The Conqueror leaves much to be desired when we talk about the artistic legacy. The 1956 movie is a historical epic known as one of the most notorious duds of the 1950s. It has been made routinely in the list of ‘The Worst Movies Ever Made.’ The movie starring John Wayne turned out to be an unfortunate blemish on the Duke’s acting reputation.

Introduction to the movie

The movie famously went over the budget, and while it did manage to make its money back, it was lambasted by the critics at the time, primarily for its grievous miscasting of John Wayne as Genghis Khan.

If you ever like to hear the Mongol leader Temujin with a Southern drawl, the film is a gift only for you. In the movie, you can see the rise of Genghis Khan, with the fanciful backdrop to the founder of the Mongol Empire. People who managed to sit through the movie’s entire 111 minutes would wonder if John Wayne was the best actor portraying the man whose conquering hoards created the largest contiguous empire in history.

Operation Upshot-Knothole

Between 1951 and 1962, over 100 atomic bombs were detonated 1953 at the Nevada National Security Site, with 11 being tested as a part of a particular battery test called Operation Upshot-Knothole. It was an attempt to find a way to fire nuclear devices from the grounded cannon as opposed to dropping them from an airplane.

If we add more to the whiff of satire to the real-life devastation, the test bombs all had the names like Dixie, Ruth, and Annie (cute). But, unfortunately, operation Upshot-Knothole was concluded the year before ‘The Conqueror’ was in production.

Even though the Atomic Energy Commission assured the studio and local residents that the testing of nuclear whereby was 100% safe, not of about the long-term effects of radiation were known, and the effects of the nuclear fallout are not yet studied.

Howard Hughes staged the reshoots for ‘The Conqueror’ in Hollywood to save time and money. But to maintain the visual consistency, he also shipped the 60 tons of dirt from the original Utah location, which was irradiated. The soil is now spread around the industrial park in Culver City, CA.

According to some nuclear scientists, the radiation levels from the NNSS were ten times greater than the Chernobyl disaster.

Downwinders

During the years following the filming of ‘The Conqueror,’ the crew and cast members became quite sick. Actor Pedro Armendáriz developed terminal kidney cancer in 1960, and on learning about the fatal condition, he died by suicide in 1963. The same year, Dick Powel died of lymphatic cancer at 53. In another case, Susan Hayward, throughout the 1970s, developed uterine, breast, and skin cancers before dying of brain cancer in 1974 at 56. Agnes Moorehead died of uterine cancer in 1974, and John Wayne suffered from stomach, throat, and lung cancers for years and later died in 1979.

After an investigation, it was found that out of 220 people on the movie set, 91 people had developed some form of cancer, with 46 dead.

The guilt of Howard Hughes

It is being postulated that Howard Hughes bought up all the prints of ‘The Conqueror’ out of guilt for having killed nearly half of the crew and cast without even including the family members of the crew and case. As a result, John Wayne’s two sons, who visited the set, eventually developed cancer.

Advocates

It’s been postulated that Howard Hughes bought up all the prints of “The Conqueror” out of guilt for having killed nearly half of the cast and crew, and that doesn’t even include family members of the cast and crew; John Wayne’s two sons visited the set, and both also eventually developed cancer. In addition, advocates for down winders have pointed out that radioactive damage can alter DNA, increasing the risk for intergenerational infection.

As per the reports, Hughes spent many years in isolation, wracked by intense world phobias and wrestling with mental illness. Nevertheless, Hughes repeatedly watched “The Conqueror” in his private screening room. Perhaps Hughes enacted a twisted form of penance for making a notorious film that killed almost 100 people.

In the end, you can also say that ‘The Conqueror’ did not exactly kill it at the box office. In terms of the body count, however, it is safe to say that it more than made up for that.

However, if you want to know more about the movie and are still interested in watching it, unsurprisingly, it is only available to stream online.