Producer Irving Allen’s 1965 production, Genghis Khan, was clearly intended to rank with the epics of the day, with its location production (Yugoslavia, rather than Asia), stars (including Omar Sharif, James Mason, and Eli Wallach), and high production values (Cinemascope and Technicolor), but the film didn’t quite live up to its ambition. Perhaps because of its revisionist approach to the subject matter (“no woman will be taken against her will,” declares Sharif, as Genghis), or the cross-cultural casting (Robert Morley as the Chinese Emperor) the film never really found an audience. Despite missteps, there are many things to recommend it: the beautiful cinemascope photography (by Geoffrey Unsworth), an excellent cast (including Stephen Boyd, Telly Savalas, Woody Strode, and Francoise Dorleac), and a compelling story about the boy Temujin who rises from an outcast slave to leader of all the tribes of Mongols against his hated nemesis Jamuga (Boyd, an adversary reminiscent of his Messala in Ben-Hur). While not an accurate history lesson about the mighty Khan, it is certainly rousing entertainment.
