Starring inThe Conquerorwas a risky career move for John Wayne, but it ended up paying off at the box office. However, that’s not how “The Duke” saw the movie. But while it would make sense for its resounding success to be a pleasant surprise to the actor, that was not actually the case at all.
Non-Westerns were not unusual for John Wayne, considering that he was also known for making war movies, and had, on occasion, appeared in romantic comedies and adventure films. Even so,The Conquerorwas still regarded as a significant departure from what audiences had become accustomed to with John Wayne.
The American icon and Western legend was hardly the obvious choice to play the Mongolian warlord, Genghis Khan, but that was exactly the casting choice that Hollywood went with when making a biopic centered on the historical figure. Unsurprisingly, it led toone of John Wayne’s worst movies.
John Wayne Thought The Conqueror Was One Of His Worst Movies
Critics blastedJohn Wayne’sThe Conquerorwhen it hit theaters. According to Michael Munn’sJohn Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth, the actor both acknowledged the critics' complaints and agreed with them. Wayne said of the film, “The Conqueror is one of the worst films I ever made.”
Wayne noted how the critics took particular aim at his performance, saying that they “crucified” both him and the movie. It’s true, withThe New York Times’description of his performance as “elementary” being just one of many examples of critics laying into Wayne for his work onThe Conqueror.
As the book explains, John Wayne typically brushed off negative buzz from critics when it came to his acting, but he had a different attitude aboutThe Conqueror,pointing out that “they were right"to criticize him in this specific case. Based on reviews, it seems the consensus was thatWayne channeled too much of his standard Western hero persona into his Genghis Khan portrayal.
John Wayne Was Actually Disappointed When The Conqueror Surpassed His Expectations
It’s worth noting thatThe Conqueror’soverwhelmingly bad reputation isn’t reflective of its box office performance. Interestingly, it did rather well upon release, bringing in a modest haul of $9 million, and became the eleventh highest-grossing North American release of 1956.
John Wayne recognized this as well, and questioned what it meant for the future. It told Wayne that “people liked those films.” The rise of historical epics led to serious doubts from Wayne, who later recalled, “I began to wonder if they’d still like Westerns anymore.”
Fortunately, the concerns thatThe Conquerorgave John Wayne over the fate of the Western genre were short-lived. As the book notes,The Searchers- which was released just two months later - did well at the box office and rightfully became known asone of the best Westerns ever made.
