The Chairman

Gregory Peck is a Nobel Prize-winning American scientist who has been recruited by the US government to go into China to steal the secret for a new enzyme that would do much to feed the starving of the world. And, oddly, the extremely closed Chinese let him in and wine and dine him. He even gets a nice cozy little audience with the ever-adorable Mao (just because he was responsible for more deaths than Hitler doesn't mean he's not a swell guy in this film). Little does Peck know, however, that the evil US government implanted an explosive device into his skull along with a transmitter (which he does know about). Will they detonate him to kill the Chairman or is there mission the one they stated at the beginning of the film?

Considering that the film is about an American espionage agent in Communist China circa 1969, you'd sure think it would be an exciting film. Add to that the talent of Gregory Peck and it seems like a guaranteed winner. Instead, the film just limps along to a less than thrilling and ridiculous conclusion.

One of the major problem is that Peck plays a scientist who hates working for US intelligence but has done so in the past. Yet oddly, despite his strong bias against the spy game, he agrees to risk his life by going into China--and you keep wondering why. His motivations seem mixed at best and this is perhaps the worst part of the film. Additionally, as the film progresses, you see that the film makers employ moral relativism--showing the US and China are basically the same. In this film, the US would love to starve the world in order to maintain its power. But comparing Mao's regime (best estimates 25-100 million killed during his rule--I guess you gotta break a few eggs to make this omelet) to the US seemed a bit...well....insane. Throw into the mix that the US and USSR are now good buddies in the film and you are left wondering who, if anyone, to root for in the movie. This really is THE main problem with the film.

Another problem, though not as severe, is the relative ease with which Peck enters China and eventually leaves China. You didn't just do this in the 1960s--heck, you don't just do this today! His ease in escaping seemed rather dumb and you know that in reality the Chinese during this time were pretty ruthless and far from dumb. Purges and counter-revolution fever were rampant--as was xenophobia (which, fortunately, has changed a lot over the years). In such a crazed environment, a 6' 3" American would probably be spotted and captured very, very quickly!

Overall, this is one of Peck's misfires. The film never seems credible though it is an interesting time-passer provided you don't think through the details too much.

An earlier review dismisses the "Cold War paranoia " reflected in this 1969 film. How ignorant. The Cold War was a product of the unremitting hostility of Soviet Russia and China against the U.S. Historical fact and anyone who thinks otherwise, like this commenter, merely reflects the moral equivalence and political correctness of our time, which doesn't believe in good and evil. Ironically it is these people who have the distorted view, not the earlier generation they patronize. Evidently this commenter never heard of the Korean War, in which we fought North Korea's and China's invasion of South Korea from 1950-53. Nor does he appear to have heard of the Quemoy- Martsu crises of the fifties, when the communists were threatening the nationalist regime on Taiwan, our ally. Nor the torrent of hostile propaganda against us. Again, look in the mirror before patronizing an earlier period of history.

I am interested in Hollywood movies about China all the time. 55 Days in Beijing, Seven Years in Tibet, Red Corner... I happened to see the Chairman and bought it without any hesitation. But, it turned out to be a complete disappointment not because performance and scenery but true China. In fact, I hate Mao's dictatorship in Red China, however, apparently, American people didn't and could't know much about Red China in 1969. In this movie, the starting music made me believe it was about Japan, what's worse, the Japanese-style-music was all through the movie. And, in 1969, Americans could not find anyone who can speak Mandarine well. What they could find was some Hong Kong-accent guys whose Mandarine made me confused and giggle. When I saw the Chairman, I realized the worst part began. Mao Zedong became much shorter and less-arrogant. He spoke English! Others Mandarine. From the very beginning, I could not find any clues about China Mainland. Everything was falsed too bad. I wondered if you shot the movie without getting a Chinese as a history adviser.

Gregory Peck is a scientist. He is sent on a mysterious mission to China, where it turns out a scientist has developed an amazingly beneficial enzyme, and thinks Peck is the only man who can work out how to duplicate it for mass production, cure all known diseases, etc. Peck and said scientist are idealists who want to share it with the world, while the US and Chinese governments just want it for themselves. And, to make the whole thing more credible, Peck is equipped with a micro-transmitter in his brain which monitors his physical status and bugs his every conversation, including the one he has after playing table tennis with Chairman Mao.

It sounds silly, and, frankly, it is, but the espionage and the attempts to detect it are fairly tense, and Gregory Peck indulges in a fair number of good old humanitarian rants which suggest that Chinese totalitarianism and US militarism aren't necessarily wonderful things either.

I rather enjoyed it.

It's discovered by Western authorities that Chinese scientists have developed a miracle enzyme that will enable crops to grow in the most unlikely of places. Naturally, these same Western authorities are very dubious that China will want to share this enzyme with the rest of the world, so they devise a mission, to be undertaken by a civilian. That civilian is Nobel Prize-winning American scientist / professor John Hathaway (Gregory Peck), and he will have to go into China and try to retrieve the formula to this enzyme. What he DOESN'T know is that his handlers (including Arthur Hill as a gruff, humorless General) just might have inserted an explosive device into Hathaway's head, to be set off should things go wrong.

"The Chairman" does have some things going for it, for sure, including the fact that some of it was indeed shot in the Far East. It receives capable direction from J. Lee Thompson, and features a typically excellent Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack, but it's true that it hinges far more on its dialogue than action / suspense set-pieces. Characters frequently discuss philosophies and politics in a true Cold War piece in which the Russians are actually America's allies in this mission. It isn't until the final third that "The Chairman" becomes more of a genuine spy *thriller*, as Hathaway flees for his life from Chinese soldiers, heading for the China-Russia border.

Peck makes the whole journey worthwhile, delivering a consistently engaging performance; when he's righteously indignant at the end of the story, you can't hardly blame him. He's well supported by Hill, the great Keye Luke as Hathaway's aged mentor, Francesca Tu as Lukes' daughter, Conrad Yama in a rather interesting, amiable turn as Chairman Mao, Ric Young as Yin, and Burt "Cato" Kwouk, who only turns up near the end.

While "The Chairman" may not appeal to espionage cinema fans across the board, the fact that it's so very much of its time does make it an interesting viewing.

Six out of 10.