The Brigham Young University Motion Picture Film Series will screen “The Conqueror” Friday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium as part of its 14th season of archived film showings.
Admission is free, but seating is limited. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and early arrival is encouraged for an assured seat. Children age eight and over are welcome. BYU dress standards apply.
This 1956 widescreen epic, starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, was presented by Howard Hughes and directed and produced by actor Dick Powell in his directorial debut. “The Conqueror” also stars Susan Hayward as the Tartar princess who the Kahn takes for his bride amid the tribal wars of 12th-century Mongolia.
The $6 million epic was filmed entirely in the area surrounding St. George, Utah, and was a major hit on its worldwide release. A rare CinemaScope color print of “The Conqueror” that is part of the permanent collection at BYU will be shown for the first time, says James D’Arc, curator of the BYU Motion Picture Archive.
D’Arc will introduce this presentation of “The Conqueror” and provide background information on nearby nuclear testing that lawsuits maintained exposed cast and crew to cancer, resulting in 46 deaths including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz, Agnes Moorehead and Dick Powell.
Also shown will be Chapter Two of the 1939 serial “Dick Tracy’s G-Men.” One chapter will be shown with each of the 15 film screenings during the entire series season through May 2013.
The BYU Motion Picture Archive Film Series is an ongoing series of classic American motion pictures from the permanent collection of the Motion Picture Archive at BYU’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections. The series is co-sponsored by the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library and Dennis & Linda Gibson.
For more information contact James D’Arc at (801) 422-6371, james_darc@byu.edu.
Writer: Preston Wittwer
