ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

ozthegreatat42330 When I first saw this movie in 1969 I was very intrigued by it. sending an American Scientist into Communist China to attempt the theft of a valuable enzyme that could help produce enough food to feed the whole world. Of course with the star power of the handsome Gergory Peck that also did not hurt the film. Arthur Hill was his usual efficient low keyed supporting performance, but the love interest was just not there and could have easily been left out of the plot altogether (an unthinkable idea by Hollywood standards.)Seeing the film now it seems as though there is simply not enough plot and it is all too ho-hum. He is always under the scrutiny of a transmitter implanted under the skin in his head, not knowing that there is also an explosive device included. Conrad Yama is a very believable Chairman Mao, but his appearance in the film is limited to one short scene, which does not serve the title. The best part of the movie is another memorable sound score from Jerry Goldsmith, who next to John Williams is one of the most prolific film composers there is.

Jonathon Dabell The Chairman (GB title: The Most Dangerous Man In The World) is a typically twisty 60s spy thriller. It feels like a low-key James Bond adventure with a hint of The Man From UNCLE stirred in. Gregory Peck is the hero in this one, but in spite of his star charisma and the fact that the film has a fairly intriguing plot, it still emerges an overall disappointment. Something in the handling just doesn't quite add up – maybe it's the way the film twists itself into semi-confusion, maybe it's the clumsy post-production editing which sticks out like a sore thumb, or maybe it's the fact that the sillier aspects of the storyline never quite convince as fully as they're meant to. Whatever the reason, The Chairman falls short of its potential.Dr. John Hathaway (Gregory Peck) is recruited by the CIA for a tricky undercover assignment in Red China. It seems the Chinese have almost perfected an agricultural enzyme that could allow crops to grow in hostile environments like mountains and deserts. Such an enzyme would allow China to gain absolute control of the world's mass food production market. Hathaway is a close friend of the man who invented the enzyme, revered Chinese professor Soong Li (Keye Luke). He is also considered by the Chinese as the one man who can help them to add the finishing touches to the formula. This is great news for the CIA, who need someone they can send into China to get close to those involved in the production of the enzyme without arousing suspicion. Hathaway agrees to do the job for them, and a microchip transmitter is implanted into his head which is capable of visually and aurally relaying everything he witnesses during his time in China. What Marshal Shelby (Arthur Hill) of the CIA doesn't tell Hathaway is that the transmitter in his brain is also wired up to a small explosive device, so that if the mission looks destined to fail – or if it looks like he might fall into enemy hands – his head can be blown off at any time simply by pushing a button! The best thing about the film is Jerry Goldsmith's rousing music score, which adds excitement to scenes that actually, on most occasions, aren't very exciting. In spite of the fact that Peck is in continuous danger virtually every moment that he's in China, the film somehow slackens the suspense when it should be tightening it. Long periods of the film are tedious and uninvolving. Peck gives a passable performance as the unsuspecting "walking bomb", even though he's not really the right actor for the role, while Arthur Hill's eye-patched official overseeing the operation might have stepped right out of a book of spy movie clichés. In the finale, Hathaway flees for the border with the Chinese army in hot pursuit, while Shelby's finger hovers perilously over the all-important bomb button. It's a reasonably taut climax, but comes too late in the day to save the film as a whole. In summary, The Chairman has a few highlights but generally speaking it's one of those films that could have, and should have, been better!

Robert J. Maxwell Gregory Peck does a reasonably good job as a Nobelist who is sent to China to steal an enzyme that will increase the world's food supply. The Chinese, you see, want to keep it a secret and use it themselves. (They've since given up hoping for miracles and have turned to a much more sensible one-child per family policy.) I guess -- legally speaking, the enzyme IS in fact a Chinese invention and belongs to them, doesn't it? What I mean is, is it entirely ethical for Peck to sneak into China under false pretenses, swipe something of theirs, and smuggle it out of the country? After all, when the Americans and Brits get the enzyme at the end, they too stash it away to use as a "weapon" instead of handing it over to all humankind, as Peck wants to do. It's like Clint Eastwood sneaking into the USSR and stealing the most advanced fighter airplane in the world from them ("Firefox").Problems like this don't bother the film makers. Absconding with the MacGuffin is a good idea -- period. To show how good it is, even the Russians are on our side and only the Chinese are "enemies." And how does our side show its appreciation for Peck's life-endangering efforts? They have planted a complex transmitter in his mastoid sinus. He has willingly allowed them to do it. What they haven't told him is that there is a coil of explosive wrapped around the chip that will blow his head off if detonated by the authorities. At the last minute, the general in charge (Arthur Hill) relents and doesn't explode Peck's head. That's gratitude for you.The director has tried to turn this into a light-hearted thriller, along the lines of "North by Northwest." Accordingly, we are introduced to Chairman Mao while he's playing ping pong. And Peck is given plenty of wisecracks under stress, on top of which his performance is sort of sing-song, more animated than usual. Somehow it doesn't jell.It would have been no trouble at all in 1943 to change a few things around and have this turn out to be an anti-Nazi war film, all cloak and dagger, shadows and fog, and racing black sedans.Not one of Peck's better career choices.

blairwitch-1 Keep in mind "The Chairman" was released (1969) while America was in the middle of the Vietnam War. Every government type in the movie hates Communism (so much that the assassination of Chairman Mao is considered) but Peck's character reserves judgment. Peck also has his doubts about, and questions, the Chinese system. In this manner he plays an "anti-establishment" role against both systems, the East and the West. The excitement of this movie is bolstered in no small way by the superlative musical score of Jerry Goldsmith. Goldsmith listened to oriental music samples before composing this score, and it is one of Goldsmith's finest (even better than his score for the original Star Trek movie). This film introduced me to the concept of the "Little Red Book", Mao's collection of sayings distributed to every school child. The movie was made when the Chinese were being recognized as the best ping pong players in the world, so Peck even gets a chance to play table tennis with Mao himself. Every great film has its unforgettable moments, and this has a good share of them too. I haven't seen this movie in maybe a decade but I still remember several scenes vividly: In China, the public beating of Peck's scientist colleague. Peck's attempt to get into the armored projection chamber which holds the secret to unlimited food production for the world's starving masses. His border crossing while being chased by the Chinese Army. And Peck's reaction when he observes the detonation of the bomb he didn't know he was carrying (once surgically implanted in his skull). If you like Gregory Peck, you will love this action treat.