Reviews (44)

The Definitive Cat and Mouse Submarine Movie
This is one of the best duel-of-wits on the high seas between submarine and destroyer ever filmed. Robert Mitchum as the captain of an American destroyer and Curt Jurgens as the captain of a German submarine try to out maneuver each other in a battle of nerves, instincts, intelligence, seamanship and raw courage. The multi-talented Dick Powell directed this taught drama, which remains one of the most memorable and benchmark films of this genre. The interior of the German submarine does not have the realistic or claustrophobic look as seen in DAS BOOT but that's not the point. Powell's focus is on the two captains and how they act and react. This film does not lose sight of the mentality of that era and the psychological makeup of the men at sea above and below. This is classic filmmaking and should not be overshadowed by the recent resurgence of certain World War II films that seem to have lost sight of the reason men fought and died. This film also has an impressive cast featuring David Hedison, Theodore Bikel, Kurt Kreuger and Doug McClure. Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens portrayed true men of honor each dedicated to their duty that they were called upon.

Dive into this good submarine drama
There is a fairly extensive sub-category of war movies - submarine battles - within which movies made in the 1950's are highly regarded. THE ENEMY BELOW is not up to the standards of RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP but is better than TORPEDO RUN. It is also different that both those movies. Where they use a dramatic human interest story as the main plot line, this movie has a narrow focus on what you would expect from a film about a sub battle. The emphasis is on the chase, the strategy, the cunning and wiles of both commanders - US destroyer Captain Murrell (Robert Mitchum) and veteran German U-Boat commander Von Stolberg (Curt Jurgens). The drama is in changing fortunes - now who is the hunter and the hunted? Both of the main characters are well developed, and while there are differences in behavior, motivation, and naturally, stategy, the movie also shows clearly that as professional sailors they recognize and appreciate the good qualities in their opposites. As such this movie is memorable for the fact that Germans are not demonized or simply stereotyped as Nazis.

It's a well directed movie, with excellent moments of suspense, good acting in some key supporting roles - Lt Ware (David Hedison). The only let down is with some very obvious models in some of the battle scenes.

The Definitive Cat and Mouse Submarine Movie
This is one of the best duel-of-wits on the high seas between submarine and destroyer ever filmed. Robert Mitchum as the captain of an American destroyer and Curt Jurgens as the captain of a German submarine try to out maneuver each other in a battle of nerves, instincts, intelligence, seamanship and raw courage. The multi-talented Dick Powell directed this taught drama, which remains one of the most memorable and benchmark films of this genre. The interior of the German submarine does not have the realistic or claustrophobic look as seen in DAS BOOT but that's not the point. Powell's focus is on the two captains and how they act and react. This film does not lose sight of the mentality of that era and the psychological makeup of the men at sea above and below. This is classic filmmaking and should not be overshadowed by the recent resurgence of certain World War II films that seem to have lost sight of the reason men fought and died. This film also has an impressive cast featuring David Hedison, Theodore Bikel, Kurt Kreuger and Doug McClure. Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens portrayed true men of honor each dedicated to their duty that they were called upon.

Enemy Below
Dick Powell had to have had one of the most interesting careers in Hollywood history. He started out as a golden-throated pretty boy actor, made a successful mid-career shift to hard boiled roles like Philip Marlowe and then, for good measure, directed a handful of movies, including the submarine action picture THE ENEMY BELOW.
THE ENEMY BELOW is a 100% action movie, without any distracting romantic sub-plot or comic relief crew members. Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens are excellent as the American destroyer commander and U-boat commander who cross paths in the Atlantic Ocean and engage in a deadly hunt. With a few exceptions the models are realistically rendered and convincing. This is one of the best war movies out there, and maybe the best navy movie available. I strongly recommend it to action fans.

great cat and mouse game by two great actors!
This is not the average sub-film that centers on the crews of the sub and the sub-chaser. This is a two-man cat and mouse film, marvelously done with style and incisive insight.

Robert Mitchum is the man who rises to do what is needed. Not a superhero, but a very human man who goes into war and does what is required. He is the Captain of a U.S. destroyer sent out to track U-boats. Curt Jurgens is his mirror reflection - below - a Captain of the U-Boat that becomes the target of Mitchum's search. He is not a product of the Nazi war-machine, but again, a very likable man just defending his country. This is demonstrated with deft humor when Jurgens very deliberately hangs his jacket over the plaque of Hitler's propaganda.

The script eschews the stereotypical "Nazi monsters", and portrays a German crew with very real - and universal - emotions. They, too, were just men doing their job and what is required. Instead of having us root for the Americans to blow up the evil Germans, you are put in the position of caring equally for both sides. You comprehend that they are men, offering their lives for their command, not in a political way, but in a time-honoured fashion of a man going to war. You understand both sides REALLY do not want to be here, to kill or be killed; they would rather home. No rousing stereotypical propaganda. In the end, they will kill each other if they must, but given the choice, they would rather not. Very different for that period of war films.

A little dated appearance on the boat scenes by today's standards. It's obvious toy models when the boats crash, but easily overlooked and dismissed when balanced with the very impressive lack of finger-pointing and flag-waving for either nationality. Both Mitchum and Jurgens are dead-bang on target in their lead roles, with David Hedison, Theodore Bickel and Doug McClure round out a super cast ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The iceman cometh
THE HUNTERS is a good war movie saddled with a lame and unconvincing romantic subplot. Robert Mitchum plays Major Cleve Saville, a little long in the tooth fighter pilot newly arrived in Korea to lead a squadron of F-86 Sabre jets. While stationed in Tokyo awaiting assignment he meets weak little 1st Lieut. Carl Abbott (Lee Philips) and his cute little wife Kris (May Britt), as well as slang spewing rookie pilot Lieut. Ed Pell (Robert Wagner.)
As an action picture THE HUNTERS is incredibly entertaining, especially the filming of the jet dogfights. Unfortunately, there's a rather substantial romantic subplot involving a sour little triangle whose points are Carl and Kris and Cleve. Every romantic scene sucks the life right out of this movie. May Britt may be beautiful but her "affair" with Saville borders on the melodramatic and is pretty unconvincing. How often do you tell a married woman after your second platonic visit that you love her? The only reason for the romance is to establish tension between Saville and wing man Abbott, anyway.
Mitchum teamed with director Dick Powell a year earlier on THE ENEMY BELOW, one of the best WWII movies available. With that movie in mind, it's doubly disappointing to see him fall back on cliched characters, like the cocky rookie Ed Pell, and a trite and time consuming love story.
There's more to like than dislike in THE HUNTERS, but not nearly as much as I expected when I popped this dvd into the player. I liked this movie a bit less than I wanted to. Make sure to play both sides of this double-sided disk, as there are a different set of 'Special Features' on each side.

The Citizen Kane of modern air/space combat movies!
When I was 11 years old, I saw this movie when it was released. In its air combat sequences, The Hunters is the Citizen Kane of all modern air/space combat movies, as revolutionary for its time as Star Wars later was to be for its time. While prior air combat movies had been on the square screens, usually in B&W, The Hunters was filmed in state-of-the art CinemaScope (widescreen) and Technicolor. Its air combat sequences -- twisting jets on each other's tails soaring in mountainous clouds, then diving and roaring a treetop level through valleys -- were brilliantly conceived and breathtakingly executed -- unlike anything that had been seen before. They still hold up with the best ever filmed, although they've been copied so much (by movies such as Top Gun and Star Wars) that they no longer have the knock-your-socks-off novelty that they originally did. Unfortunately, the feel-good screenplay, with a distracting romantic subplot, bears no resemblance to the gritty, macho novel on which it was based. In James Salter's best-selling novel, the Robert Michum character, Cleve Saville, is a WWII veteran fighter jock who can't get a kill to save his soul, then has no witness when his first-and-only kill (before he himself dies) is the legendary enemy ace. Hence, The Hunters movie is really a first-rate action-hero fantasy set in wartime. (...)

Jet-Propelled Action !
"The Hunters" is a well-made, exciting Korean war drama, with the accent on aviation. It has an above-average plot for this type of film, and the whole movie, particularly the aerial sequences, is expertly directed by Dick Powell. If you are interested in combat aircraft, there are many scenes of F-86 Sabre Jets engaging MIGs in dogfight battles to the death.

While the planes are great to watch, this film is primarily about human beings caught up in war. It stars Robert Mitchum, and he is terrific--his fighter pilot character is a born leader, yet he also suspects there is something important missing in his life. He enters into a guilt-ridden relationship with the wife of another pilot, played by lovely May Britt. When there's a war on though, the feelings of two people aren't worth--as someone once said--"a hill of beans". Mr. Mitchum's main job is to lead a fighter squadron, and satisfy his boss on the ground--Richard Egan in a strong performance, knowing that every day he may be sending a man to his death.

Just to make things even more interesting for Mr. Mitchum, his squadron includes Ms. Britt's husband ( a paranoid, self-doubting Lee Philips ) and a cocky, young "hotshot" who doesn't like "rules" ( a young, excellent Robert Wagner ). It would be unfair to reveal more of the plot, but the film is consistently interesting and exciting.

The DVD is full screen on one side, and wide-screen on the other. The colour is very good for a 46-year old film. It does not have "surround sound", of course, unlike that 1986 aviation hit, "Top Gun"--then again, "Top Gun" didn't have Robert Mitchum ! Tom Cruise has a nice smile--but, for leadership and grit, I'd follow Robert Mitchum through the gates of hell !

Actually, I'll give "The Hunters" 4 1/2 stars. Action--suspense--romance--Sabre Jets--Robert Mitchum--what more do you want ? Thanks, Fox--a very nice disc !

The Hunters--Fighter Pilot's Attitude
The HUNTERS catches the atttitude of the Fighter Pilot Ace. Great performances by Robert Mitchum, the WWII veteran who won't fly a desk and Robert Wagner as the kid "hotshot" pilot.
Additionally great work by Richard Egan who is Mitchum's commander and flew with him in WWII. The scenes between Egan and Mitchum are the highlight of great acting in the movie. Perhaps Egan's best work ever.

Definitely an Ace
"The Hunters" (1958) and "The Enemy Below" (1957) are 2 war movies produced by Dick Powell for 20th Century Fox filmed in Cinemascope both with Robert Mitchum in the leading role.

Major Cleve Saville (Robert Mitchum), the squadron commander, is a famous ace and veteran fighter pilot of World War II. He is a career man whose world was his squadron and the men who flew with him. Lt. Pell (Robert Wagner), in the early part of the movie, is a reckless but eventually courageous young jet ace to whom Saville owe his life. Lt. Abbott (Lee Phillips) is the confused husband of Kris (May Britt) whom Saville falls in love with although their acknowledged desires are never to be fulfilled.

The picture is based on the novel "The Hunters" by James Salter who is himself a jet ace in the Korean conflict. In the late 50's long before the development of CGI technology, real fighter jets F-86 Sabrejet and F-84 Thunderjets (painted gray with a red star to simulate MIG-15) were flown in the aerial battle sequence which made it the more realistic than Pearl Harbor (2001).

I have kept like a treasure a copy of "The Hunters" VHS tape and it is pretty worn out by now from years of repeated viewings. Thank you Fox for putting it on DVD...46 years after its theatrical release. ... Read more

Reviews (24)

The Duke in the Gobi!
Contrary to the critics in general and the reviewers here in
particular, The Conqueror is actually a pretty good film, if you're
a John Wayne fan, or just enjoy Hollywood spectaculars as they
were made back in the '50s. Wayne was not as miscast as one
might think. He certainly had the strength of character and screen
presence to play Temujin/Genghis Khan and he looked good in the
oriental mustache and the Mongol warrior garb. The dialog here is
no dumber than in any other Hollywood historical saga of that
time (or of this time, either, for that matter. Remember Russell
Crowe in Gladiator: "At my signal, unleash Hell!"?)

Movie lore has it that The Conqueror was filmed on location in
Utah either on or near an atomic test site, and that many of the cast
and crew later died from radiation-induced cancers. It may be
true, or it may be just mythology. There were no nuclear test sites
in Utah, but the shooting location could have been near the
Nevada test site. Director Powell and cast members Wayne,
Hayward, Moorehead, and John Hoyt did die from cancer, but of
different types and years apart. Many others died from other
causes. Pedro Armendariz committed suicide. Thomas Gomez
died from an auto accident. Lee Van Cleef died of a heart attack.
And some lived to a ripe old age. Leo Gordon, for instance,
passed away just last year, at the age of78, after a brief illness.
Gordon was a scriptwriter as well as an actor, and wrote two
classic Roger Corman movies: The Terror, and The Wasp
Woman.

The Conqueror also had the distinction of having a Playboy
Playmate, Pat Lawler (Miss August 1955) in a bit part. Ms.
Lawler appeared in the sci-fi comedy Invasion of the Saucer Men
in 1957, and that seems to be the extent of her film career..

To sum up: The Conqueror is not as bad as reported. It's not
nearly as bad as, say, Big Jim McLain, The Fighting
Kentuckian, or Jet Pilot. And it's not nearly as good as, say, The
Quiet Man, Sands of lwo Jima, or True Grit. It's in the middle.
like, say, Hatari, Circus World, or The Shootist.

This DVD edition offers just the movie, a scene index, and
subtitles. The image quality is good, but the sound varies a
bit--some of the dialog seems rather distant and tinny. But at this
price it's a bargain, so don't miss out!

The infamous bad film that killed John Wayen and many others
"The Conqueror" is a movie that is infamous in Hollywood history for two reasons, neither of which is a good. First, it is a movie that has John Wayne playing Genghis Khan with Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz, Agnes Morehead, and William Conrad also playing Orientals. Wayne spouts lines of dialogue like "I feel this Tartar woman is for me, and my blood says, take her," "We'll chase them like rats across the tundra," and "I am bereft of spit," in what must count as the most surreal performance of his career (the role was originally written by Marlon Brando). The decision to cast the Duke as Genghis Khan is, to say, the least, bizarre, and it is hard to take your eyes away from what he is doing on screen (there is a legendary Hollywood joke that the only thing worse would have been casting Mickey Rooney as Jesus in "King of Kings").

Second, 13 weeks of this 1956 movie were spent filming in Utah a bit more than 100 miles from the site of a nuclear testing ground in Nevada and the set was contaminated by nuclear fallout from 11 blasts in 1953. After location shooting was concluded, producer Howard Hughes paid to have 60 tons of dirt shipped back to Hollywood so it could be used to match interior shootings. Of the 220 persons who worked on "The Conqueror" at least 91 had contracted cancer by the early 1980s and over half that number died of it, including stars Wayne, Hayward, and Morehead, and director Dick Powell (Armendáriz committed suicide when learning he was terminally ill). Statistically speaking out of a group that size only 30 people should end up with cancer. The thought that Wayne and the others would lose their lives because of a movie this bad is just a sickening thought, but the evidence seems incontrovertible and there is even a chilling photograph of Wayne on the set with a Geiger counter.

"The Conqueror" is essentially a love story between Wayne's Genghis Khan, originally named Temujin before he becomes emperor of the known world, and the beautiful Tartar princess, Bortai (Hayward). The movie has actually pays some attention to the actual history of the character and the times, at least more than the Omar Sheriff film about Genghis Khan, but clearly the idea here was that it was easier to conqueror the world than it was to tame the red headed woman in his tent. It would have helped if there was some chemistry between the two stars, but there really is not that much difference between Hayward's Bortai when she is demeaning Temujin as a Mongol or when she they ride off into the sunset at the end to live happily ever after out there on that there tundra. Then there is the idea that little Agnes Moorhead is the mother of Wayne and William Conrad, each of whom is twice her size. This film is true Hollywood turkey.

Wayne had pursued the role, seeing it as just a different type of Western, and on some level you have to respect the idea of trying to stretch as an actor. But the results are just so laughable and only the sobering through that Wayne and so many of the cast would pay for this fiasco with their lives keeps this from being a real hooter deserving of "MST3K" treatment. For years you could not see "The Conqueror" because a guilty Howard Hughes pulled it from circulation (or maybe he was not being eccentric; we are talking Howard Hughes here). In fact, "The Conqueror" was his final film. As the most curious film in John Wayne's career it deserves to be seen at least once by both his fans and those who are just curious about one of the oddest bits of Hollywood history.

A BOMB, figuratively and literally!
The well-documented fact that the principal actors in this film eventually died of cancer affirms that this one was doomed from the start. Accepting Wayne and Hayward as Asians is more unbelievable as blue-eyed Burt Lancaster as "Geronimo".

While "The Conqueror" does sport high production values, the absurdity of the casting makes it one of the looniest decisions ever to come from a major Hollywood studio.

Ed Wood would've done better!

Inadvertently hilarious
I laughed so hard I got a side ache.

A 12 million dollar production by the goofy Howard Hughes, directed by Dick Powell in the Utah desert and starring John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Morehead, Lee Van Cleef among others.

Wayne as the six foot four inch Mongol Prince "Temujin" soon to be crowned King of the Mongols - Genghis Kahn and Susan Hayward as the Red Haired Tarter Temptress, "Bortai," I kid you not, Bortai.

Advertised by the studio as...

"Spectacular as its barbaric passions and savage conquests"
"Mighty in scope"
"Mighty in spectacle"
"Genghis Khan! The world trembled at his name"

And finally...

"They conquered each other and then the world"

Consider some of the dialog...

Wayne: "I feel this Tarter women is for me, and my blood says, take her! There are moments for wisdom and moments when I listen to my blood; my blood says take this Tarter woman!"

Hayward: "For me there is no peace while you live Mongol."

Wayne: "You are beautiful in your wrath!"

Hayward: "The Conqueror? Mighty armies cannot stop him! But one touch of my lips...Yes, he captured me - but he cannot tame me!"

To round out your collection of wonderful Hollywood mistakes you have to have this movie.

Fair to good.
I had problems with some of this movie, but being a JW and SH fan made it watchable. ... Read more