The Chairman

UK: The Most Dangerous Man in the World

20th Century-Fox. Director J. Lee Thompson; Producer Mort Abrahams; Screenplay Ben Maddow; Camera John Wilcox; Editor Richard Best; Music Jerry Goldsmith;; Art Director Peter Mullins

Gregory Peck
Anne Heywood
Arthur Hill
Alan Dobie
Conrad Yama
Zienia Merton

A quality film, made at Pinewood Studios and on location in the Far East, introducing improbable mission wrapped up in such style it becomes engrossing.

Nobel Prize winning American scientist Gregory Peck, teaching at the University of London, receives a letter from his former instructor, Professor Soong Li (Keye Luke), telling him it would be impossible for Peck to visit Red China.

Since Peck has no intentions of visiting China, he is further mystified when the President, urges him to slip out of London and into the Chinese mainland.

Peck is finally convinced when shown food growing in formerly arid or snowcovered areas inside China.

Task of presenting the film [from a novel by Jay Richard Kennedy] on screen was stupendous, and it has been accomplished with imagination and taste. Peck performs well in a part far more demanding than appears on the surface, while Heywood is totally wasted in what is hardly more than a bit part.

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1969. Running time: 104 MIN.

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