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Plot summary
Temujin, a Mongol chief, and his blood brother Jamuga waylay a caravan carrying Bortai, the daughter of the Tartar leader Kumlek, and Temujin takes her for himself. At the Mongol camp his mother Hunlun is angered to learn that the prisoner is the daughter of the man who killed her husband. Bortai refuses to dance for the Mongols, and that night Targutai, the Merkit chieftain, attacks the camp; Temujin kills him. Temujin then plans to win Wang Khan as an ally by claiming that the Tartars and Merkits mean to attack Urga, and he tells Bortai that her dowry of furs will be given to Wang Khan. She tries to stab him for it.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Conqueror (1956)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The role of Genghis Khan was written for Marlon Brando, who accepted and then backed out; John Wayne then lobbied hard for the part, and director Dick Powell gave in, later recalling, "Who am I to turn down John Wayne?"
- To play Genghis Khan, John Wayne went on a crash diet, took the amphetamine Dexedrine four times a day, and trained in fencing with Fred Cavens.
- Screenwriter Oscar Millard described a chaotic shoot in which the crew narrowly escaped a flash flood and John Wayne was reportedly drunk for three days straight, saying his performance barely changed either way.
- Of the film's roughly 220 cast and crew, 91 (41 percent) had developed cancer by 1980 and 46 had died of it, a toll many linked to filming near a nuclear weapons test site.
- To match the look of the Utah desert where filming had taken place near a nuclear test site, producer Howard Hughes had 60 tons of Utah dirt shipped back to Hollywood for studio reshoots.
- The Conqueror was RKO's first film shot in CinemaScope, and at a $6 million budget it was the most expensive film the studio had ever made.
- The film's Berlin premiere turned into a riot when young fans from East Berlin broke past East German border troops to catch a glimpse of John Wayne.
