The Chairman (1969)

The Chairman (aka The Most Dangerous Man in the World) (J. Lee Thompson, 1969) Oh, the memories I have of this one. I saw it when it was first released at the long-gone John Danz Theater, and even then, I knew the film was a bit of a mis-fire...but not for want of trying.

 

American Nobel-winning chemist John Hathaway (Gregory Peck) is recruited by the military working out of the American Embassy in London for a special assignment on behalf of an uneasy alliance between the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union. His old University professor, Soong Li (Keye Luke) has traveled back to his native China, now undergoing upheaval with the Cultural Revolution. They all think that Soong has some secret formula or other that all the governments want. Hathaway wants nothing to do with the intrigue, but is convinced to go by a personal phone call from the President (as that would be Nixon at the time, he'd be going there in a few years, anyway—why didn't he go ask about the formula?)

Lt. General Shelby (Arthur Hill, sporting glasses with the right lens blacked out) is the American liaison overseeing the trip from the Embassy, and he has a cute little scheme—as the governments want a constant report from Hathaway on his progress, they tell him they're surgically implanting a transceiver in his skull—in the days of land-lines and in a communist country where all radio communications are monitored, it's a handy-dandy way for Hathaway to report back—by appearing to talk to himself in his hotel rooms...and it can also track his movements, pre-GPS. It can also do something else, but more on that later.

Hathaway has the surgery, then makes the journey—after visiting his long-suffering lady-friend (Anne Heywood, second billed, but only in the movie five minutes) for maybe the last time, given the danger of the mission. It's at this point that the movie gets interesting. Given the nature of the film, shooting in Hong Kong (then as part of the separate state of Taiwan), Thompson gets his "travelogue" footage by shooting it surreptitiously in markets (where the over 6 foot Peck just happens to be standing out in the crowd). Hathaway is led around, baited with a honey-trap, and formally introduced to Mr. Yin (Eric Young), who's pleasure it is to follow Hathaway around for the Chinese government in full sight because they're in charge, why be secretive about it?

Hathaway is escorted around and then one day, Yin tells him he's going to meet the most important man in the world, and is taken to see Chairman Mao (Conrad Yama)—who, rather inanely is introduced playing ping-pong. He engages Hathaway in a game and then proceeds to quiz his guest about his intentions by taking on Hathaway's role while making him see his point of view. The result? An unlikely agreement that Hathaway can visit Soong without any interference—Mao believes that Soong's working perfecting an enzyme that encourages plant growth in any environment would be good for China...and the world (as long as it works).

But, what Hathaway doesn't know—or his unwitting host for that matter—is that little implanted transceiver that nobody's supposed to know about—also has an explosive device cooked into it. If something goes wrong, or Hathaway is captured—BOOM!—one of Hollywood's great profiles gets obliterated. There's an amusing scene where Shelby and his British counterpart realize that they're listening in to a conversation between Hathaway and Mao, and going rushing off to a super-secret telephone—requiring two keys—to alert the President of what's going on and suggesting that (let's explore the possibility) they could set off the explosive right then and kill Mao at the same time. There's a pause on the other end of the line and the words "Great idea.....don't do it."

The rest of the movie is fairly standard undercover work—Hathaway finds out where things are kept, he's a chemist so he gets some acid to gain access, Soong gets attacked by an angry mob of students to show their loyalty to the Communist Party—at the behest of Soong's daughter (okay, that's different), and once our hero gets what he needs he makes an escape for the Chinese border on the Russian side...but there's just the possibility that he could get caught, and so the program to explode his skull begins to count down. 

 

And, yes, it's probably where the creators of "The Suicide Squad" got the idea.

 

It's a staid little film—in the way Arthur Jacobs productions can be—but there's just enough cheek and outre ideas to make it interesting...and memorable after 53 years.

"I hear ticking...."