Big Trouble in Red China

THE CHAIRMAN aka THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN THE WORLD (1969)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Often engrossing and captivating, J. Lee Thompson's "The Chairman" is also a comic-book film about spies but done with whip-smart dialogue and fine acting that help elevate it from any number of anonymous 1960's spy pictures post-James Bond.

Gregory Peck is Dr. Hathaway, a Nobel Prize scientist who is sent by the U.S. government on a difficult mission to China. The mission: pretend to be a defector and find an unfinished formula for an agricultural enzyme that allows wheat crops to grow during any type of climate. If Dr. Hathaway fails to find the formula from another scientist and former associate of Hathaway's, Dr. Siong Li (Keye Luke), then, well, why reveal too much here. Let's say that the reliable U S of A has implanted a chip in Hathaway's skull that is more than a listening device.

Interestingly, "The Chairman" builds its suspense slowly rather than on extended chase sequences. Most riveting is an encounter the good American doctor has with Mao Tse Tung (Conrad Yama) - the controversial chairman of Communist China is not depicted as a one-dimensional cartoon but rather as a human being trying to come to terms with American diplomacy. The star of the film is really the titanic presence of Gregory Peck, who is credible and believable from one scene to the next. He makes us believe that he is the only one who can handle this dangerous mission, and makes us believe he might also fail.
Most riveting in "The Chairman" is the depiction of peasants in Red China, all holding Mao's Little Red Books. The opening title sequence is explosive, thanks to bullseye editing by Richard Best and overpowering music by Jerry Goldsmith, that depicts Mao's China with striking shots of the people overlapped with portraits of Mao. The rest of the film is essentially a chase picture with Peck trying to steal the formula while evading the Red Army, meanwhile there is that issue with the listening device...

"The Chairman" is practically old-fashioned entertainment, dependent on dialogue and wit than on special-effects. The intense climax, which includes a wounded Peck trying to squeeze himself under a wire charged with 10,000 volts, has got to be seen to be believed. You won't believe a minute of it, but it doesn't mean it won't thrill you.