We are one week away from Spooky Month next month, and boy I have some absolute pearlers lined up for October! But for now, we have to be patient and see out September. And see it out in fashion I will with the last but one film from the 1950's left on my list that I haven't covered yet: Howard Hughes: The Conqueror. Posthumously blamed for the death of half it's cast and crew, and a film so objectively bad that Mr Hughes himself bought every copy, wouldn't let anyone watch it and hoarded them until 1974. And never produced a movie ever again. I'd like to tell you I left this one so late for a reason, but in reality it's just been an absolute ballache to try and find it. You won't find it on Amazon or Netflix (at least not in this country) but I eventually managed to source a dodgy stream of it on a random Arabic website in the backwaters of the internet somewhere... so here we go!
Targutai (Leslie Bradley), Merkit Chief, is just minding his own business, ferrying his to-be third wife, Tatan woman; Bortai (Susan Hayward) back home when he is rudely interrupted by Mongol's Jamuga (Pedro Armendáriz) and his brother Temujin (John Wayne), who upon setting eyes on Bortai immediately decides that she is the one for him. One quick trip to the village later and Temujin gathers up a bunch of his mates, sacks the convoy and takes Bortai as his own, mercifully sparing Targutai but sending him on his way clutching only Bortai's torn off dress as a memento. Returning back to their camp, Temujin introduces his new woman to his mother, which doesn't go down very well given that she is the daughter of the man who murdered her husband and Temujin's father... and later Bortai rejects Temujin's advances anyway, angering him and having her banished to her tent. Later in the evening, Bortai propositions Jamuga in return for safe passage away from the camp, which Jamuga refuses, refusing to disobey and betray his brother, but before that situation can develop any further their camp is attacked by a returning Targutai. In the ensuing melee, Temujin kills Targutai and spots Jamuga and Bortai emerging from her tent together, snatching up Bortai he rides away with the rest of Targutai's army following him, and manages to evade the army by hiding in crevice. Sure that they are safe, he then forces himself of Bortai who reluctantly caves in to his advances. Tamujin returns to camp and re-establishes control, and after speaking with Jamuga declares he is off to pay a visit to Wang Khan to propose an alliance in hopes that together they may eradicate the Tatar's altogether, initially entrusting care of Bortai with Jamuga, Jamuga expresses his wariness of her and Tamujin decides instead to take her with him. Arriving at Wang Khan's palace, the pair proceed to have a feast with some, admittedly pretty impressive, dancing, which ends when Bortai bolts from her seat and proceeds to do a bit of dancing herself, flinging a sword only inches away from Wang Khan, resulting in her getting banished. Party well and truly crashed, Tamujin reveals that he has learned that the Tatars and Merkits have formed an alliance to wipe out the other Gobi tribes and that he has already slain Targutai of the Merkits. Consulting his Shaman, Wang Khan agrees to an alliance with Tamujin, however when Tamujin and his entourage return to camp they are ambushed by Tatan's, with Bortai getting away and Tamujin injured. Seeking refuge in a cave, Tamujin is discovered by Jamuga who dresses his wounds and, after covertly sneaking into the ransacked camp by professing his wishes to betray Tamujin and then escaping, returns at daybreak with horses to escape but not before catching the attention of Bortai who sends guards to capture Tamujin with Jamuga 'conveniently' escaping. Tamujin is taken to Tatan Chief; Kumlek (Ted de Corsia), and father of Bortai, who condemns him to execution by slow death. However that same night, Bortai; realising she is in love with Tamujin, sets him free and, commandeering a horse from one of the guards, Tamujin is able to escape and is rescued by Mongol guards. Returning to camp, Tamujin briefly confronts Jamuga but believes he has not betrayed him and immediately sets about organising an attack on Kumlek with the assistance of Wang Khan's forces sending Jamuga and Kasar (William Conrad) to visit Wang Khan and make the arrangements. But upon arrival Wang Khan and his Shaman (John Hoyt) are suspicious and have Jamuga and Kasar imprisoned, with Jamuga being the only one of the pair managing to escape, only to be later captured and wounded by the Tatan's as he tries to get back home. With no signs of Wang Khan's forces arriving to help, Tamujin is visited by the Shaman who, betraying Wang Khan, instructs Tamujin to seize the city of Uyghur from beneath Wang Khan, and offers his assistance to do so. Tamujin and his army attacks the city, but as soon as Tamujin sets foot in the gates the Shaman disappears, going instead to the quarters of Wang Khan, and murdering him in bed, but not before the Khan can reveal to Tamujin the Shaman's treachery and Tamujin kills him where he stands. Tamujin proceeds to take the city of Uyghur for his own, but meanwhile Jamuga is not doing so well, until Bortai, taking pity on him has him released and together the pair make plans to escape and reunite with Tamujin, but it seems they didn't have to wait long, as Tamujin and his men ransack the camp almost immediately afterwards with Tamujin taking Bortai with him but leaving Jamuga behind believing him to be a traitor. Meeting Kumlek's forces on the field of battle, Tamujin and his army are able to overcome them and Tamujin slays Kumlek with a single blow to the chest. Returning to camp Jamuga appears before Tamujin and Bortai and despite Tamujin renouncing his suspicion, Jamuga believes that he, Tamujin, would never rest easy, and instead proclaims that Tamujin will become Ghengis Khan - the perfect warrior and asks nothing more from Ghengis Khan than to die a quick death with no further bloodshed, a wish he is granted by Tamujin...
Phew! This was a long one, clocking in at just shy of 2 hours with little time devoted to the pre-movie credits, and usually with these kind of "50's costume dramas" (and I try to say that as less disparaging as possible!) it's really easy to just get sort of muddled and lost about halfway through, but for whatever criticisms you might have for this movie, you can't criticise the narrative. Despite clocking in at nearly 2 hours I never felt like the movie was dragging or that, as the plot was developing, that any parts felt un-necessary or didn't contribute to the movies development. What I'm saying - in short - is that it was if nothing else, an entertaining film: things happened and although, for a movie about the roving Mongol hordes, there wasn't huge amounts of action, there was small action set pieces occasionally that were probably the highlight of the movie.
Unfortunately, this movies biggest Achilles heel, it's arguably it's biggest star: John Wayne. John Wayne is a legendary actor, no doubt, but John Wayne has zero range. John Wayne plays John Wayne, and it doesn't matter whether he's dressed a Mongol Warrior, a Cowboy, or a fucking Astronaut if you like, it's John Wayne. John Wayne in fancy dress. And as a result of that everything about this feels, and to a degree; is, very Americanised. The Mongols, the Tatans, everybody really, has an American accent except for John Hoyt as the Shaman, who puts on a really awful pseudo-Chinese accent. And it's it's Americanisation that completely spears the entire movie, because it borders on pure silliness. I mean, I'm trying not to look on it retrospectively, and I appreciate being 50's it was the style at the time, but it's difficult to fully buy into the character of Tamujin when he speaks with such a broad, Westernized accent and uses Westernized phrases.
Otherwise Susan Hayward does a really great job of just looking mildy irritated, or mildly confused. There's no inbetween really, save for one final scene at the end when she is re-united with Tamujin. Again: style at the time, but she just floats as a kind of damsel in distress \ female sex object throughout the entire film, and regrettably contributes little more to the movie aside from that and being the sole driving plot point for the entire narrative: Tamujin wants to be reunited with her. But for what it's worth, in such a limited capacity, Susan Hayward puts in a decent enough performance and is allowed at least some freedom of expression with her dancing section, but it's obvious that her and John Wayne have zero chemistry and the romantic moments are just embarrassing more than anything...
