The Movie That Killed Everybody
John Wayne's The Conqueror is not only one of cinemas all-time turkeys, it also racked up quite a body count.
John Wayne. For nearly half a century, he was Hollywood’s version of the ultimate American male. Tall, strong, silent, and fiercely patriotic. Men flocked to his movies and saw themselves on screen. More accurately, they saw who they wanted to be. Who they pretended to be. Ironic in that John Wayne was pretending too. Like everything else out of Hollywood, “John Wayne’ was make believe. He was an actor. He wore make-up. He had a stunt double. His real name was Marion Morrison. So you have Marion Morrison pretending to be John Wayne portraying a fictional character while the people in the audience think, “I wish I was him."
Despite being a strong supporter of American intervention abroad, most vocally during the Viet Nam War, Wayne himself never served. During World War 2 many Hollywood giants put their careers on hold to join the fight. Actors like Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas and Clark Gable signed up. Directors like Frank Capra John Ford and John Huston all served. John Wayne never quite found the time. Granted, this is no secret. It’s just one of those things. People who want it to believe it, do, and those who don’t want to think about it simply dismiss it. =
By and large, people’s views of John Wayne align with their view of America itself. Those who want to acknowledge the country’s mistakes and hypocrisies do and those who don’t simply dismiss them. “My country, right or wrong,” as the saying goes. That was certainly John Wayne’s feeling about America. It was a belief that would bite him in the ass, which brings us to one of his most notorious films.
John Wayne’s filmography is groaning with classics. From his first starring role in 1930’s The Big Trail to his Oscar Winning turn in 1969’s True Grit. In between you have Stagecoach, Red River, The Searchers, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance and on and on and on. For a man who made almost eighty films, it would be impossible to not have a clunker or two in there. It’s a testament to The Duke’s larger than life stature that one of his clunkers is one of the great clunkers of all time, 1956’s The Conqueror.
In The Conqueror, John Wayne plays Genghis Khan. My guess if you are reading this newsletter, you already knew that, but if you didn’t, please be assured that you read that correctly. Wayne played Mongol warlord Genghis Kahn. The role was originally written for Marlon Brando, who backed out. Perhaps he read some of the dialogue. With zingers like, “I feel this Tartar woman is for me. My blood says, “take her,” one can easily see why Brando took a pass.
John Wayne reportedly lobbied for the role, but he would live to regret it. The film also starred Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead and Pedro Armendariz. It was directed by actor Dick Powell and produced by the Elon Musk of his day, world class whack-a-doodle Howard Hughes. The Conqueror was shot on Hughes’ RKO sound stages in Hollywood. Location work was done in Utah where the Escalante Desert near St. George stood in for the Gobi Desert setting of The Conqueror.
And therein lies the problem. The Escalante Desert was directly downwind of the U.S. Government’s Nevada National Security Site. If you want to know what went on there, replace the words “National Security” with “Nuclear Testing” and you’ll have some idea.
In 1953, just three years prior to the filming of the Conqueror, eleven above ground nuclear weapons tests were performed at the site as part of Operation: Upshot-Knothole. According to an article by Cecil Adams in The Straight Dope (“Did John Wayne Die Of Cancer Caused By A Radioactive Movie Set?”), the film crew knew about the tests, but were not overly concerned about them. Why not? Because Uncle Sam told them not to worry. Everything was fine! An article by Rory Carroll in The Guardian (“Hollywood And The Downwinders Still Grapple With Nuclear Fallout”) reports a newspaper headline at the time reading, “Spectacular Atomic Explosions Mean Progress In Defense, No Cause For Panic.”
One of the eleven above-ground nuclear tests conducted during Operation Upshot-Knothole. "No Cause For Panic."
The same article features a photo of Wayne with his two sons. In the photo, they are playing with a Geiger counter. When Wayne turned it on, it’s readings were so off the charts Wayne assumed it was broken. So John Wayne, his sons and the cast and crew of The Conqueror spent three months breathing in radioactive fallout. The result? A world class turkey of a movie - at one point John Wayne’s Genghis Kahn can be seen wearing a very incongruous wristwatch - and a whole lot of cancer.
Director Dick Powell died of cancer in 1963. Actor Pedro Armendariz died in 1963. After learning his cancer was terminal, he completed the film he was shooting at the time, From Russia, With Love, and took his own life. Co-star Susan Hayward died of cancer in 1975. Agnes Moorehead died of cancer in 1974. John Wayne died of cancer in 1979. Both Wayne’s and Hayward’s children, who spent time on the set, had cancer scares and/or tumors.
Were there other factors involved? Of course. John Wayne, for example, smoked six packs of cigarettes a day! But The Conqueror had about 220 people on that location. Cancer percentages dictate that out of a group that size, approximately 30 would be likely get cancer. The Conqueror cast and crew shows 91 deaths from the disease. And that’s not even touching the plight pf the residents of St. George, Utah, who, again, were told that there was nothing to worry about.
You can read about their ongoing for justice by researching their group, called The Downwinders.
John Wayne. American hero, right or wrong.
Hollywood And the Downwinders Still Grapple With Nuclear Fallout