An American historical adventure; A story set in the 12th century about the rise of a ferocious Mongol chief - the future Genghis Khan - who kidnaps the daughter of a ruthless rival - a Tartar - causing a continental conflict. Despite some impressive battle sequences, and good stuntwork, this mostly-fiction-based-on-fact movie suffers from a dull and contrived narrative, heavy and occasionally childish dialogue and a rudimentary romance. It has less than inspired casting and stilted delivery of dialogue, especially attributed to its lead, John Wayne, who is at best an elemental Gengis Khan. The only fairly convincing performance is Pedro Armendariz, who is willing to sacrifice himself for his jealous chief.

If this was the Mongolian BBQ of John Wayne's career, it was filled with rancid tartar sauce for Susan Hayward. This goes down in film history as probably the dumbest of historical epics, but one with a sad PostScript gangs to the location where it was shocked. This was made at the tail end of RKO radios reign as one of the Hollywood major studios, and during the Howard Hughes era, the studio had its share of disasters. If you view this as a cartoon, you might find it amusing because it is indeed extremely funny albeit in a tacky way.

it's no wonder that John Wayne was never cast as Charlie Chan because he looks absolutely ridiculous in his Fu Manchu mustache with his eyes altered to appear Asian. He's the future emperor Genghis Khan, kidnapping Susan Hayward who is Believe it or not the daughter of a tartan King whom he molests and forces to be his bride. Somehow, however, she falls in love with him, and it's probably one of the most unbelievable romances in film history. There's Pedro Armendáriz, William Conrad, Leon Van Cleef and Thomas Gomez looking absolutely ridiculous as well, and Agnes Moorehead's disapproving mother of Wayne is basically an Asian version of Endora. She is giving the most ridiculous looking wardrobe and her eyes are indicating that she's wondering how she got messed up in this mess.

This film has so many silly moments that you document to them would be a movie in itself. There is of course is the obligatory dance sequence that indicates that Hayward, while talented in many ways, was not a Terpsiqourie. in addition to the silly looking costumes, some of the sets are outlandish, particularly part of the caravan following Hayward on her way to be patrols. This contraption looks like a giant powder puff container.

Unfortunately, a good majority of the cast and crew were afflicted with cancer due to military tests near by the sets. I'm sure when they were diagnosed and realize what they were doing when this occurred made the bad memory of it all the more infuriating. At least nobody has to sing like Desi Arnaz Jr.and Zero Mostel would do two decades later in the musical about Genghis's grandson Kublai and his meeting with Marco Polo. You're better off with the still mediocre 1965 film about Genghis Khan starring Omar Sharif. Still, this is laughably fun, and in spite of being ridiculously bad, it is certainly never boring.

In the film , there is epic , mammoth spectacle , hokey historical events , a love story , camp dialog to spare , wonderful landscapes and results to be a failed as well a little boring film . At the time , 1956 , surpassed anything ever filmed before , including all-star-cast who were later stricken by cancer . Set during the 13th century in which the brutal warrior Mongol chief Temujin conquers most of Asia , Europe and the Middle-East . As Temujin (John Wayne , considered to be the silliest character of his long career) battles against Tartar armies led by Kumlek and for the love of the Tartar princess Bortai (Susan Hayward) . Temujin was taken prisoner by the rival warlord , a fearless leader called Kumlek (Ted De Corsia) and as punishment was forced to wear a large round wooden stock that severely restricted his movements but with the help of Bortai he manages to getaway . He overcomes all of his hardships to become one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known and now starts his quest to unify all of the Mongol tribes . Gengis gets big hits , but his old nemesis keeps appearing at various times in his life leader to a final battle between the two . As Genghis Khan, ruthless leader of the Mongols and sovereign over the vastest empire ever ruled by a single man, was both god and devil , not just in the Middle Ages , but for centuries to come . Temujin becomes the emperor of Mongols , the great Gengis Khan .

This expensive epic film in familiar drawling fashion contains clichéd barbarian dialogue , noisy action , great production design , impressive battles and a cast of thousands . It was filmed near a nuclear test site, and the set was contaminated by nuclear fallout , in the Yucca Flats area . Over the next 20 years, many actors and crew members developed cancer . By the time 91 of the 220 cast and crew members had developed cancer . Forty-six had died, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz , Agnes Moorehead, John Hoyt and director Dick Powell . The count did not include several hundred local Native Americans who played extras , or relatives of the cast and crew who visited the set, including John Wayne's son Michael Wayne . Many of the Mongol extras were played by local Navajo Indians , they did not wear any makeup . Miscasting by John Wayne and the results are unintentionally hilarious . But John Wayne took his role very seriously, went on a crash diet , however he regretted playing Temujin so much that he visibly shuddered whenever anyone mentioned the film's name as he once remarked that the moral of the film was "not to make an ass of yourself trying to play parts you're not suited for" . Colorful cinematography by four of the best Hollywood cameramen : Joseph LaShelle , William E. Snyder , Leo Tover and Harry J. Wild . Although the movie takes place in Asia, photography in Cinemascope was shot in California Snow Canyon, Utah, Hurricane, St. George, Utah, USA Escalante Desert, St. George, Utah .

This sweeping oriental drama was backed by financially eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and regularly directed by former movie star Dick Powell . However ; the box office failure of this movie was believed to be ultimately responsible for the demise of RKO Pictures studios . Dick Powell directed a few films such as : 1953 Split Second , 1956 You Can't Run Away from It , 1958 The hunters and his best film was : ¨The enemy below¨ . This was one of the final theatrically released movies of director Dick Powell who soon after worked exclusively in television such as Woman on the Run (TV ,1959) . Other films dealing with this historical figure are the followings : ¨Genghis Khan¨ (1965) by Henry Levin with Omar Shariff , Stephen Boyd , Telly Savallas , James Mason ; ¨Gengis Khan¨ (2005) by Edward Bazalgette and the best : ¨Mongol¨(2007) by Sergey Bodrov