The Worst John Wayne Movie, According To Letterboxd Users

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Nothing about Dick Powell's 1956 historical epic "The Conqueror" went right. Firstly, and most obviously, the casting was horrid. John Wayne, America's racist uncle, was cast as Temujin, a.k.a. Genghis Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire in the 12th century. His wife, Börte, was played by Susan Hayward. Other white actors playing Asian characters included Agnes Moorehead, William Conrad, and Lee Van Cleef.

Additionally, the production was immensely troubled. "The Conqueror" was filmed partly in the desert outside of St. George, Utah, and production was slowed by an unexpected flash flood. According to the book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" by Michael Medved, Harry Medved, and Randy Dreyfuss, Wayne was frequently drunk on set, inspiring his co-stars to match his drunken energy with silly, untethered performances of their own. The film's writer, Oscar Millard, however, said that Wayne's performance was awful whether he was drunk or sober. Everyone seemed to know they had a turkey on their hands, and producer Howard Hughes — overseeing his second-to-last movie — famously bought the rights to "The Conqueror" for $12 million after its release to ensure that it never saw the light of day again. RKO Radio Pictures was unable to buy the film back until 1979.

Most significantly, "The Conqueror" got terrible reviews. Time Magazine argued that John Wayne's performance rested somewhere between that of "a square-shootin' sheriff and a Mongolian idiot." The New Yorker called it "Pure Hollywood moonshine" as a pejorative, writing, "You never saw so many horses fall down in your life. Still, even though their tumbling is far superior to the antics of the actors, it presently becomes tiresome."

Since 1956, "The Conqueror" has not undergone any kind of notable re-litigation. Modern viewers still think it's bad, with users on Letterboxd giving it an average rating of two stars out of 10. It's Letterboxd's lowest-rated movie starring the Duke, nosing out the controversial John Wayne vehicle "The Green Berets" by a half star.

Most of the reviews on Letterboxd comment immediately on how poorly-cast "The Conqueror" is. (Notably, hiring a racist white man to play an Asian historical figure was seen as tacky and horrid even in the 1950s, and it has only aged like film milk.) One review sarcastically noted that Genghis Khan was the role Wayne was born to play. Another compared "The Conqueror" to other infamously whitewashed casting decisions throughout Hollywood history, from "Gods of Egypt" (where white actors play Egyptian characters) to "Aloha" (which has a white actor playing a biracial native Hawaiian), "Prince of Persia" (in which white actors portray Persian characters), "Face of Fu Manchu" (where Christopher Lee plays a Chinese man), and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (Mickey Rooney? Really?).

Once you get past the casting, though, the reviews still have little complimentary to say about "The Conqueror." Some reviewers have referred to the film as being "tedious" and "turgid," with too many scenes of actors standing around and reciting bland dialogue. The consensus seems to be that it's just really, really boring. One reviewer also noted that "The Conqueror" is, on top of everything else, a sexist story detailing a horrific case of Stockholm Syndrome. (Börte, you see, was kidnapped against her will, is never treated well, and still falls for Temujin. It's discomforting to say the least.)

Many of the reviewers also know about the dubious production and often comment that the film was seemingly so bad it actually took peoples' lives. For those unfamiliar, the Wayne-led movie was filmed under radioactive conditions, with its set located downwind of a Nevada nuclear testing facility. When the production was shifted back to Hollywood, Hughes, to retain visual continuity, shipped in 60 tons of dirt from Utah (which was also radioactive). About a fifth of the cast and crew eventually died of cancer. Powell, Wayne, Hayward, Moorhead, Van Cleef, actors Pedro Armendáriz and John Hoyt, and Wayne's two sons who appeared in the film all received cancer diagnoses. The radioactive Utah dirt is now spread all over an unknown park in Culver City, California.

Yeah, it looks like you can skip this one.