Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

GENGHIS KHAN is a second Hollywood attempt to tell the story of the notorious Mongolian warlord after the notorious John Wayne-starring vehicle of the 1950s. I haven't seen the Wayne movie so I can't comment on it, but this film is likable enough in the 1960s epic mould. The main complaint is that it isn't and doesn't attempt to be historically accurate at all but then you don't really expect that anyway from a Hollywood movie.The narrative is similar to that of CONAN THE BARBARIAN and shows Khan as a young man, captured by a rival leader played by stock bad guy Stephen Boyd. After years of slavery he grows into the youthful and handsome Omar Sharif and escapes before building his own army. Scenes of actors like Robert Morley and James Mason in yellowface are quite laughable but the film is well-mounted and the action scenes don't disappoint, featuring dozens of horse riders battling over the plains. The supporting cast is inspired, to say the least, featuring the likes of Kenneth Cope and Michael Hordern as key Mongolian allies and none other than Eli Wallach playing an Arab. Woody Strode's tough presence is a plus. GENGHIS KHAN is a watchable piece of hokum, nothing more, but certainly not a particularly bad film except in relation to the historical accuracy.

While his former partner in Britain's Warwick Films, Al Broccoli, went off to make the incredibly successful James Bond series, producer Irving Allen was left to try and kick-start his solo career with a pair of last-gasp mini-spectacles in partnership with Tito's Avala Film Studios. Allen initially saw himself following in the footsteps of the Bronston-Franco relationship in Spain (just as it was beginning to collapse) but both his films, "The Long Ships" and "Genghis Khan", proved to be box-office flops. They did however introduce Yugoslavian locations to American producers and Avala had some success attracting film production dollars for another couple of decades."Genghis Khan" is a comic book version of the conqueror's life and if you approach it at that level, it is quite watchable. It is far, far, better than RKO's, "The Conqueror", with John Wayne as the Khan. While the star-cast of ten established actors is a waste of talent (all of whom look out of place in their roles and make-up), this is within the reduced dramatic ambition of what's being attempted here. The worst of the casting isn't with Mason or Morley, as a Chinese Mandarin and his emperor. That rests with Francoise Dorleac and her brothers, as the Khan's love and his three generals. They would have looked more at home at a Soho costume party. Dusan Radic's score is bombastic but quite effective. As with "The Long Ships", he has given the picture a signature theme which is memorable. Geoffrey Unsworth's cinematography is always attractive and the settings are colorful, though not sufficiently lavish. The budget- production shows in a Chinese city that looks more like a theme-park and should have been written into the script as a palace grounds. It's a dozen structures, running divider walls, a canal, large moon-windowed palace facade, and a two-hundred-and-fifty foot section of fortified wall and gate, sprawled across 10 manicured acres, but a Chinese city it's not. 2nd unit director, Cliff Lyons' battle scenes are very fast and effective and feature lots of running horse-falls that had been outlawed on U.S. locations, 25 years earlier. He and director, Henry Levin, were restricted to maximum day-calls of 325 extras, of which no more than 250 could be mounted. So, again and again, film editor Geoffrey Foote is forced to cut from wide-shots as the crowds thin out. This is a hard way to conquer half the known world. Whether they belong in the film or not, most of the cast appears sincere in trying to deliver their paper-thin character sketches without pretension, and the behind-the-scenes crew creates a handsome product, which ends up being a travelogue of Yugoslavian production locations. In the end, only Tito really conquered here.

One of the world's most legendary conquerors gets a heroic sheen in this colorful and often inaccurate latter day epic. Sharif plays the title role, a young Mongol who watches his father die at the hands of his rival Boyd and is then burdened with a large yoke around his neck, thus rendering him incapable of much, if any, physical threat. One day, Boyd makes the mistake of taking the yoke off and from then on the two are locked in combat to the death. In this rendition of the story, Sharif is bent on a united tribe of Mongols, something Boyd is against, preferring his independence. Boyd would rather team with other leaders, such as Wallach, to stamp out Sharif. Meanwhile, Sharif aligns with and learns from the Chinese, though they do not wish to see him leave once he has aided them in their own struggles. Sharif is noble and driven and even, at times, tender, not qualities that are always associated with the name Genghis Khan, but which are intended here. Boyd is one-dimensionally nasty throughout. The character he is playing was, in real life, a one-time ally, but that is not explored. Rather the script plays up a longstanding enmity that can only be stopped by the death of one or both of them. Dorleac, with 1960s bangs, plays Sharif's devoted wife and support system. It's a mostly decorative role aside from a few feisty moments, but she fills it well enough. Savalas is billed high, but is given next to nothing to do in the somewhat crowded landscape. Wallach appears briefly, but is at least permitted to make some sort of impression. Hordern rather hams it up as Sharif's partially blind mentor while Strode, as his muscular aide, provides silent strength. Two notable actors appear in faux-Asian makeup, as was the custom of the day. Morley, as the Chinese Emperor, fares best despite his inappropriateness to the role. His ever-individual style adds texture and humor to the part. Mason, face fixed in a permanent grin and speaking in the most stereotypical manner imaginable, is less impressive. It's a performance that will likely offend those who lean towards the sensitive in cases like this. Almost worthless as a history lesson, the film does succeed in delivering a fairly grand adventure with terrific music, decent battle sequences and positively jaw-dropping scenery. Though a pat approach to the script and an overriding simplicity threaten to mar the movie irrevocably, for those who aren't too demanding, the finished product is entertaining. Look out for the amusing glimpse of a Chinese princess in which she is nude except for some artfully arranged bits of scenic bric-a-brac surrounding the screened window some men are looking through. The mainstream cinema was still just toying with various amounts of exposed flesh in this time period. Sadly, Dorleac would die within two years in a fiery car accident. Mason, Sharif and Boyd had previously appeared together in the superior, but not very successful, epic The Fall of the Roman Empire."

Perhaps it was after the entertaining and lavish "El Cid" (1961) that classical epic films of the 50's and early 60'started to fade away as big money making films. "Cleopatra" (1963) and "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964) -both with some good moments but not great films all in all- showed that things were not being done right in the genre."Ghengis Khan" is definitely a bad movie. Leaving aside historical accuracy -there's not much in the film-, it doesn't even work as a high adventure freely based on the Mongol king's whereabouts.The cast is wrongly chosen starting with Omar Sharif -as the Khan himself- who can't bring power and credibility to the character at any moment. Francoise Dorleac appears as a contemporary woman, in her looks as well as in her personality. Such good actors as James Mason and Robert Morley are totally out of place and even funny here disguised as Chinese characters. Henry Levin's direction lacks imagination and strengh all along as also does the script.There are no highlights whatsoever in this cheap-looking and dull film that even makes John Wayne's western-like "The Conqueror" (1953) about the same character appear as an acceptable product.In all, Levin's "Ghemgis Khan" has many chances to be the worst film ever made in its kind.