3. The Conqueror
In 1956, Howard Hughes-produced The Conqueror, with John Wayne as Genghis Khan. You know, the mongol emperor. Hindsight being 20/20, we can see, of course, that casting the Duke, seen at the time as the quintessential cowboy, as an Asian historical figure may be a bad idea. However, such is Hollywood, that the biggest star gets to pick his parts. Unfortunately, bad casting and reviews (the film was included in the book The Fifty Worst Films Of All Time), were not the only curses on the production, as just a few years after the release, members of the cast and crew began dying of cancer, 91 of the 220 people involved developing cancer. Now, you might say, it's completely unreasonable to draw links between a widely derided biopic of a historical figure and cancer. It's not like they were shooting at the site of a nuclear explosion, right? ...Right? Actually, that's exactly what they were doing. The movie was shot around St. George, Utah, which just so happens to be downwind from Yucca Flats, Nevada, where 11 nuclear bombs were detonated roughly three years earlier. The shooting lasted 13 weeks, during which time the entire cast would have, without a doubt, absorbed significant enough radiation to pose a health risk. This was evidently not enough for Howard Hughes, however, who then went on to ship some 60 tons of dirt from the location back to Hollywood for reshoots. One could make the claim that the filmmakers must simply not have known about the radiation, given that the actual site of the tests was over a hundred miles away from the set. This, however, was patently untrue John Wayne reportedly even had a geiger counter on set! The producers and the crew definitely knew about the radiation, they were simply told by the government that it is not harmful. Pedro Armendariz killed himself after being diagnosed with cancer. Director Dick Powell died of cancer in 1963. Susan Hayward, John Wayne, and Agnes Moorehead all died of cancer in the 70s. Even members of John Wayne's family who visited on the set developped cancer in the coming years, though it was thankfully not terminal. Granted, this was the 50s, and people smoked heavily, but Dr. Robert Pendleton stated that With these numbers, this case could qualify as an epidemic. The connection between fallout radiation and cancer in individual cases has been practically impossible to prove conclusively. But in a group this size you'd expect only 30-some cancers to develop. With 91, I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of The Conqueror would hold up in a court of law.