Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Conquerer -- in Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

[Robert Harris]

Although released via RKO in March of 1956, this Dick Powell directed / Howard Hughes produced epic was shot in the early days of CinemaScope, beginning in the spring of 1954.

There are numerous unusual aspects to the film, beginning with the RKO log in CinemaScope. But a superb cast, composer, cinematographer(s) could not make this anything more than an interesting artifact of the era, and possibly one of the worst film ever created by a studio on a big budget.

Offered by Kino in its original (early) 2.55:1 aspect ratio. I'd like to tell you that that it looks superb, with great color, density and black levels.

But I'm unable to do that.

What I saw didn't really trouble me, as the film itself almost deserves the image as offered.

Not sure what occurred, but presuming that the OCN is extant, it should have yielded a quality image. What we have is something derived from the original 5216 sep masters, which appears overly grainy in many shots, but with decent color.

It's quite good DVD quality.

One might presume that this is for Wayne or Hayward completists.

I wish them well.

Image

Forensic - 2
NSD - 5

Audio – DTS-HD MA

Pass / Fail – Fail

Plays nicely with projectors - Not really

Upgrade from DVD - I'd probably not

Worth your attention - 1

Slipcover rating - 3 (actually pretty, and a different image from disc case)

RAH



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[RolandL]

I don't know what the cost was. Hopefully didn't lose too much money.

Top Grossing Movies of 1956​

Rank	Movie	Release Date	Distributor	Genre	1956 Gross	Tickets Sold
1	The Ten Commandments	Oct 5, 1956		Drama	$85,400,591	170,801,182
2	Around the World in 80 Days	Oct 17, 1956	United Artists	Adventure	$42,000,000	84,000,000
3	Giant	Nov 24, 1956		Western	$30,085,147	60,170,294
4	The King and I	Jun 29, 1956			$21,300,000	42,600,000
5	Trapeze	May 30, 1956		Drama	$14,400,000	28,800,000
6	War and Peace	Aug 21, 1956		Drama	$12,500,000	25,000,000
7	The Man Who Knew Too Much	Jun 1, 1956	Universal	Thriller/Suspense	$11,333,333	22,666,666
8	The Man in the Gray Flannel…	Apr 12, 1956		Drama	$10,875,000	21,750,000
9	Moby Dick	Jun 27, 1956		Adventure	$10,400,000	20,800,000
10	The Conqueror	Feb 21, 1956		Adventure	$9,000,000	18,000,000
11	Love Me Tender	Nov 15, 1956		Musical	$9,000,000	18,000,000
12	High Society	Jan 1, 1956			$6,500,000	13,000,000
13	Bus Stop	Aug 31, 1956	20th Century Fox	Comedy	$4,500,000	9,000,000
14	Forbidden Planet	Mar 15, 1956		Adventure	$3,000,000	6,000,000
15	The Wrong Man	Dec 23, 1956	Warner Bros.	Thriller/Suspense	$2,000,000	4,000,000
Total Gross of All Movies	$272,294,071​
Total Tickets Sold	544,588,142​

 

[Konstantinos]

That's funny..
I see the imdb rating, and your critique, but I don't remember it to be THAT bad..

 

[BobO'Link]

John Wayne as Genghis Khan is enough to make it "bad." He's horribly miscast (but so would have been Marlon Brando in spite of the role supposedly being written for him). It has its good points but overall it's just bad. I'll likely just keep my DVD of this one.

 

[Robert Harris]

That's funny..
I see the imdb rating, and your critique, but I don't remember it to be THAT bad..

I was being extremely kind.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

I must say that John Wayne was a FAR better Temujin than Stephen Boyd was in '75's Genghis Khan and Susan Haywood, Agnes Moorhead and Pedro Armendariz were wonderful in their parts. I like the film and find it a rather fun adventure saga, never dull and sometimes comical which is fine in my book anyway.

 

[richardburton84]

I must say that John Wayne was a FAR better Temujin than Stephen Boyd was in '75's Genghis Khan and Susan Haywood, Agnes Moorhead and Pedro Armendariz were wonderful in their parts. I like the film and find it a rather fun adventure saga, never dull and sometimes comical which is fine in my book anyway.

Actually, it was Omar Sharif who played Temujin in that Genghis Khan film (I remember catching the end of that film once, but still haven’t seen the rest of it). I haven’t seen this film partly because of all the negative reviews, but my grandfather was a huge Wayne fan and Agnes Moorhead might persuade me to give it a try.

 

[Jimbo.B]

Is this the “cursed” movie whose whole cast died of cancer due to supposed exposure to atomic radiation?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Is this the “cursed” movie whose whole cast died of cancer due to supposed exposure to atomic radiation?

Not the whole cast but a majority of them.

 

[mskaye]

There's a comment on YouTube with the original trailer that sums things up nicely: "If you ever feel like you suck at what you do, then just remember there was a casting director that thought this was a good idea."

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Actually, it was Omar Sharif who played Temujin in that Genghis Khan film (I remember catching the end of that film once, but still haven’t seen the rest of it). I haven’t seen this film partly because of all the negative reviews, but my grandfather was a huge Wayne fan and Agnes Moorhead might persuade me to give it a try.

That's totally right, memory blip, still Wayne was better than Sharif as Temujin. Can't imagine Wayne as Doctor Zhivago, however.

 

[sbjork]

There's a comment on YouTube with the original trailer that sums things up nicely: "If you ever feel like you suck at what you do, then just remember there was a casting director that thought this was a good idea."

 

[Robin9]

I don't know what the cost was. Hopefully didn't lose too much money.

Top Grossing Movies of 1956​

Rank	Movie	Release Date	Distributor	Genre	1956 Gross	Tickets Sold
1	The Ten Commandments	Oct 5, 1956		Drama	$85,400,591	170,801,182
2	Around the World in 80 Days	Oct 17, 1956	United Artists	Adventure	$42,000,000	84,000,000
3	Giant	Nov 24, 1956		Western	$30,085,147	60,170,294
4	The King and I	Jun 29, 1956			$21,300,000	42,600,000
5	Trapeze	May 30, 1956		Drama	$14,400,000	28,800,000
6	War and Peace	Aug 21, 1956		Drama	$12,500,000	25,000,000
7	The Man Who Knew Too Much	Jun 1, 1956	Universal	Thriller/Suspense	$11,333,333	22,666,666
8	The Man in the Gray Flannel…	Apr 12, 1956		Drama	$10,875,000	21,750,000
9	Moby Dick	Jun 27, 1956		Adventure	$10,400,000	20,800,000
10	The Conqueror	Feb 21, 1956		Adventure	$9,000,000	18,000,000
11	Love Me Tender	Nov 15, 1956		Musical	$9,000,000	18,000,000
12	High Society	Jan 1, 1956			$6,500,000	13,000,000
13	Bus Stop	Aug 31, 1956	20th Century Fox	Comedy	$4,500,000	9,000,000
14	Forbidden Planet	Mar 15, 1956		Adventure	$3,000,000	6,000,000
15	The Wrong Man	Dec 23, 1956	Warner Bros.	Thriller/Suspense	$2,000,000	4,000,000
Total Gross of All Movies	$272,294,071​
Total Tickets Sold	544,588,142​

Where did this come from? Who the hell regards Love Me Tender as a musical but does not categorize The King And I and High Society as musicals?

 

[BobO'Link]

There's a comment on YouTube with the original trailer that sums things up nicely: "If you ever feel like you suck at what you do, then just remember there was a casting director that thought this was a good idea."

Minor issue with that... Wayne apparently lobbied for the role.

From IMDB:

According to "The Hollywood Hall of Shame," the screenplay was written with Marlon Brando in mind for the lead. John Wayne was about to make the last film of a three-picture deal for RKO Radio Pictures, and Dick Powell had been assigned to direct. They were going over various scripts in Powell's office when Powell was called away for a few minutes. When he returned, he found Wayne enthusiastically looking over the screenplay for "The Conqueror", which Powell had intended to throw away. Powell tried to talk him out of it, but Wayne insisted that it was the film he wanted to make. As Powell later said, "Who am I to turn down John Wayne?"

Wayne 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."

 

[jim_falconer]

Kino released this in mono?? That’s hard to believe, when the import BR and previous DVD releases were all in stereo. What a shame, guess I’ll have to pass on this.

 

[Douglas R]

I have an unmentionable Spanish Blu-ray which has excellent spacious 5.1 surround sound. Picture quality is reasonably good. My intention was to keep it until a legitimate release came along. I have the Kino on the way but it looks like I've wasted my money. Universal have slipped up badly if they provided Kino with a mono master.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Was this movie even in stereo originally? The vhs tapes from the 80s and 90s are all mono.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Was this movie even in stereo originally? The vhs tapes from the 80s and 90s are all mono.

UCLA's archive lists an original 35mm dye-transfer print with mag sound.

 

[Douglas R]

UCLA's archive lists an original 35mm dye-transfer print with mag sound.

Yes it sounds exactly like a 1950s stereo track on my Spanish Blu-ray. Fairly common in 1956 for a CinemaScope film to have stereo sound.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

The Victor Young Conqueror score is wonderful. I'm curious as to whether some vault somewhere might still house score elements. Probably wishful thinking , but I'd sure love to see some intrepid soundtrack enthusiast and orchestra tackle a re-recording. Tried to find something in the Brandeis University site but no luck so far. For a taste of it here’s the Suite on YouTube: