Directed by: Dick Powell, Produced by: Howard Hughes
Cast: John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz, Agnes Moorehead, Thomas Gomez, John Hoyt, William Conrad, Ted de Corsia, Lee Van Cleef, Leo Gordon, Michael Wayne, Richard Loo, Charles Horvath, Fred Aldrich, Phil Arnold, Gregg Barton, Lane Bradford, Larry Chance, Barrie Chase, John Daheim, Duke Fishman, Patrick Wayne
Taglines:
"Two years in the making... At a cost of $6,000,000!"
"The world? I will take it! The woman? I will tame her!"
"This Tartar woman is for me and my blood says take her!"
"'I am Temujin... Barbarian... I fight! I love! I conquer... Like a Barbarian!'"
"Under his heel... Cowering nations! In his arms... An untamed woman!"
"This Tartar woman meets his fire with ice... matches his fury with flame!"
"'Is Temujin so wanting for a woman that he must quench his fire with ice?"
"Spectacular as its barbaric passions and savage conquests... 2 years in the making... At a cost of $6,000,000!"
"At her feet The Conqueror laid all the riches of Cathay... and for a hundred years their children ruled half the world!"
Plot Summary:A mighty Mongol warrior kidnaps the daughter of a powerful Tartar king and seizes control of his empire. The battles pale in comparison with Temujin's home life, as he attempts to woo the heart of his prisoner.
Nuclear incident and cancer controversy: (from Wikipedia) "The Conqueror" is sometimes called "An RKO Radioactive Picture." Of the 220 crew members, 91 (comprising 41% of the crew) developed cancer during their lifetime, while 46 (or 21%) died from it. When this was learned, many suspected that filming in Utah and surrounding locations was to blame. The movie took two years to make was shot at a site downwind from the Yucca Flats, Nevada nuclear testing site. However, tobacco use was very common and likely to have been a key factor in accounting for these cancer deaths. Although the number of cases among the cast and crew is in line with the average for adults in the US at the time, the perception of a link between the film's location and subsequent illness remains, not least because many of those involved developed cancer at a younger age than average. In 1962, Powell developed lymphoma and died in January 1963. Armendáriz committed suicide in June 1963 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Hayward died of brain cancer in 1975. Wayne developed lung cancer in 1964, and eventually died from stomach cancer in 1979. Several of Wayne's and Hayward's relatives visiting the set also had cancer scares. Wayne's son Michael developed skin cancer and Patrick had a benign tumor removed from his breast. Hayward's son, Tim Barker, had a benign tumor removed from his mouth. Moorehead was a nonsmoker, teetotaler and health fanatic, yet died of cancer in April 1974. Her mother Mary maintained that it was working on "The Conqueror" which ultimately killed Agnes. John Hoyt died of lung cancer in 1991. Lee Van Cleef died from a heart attack in 1989, but his secondary cause of death was listed as throat cancer. Reportedly, Howard Hughes felt guilty about his decisions regarding production, particularly over the decision to film at a hazardous site. He bought every print for $12 million and kept it out of circulation for many years until Universal Pictures purchased the film from his estate in 1979. "The Conqueror", along with "Ice Station Zebra", is said to be one of the films Hughes watched endlessly during his last years. Dr. Robert Pendleton, then a professor of biology at the University of Utah, is reported to have stated in 1980, "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. With 91 cancer cases, I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of "The Conqueror" would hold up in a court of law." Several cast and crew members, as well as relatives of those who died, considered suing the government for negligence, claiming it knew more about the hazards in the area than it let on.