John Wayne as medieval Mongol leader Genghis Khan? Well, the Duke was certainly keen to get the role, although in later years he would wince at the mention of the film. 'The way the screenplay reads,' said Wayne at the time, 'it's a cowboy picture, and that's how I'm going to play Genghis Khan. I see him as a gunfighter.' And so he did, rolling the famous Wayne tones round such immortal patches of dialogue as: 'Come and take me, mongrels - if you dare. While I have fingers to grasp a sword and eyes to see your cowardly faces, your treacherous heads will not be safe on your shoulders. For I am Temujin, the conqueror. No prison can hold me, no army defeat me.' The action scenes come fierce and often in this clunkily cast epic - Susan Hayward is a spitfire red-haired Cathay woman! - even if extras fall all too readily from their horses, but the saddest note is the occurrence of cancer, allegedly picked up from location radiation, that felled all of the stars, the director, Dick Powell, and members of the crew in later years.