The Conqueror

For those who don’t recognize the role John Wayne is playing in the above shot, it’s Temujin (the movie takes place before he becomes Chinggis Khan) in the legendarily atrocious The Conqueror. As not Mongol as Wayne looks in the role, his costar, the lovely Susan Hayward looks much less like a Tartar than, well, an American actress.

Radiation from nearby nuclear tests that most certainly contributed to high cancer rates among cast and crew was just one of the many problems involved in making this Howard Hughes fiasco. It certainly was a more tragic problem than such classic lines as, “This Tartar woman is for me and my blood says take her!” (As featured on this magnificent poster.)

I thank the good people in South Korea who saw fit to release this movie on DVD, and also thank the folks who sell it on eBay. After a very hectic term, much of which involved extensive reading on the Mongol Empire, I can think of no better way to mark the end of the course than watching this delightfully bad movie.

This post was written by...

Nathan Hamm – author of 2974 posts on Registan.net.

Nathan is the Founding Editor and Publisher of Registan.net, which he launched in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with private and government clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural and political factors shape risks and opportunities and how organizations can adjust their strategic and operational plans to account for these variables. Nathan is currently seeking research, analysis, and consulting opportunities. He can be contacted via Twitter or email.

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