What happens when a terrible film has wider-ranging consequences than just a stinker lasting forever on celluloid? Director William Nunez’s The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout examines the literal fallout from the John Wayne starring movie The Conqueror, whose shooting near a nuclear test zone caused the early demise of far too many people. The documentary not only follows the legacy of the 1956 film but also examines what 1950s and 60s American society was like, with the prevalence of things such as “duck and cover” in schools.
The legendary aviator/businessman//weird recluse Howard Hughes produced The Conqueror, hoping it would be in the vein of an epic such as The Ten Commandments while trying to attract mega-stars such as Marlon Brando. Hilariously, Hughes ended up with iconic western star John Wayne being severely miscast as Genghis Khan. The film, which centers on Asian characters, did not have one Asian actor cast, which the documentary points out would be nearly impossible to see happening in this politically correct day and age.
The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout interviews central figures such as screenwriter Oscar Millard, who admits that his dialogue was way too complex for Wayne. The Duke chewed him out for that. Actress Susan Hayward joined the cast because she wanted to sleep with Wayne, while Hughes wanted her on the film to sleep with her. These are interesting behind-the-scenes stories of a failed movie in and of themselves, but the nuclear portion is what makes the narrative genuinely compelling.

“…shooting near a nuclear test zone caused the early demise of far too many people.”
The Conqueror was filmed in St. George, Utah, which happened to be dangerously downwind of a nuclear testing site. Roughly half of the 220 principal cast and crew, including Wayne, died of cancer, not to mention the unknown countless number of Native American extras who died young while working on it. Radioactive particles were spread all over the shooting location (and still are), and with the many horses kicking up dust into the air during big action sequences, it was a recipe for disaster. Not only that, but the production actually brought back tons of radioactive sand from Utah to RKO studios in California in order to shoot matching shots there.
The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout also interviews some of the residents of St. George, who have seen a sickening number of family members and neighbors die of cancer (while dealing with it themselves) after the government lied to them about the area being safe. It was discovered that even the cows in the area had radioactive milk. All of this travesty is a damn shame that could have been avoided by a transparent U.S. government, but now we’re just left to pick up the pieces, with survivors given a measly $50,000 if they can prove that they’re a downwinder. There’s another excellent documentary called Downwind, which deals with this same topic but is less focused on The Conqueror or the culture of the time. It does interview some of the same subjects, such as Patrick Wayne and resident Claudia Peterson.
The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout is a bit long and slow-moving at times, but its subject matter is endlessly fascinating and important. We must learn from the past so as not to repeat the same mistakes in the future.
For more information, visit the official The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout site.