150 Movies You Should See Before You Die Read Free Page A

made $64,000 during its theatrical run in the United States.
    Trivia Quiz
    What celebrity did Los Angeles authorities investigate as a suspect in the murder of Elizabeth Short?
    A: Orson Welles
    B: Alfred Hitchcock
    C: Woody Guthrie
    D: Boris Karloff
    Answer: C. Woody Guthrie. The folk singer was, according to the Los Angeles district attorney's files on the case, briefly a suspect due to sexually explicit letters he sent to a woman in Northern California.
THE CONQUEROR (AKA “CONQUEROR OF THE DESERT”)
RKO Radio Pictures, 1956
    PRODUCERS Dick Powell and Howard Hughes
    WRITER Oscar Millard
    DIRECTOR Dick Powell
    STARS John Wayne ( Temujin, Genghis Khan ), Susan Hayward ( Bortai ), Agnes Moorhead ( Hunlun ), Pedro Armendáriz (Jamuga ), and Ted de Corsia ( Kumlek )
    Mongolian warlord Temujin (Wayne) must do battle against the rival tribe that killed his father, fight with the red-haired Tartar prisoner Bortai (Hayward) whom he captured in a raid and has vowed to make his wife, and deal with intrigues in his inner circle. Enemies of every type stand arrayed against him as he fights his way to a place in history as the legendary Genghis Khan.
    Why It Sucks
    Few bad movies look as good as The Conqueror . It's got great costumes, brilliant colors, and the tale of a great warlord. But sometimes it takes only one thing to turn a film from a triumph to a turkey, and someone in central casting who must have been drunk, high, or both, decided to star John Wayne as Genghis Khan. That's right. John Wayne ! Few movies have such a dramatic mix of the spectacular with the absolutely atrocious as this one.
    Thumbs Down Rating:
    The Crappies
    The Worst Acting Award goes to … John Wayne as Temujin. No contest. Not even a question. What were they thinking?
    And the Worst Picture Award goes to … Howard Hughes and Dick Powell for making a movie about a cool subject, and researching Genghis Khan about as badly as one of those Italian Hercules films — at ten times the cost.
    They Really Said It!
    (To get the full effect, close your eyes and imagine John Wayne saying it.) Temujin : While I live, while my blood burns hot, your daughter is not safe in her tent.
    Betcha Didn't Know
    The movie was shot downwind from where the United States conducted above-ground atomic weapons tests. Rumor has it the cast and crew developed cancer at three times higher than the average among the general population.
    Financier Howard Hughes felt so guilty about the cast and crew being exposed to radioactivity that he reportedly spent $12 million to acquire every existing print of the film.
    Trivia Quiz
    What famous movie detective did John Wayne turn down the opportunity to play?
    A: Bulldog Drummond
    B: Sam Spade
    C: Nero Wolfe
    D: “Dirty” Harry Callahan
    Answer: D. “Dirty” Harry Callahan. Wayne was offered but turned down the role of hard-bitten Inspector Harry Callahan, which eventually became one of Clint Eastwood's signature roles.
HEAVEN'S GATE
United Artists, 1980
    PRODUCERS Denis O'Dell, Charles Okun, Wayne Reynolds (executive producers), Joann Carelli (producer)
    WRITER Michael Cimino
    DIRECTOR Michael Cimino
    STARS Kris Kristofferson ( James Averill ), Isabelle Huppert ( Ella Watson ), Christopher Walken ( Nathan D. Champion ), Jeff Bridges ( John Bridges ), and Sam Waterston ( Frank Canton )
    When a wealthy and powerful rancher's association hires killers to wipe out settlers in Johnson County, Wyoming, the Harvard-educated and privileged-by-birth county sheriff (Kristofferson) stands against his own class to protect them.
    Why It Sucks
    Infamous as the film that destroyed United Artists, this movie is the definition of bloated. Filled with irrelevant scenes and characters, the film is torture to sit through (the original cut shown to the studio was five and a half hours long). During production, Cimino built and rebuilt sets and took retakes of retakes of retakes. The final budget of $40 million, followed by the film's collapse at the box