 

Indeed, the film is renowned because of the cancer controversy (something like…

Famously called one of the worst movies of the 1950s — and possibly of all time — because of the absurd casting of John Wayne as Genghis Khan. Indeed, the movie has lots of camp value, principally in the fact that Wayne delivers all sorts of colorful Mongolian dialogue in his regular flat cowboy voice. Meanwhile, Susan Hayward might have been the least Asian-looking woman alive at the time of shooting, a fact which the movie not only doesn't bother to hide but actually highlights by curling her hair. There is also a surprisingly long dance number, believe it or not.

One could also criticize the film on ethical grounds, even beyond the questions of cultural appropriation. Temujin forces himself…