On The Conqueror (1956) and The Losers (1964)

By RM
thursday, february 19, 2026 at 2:22:00 a.m. est

Pretty sure Dick Powell died from cancer; he was director of The Conqueror, the infamous movie where several of the actors got sick shortly afterwards and it was blamed on atomic testing that had taken place in the desert location. I'm dubious about the theory-you'd have to show that crew members who were on the set every day also got cancer. EVERYBODY was a smoker back then, so it could be just randomness that several people in the movie fell ill. On the other hand, radiation exposure PLUS smoking has been shown to be a cancer-accelerant, at least for lung cancer, so who knows?

I did see The Losers recently-pretty disappointing. Wasn't crazy about the "humorous" episodes of The Westerner, either (much as I love John Dehner); I thought they really clashed with the grim tone of the series.

-RM


N.S.: Dick Powell died of a massive coronary.

As for The Losers and The Westerner, I believe it was Powell's idea to alternate grim and humorous episodes. Crazy Sam Peckinpah was pretty grim by nature, even when he was funny. The Losers was unevenly written. I thoroughly enjoyed two of the humorous episodes of The Westerner ("Brown" and "The Courting of Libby"). As for "The Painting," meh.