{"id":19610,"date":"2019-08-23T10:44:21","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T14:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19610"},"modified":"2019-08-24T17:05:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-24T21:05:58","slug":"br-chairman-the-most-dangerous-man-in-the-world-the-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19610","title":{"rendered":"BR: Chairman, The \/ Most Dangerous Man in the World, The (1969)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 July 16, 2019<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Espionage \/ Political Thriller \/ Cold War Thriller<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A geneticist working for Allied Powers enters communist China to steal a formula that can solve world hunger.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Isolated Stereo and Mono Music and Music & Effects Track \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Mike Finnegan \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a> and www.twilighttimemovies.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The premise of this pulpy, more-than-slightly tongue-in-cheek thriller is ludicrous: a retired geneticist agrees to a potential one-way trip to Maoist China and retrieve the secret formula that enables growing any kind of food in any temperate zone, be it pineapples in the arctic, or robust veggies on arid mountain slopes. Add a one-way microphone embedded in John Hathaway\u2019s melon with a kill switch in case he\u2019s caught, and you have a film with a very confused tone \u2013 part Bond, part Cold War thriller, and a bit of Hitchcockian fluff.<\/p>\n

The Chairman<\/strong> is very much a time capsule for reasons its makers probably never intended, and while pulpy, scenarist and former blacklisted writer Ben Maddow (The Asphalt Jungle<\/strong>, The Naked Jungle<\/strong>, No Down Payment<\/a><\/strong>) seemed to have played up the conflicts within Jay Richard Kennedy\u2019s novel. Hathaway (Gregory Peck) travels to China and aide in developing the magic bullet to global starvation, but he knows he\u2019s just a tool for the U.S. military complex, and will no doubt be played by the People\u2019s Republic, including its deity Mao (Conrad Yama), whom he meets and inks a worthless bargain over a game of ping-pong.<\/p>\n

Director J.Lee Thompson was always a master at montages, and although he plays with time periods in the film\u2019s first third \u2013 Hathaway\u2019s presence on a flight to Hong Kong is interpolated with narration and flashbacks tracing what could end up being a suicidal mission \u2013 once he lands, the film unfolds in a standard linear fashion, albeit with cheeky nods to the super-spy genre.<\/p>\n

Hathaway meets his Communist contact Yin (a very young Ric Young) on the upper floor of an upscale bordello; almost beds spy Ting Ling (Space: 1999<\/strong>\u2019s Xienia Merton) before receiving \/ deserving a solid conk to the head; and after regaining consciousness and a visa, flies to mainland China to meet the Chairman himself, where he agrees to help finalize the secret formula so China and both feed itself and gift this marvel of genetics to the world.<\/p>\n

How the formula is explained, where it\u2019s locked away, and whether Hathaway manages to snatch it and escape is irrelevant, because Maddow\u2019s script allowed for some diversions: Hathaway\u2019s old colleague Soong Li (Keye Luke) is paraded through the streets by red book waving, Maoist zealots, and a slight tease that the older American will fall for his colleague\u2019s young, cause- committed daughter Soong Chu (Francesca Tu). There is a slight emotional connection between Chu and Hathaway, but the bonding agent is really her father, and once he\u2019s stricken from the narrative, it\u2019s clear Hathaway must act or be trapped in China.<\/p>\n

Hathaway\u2019s attempt to snatch the formula and escape are where Thompson has the most fun, crafting incredibly dynamic montages, thanks in large part to the superb editing by Richard Best (The Magic Box<\/strong>, The Dam Busters<\/strong>, The Blood on Satan\u2019s Claw<\/strong>) and cinematographer John Wilcox (Summer Holiday<\/strong>, The Last Valley<\/strong>) who kept the camera gliding through wide locations and cramped sets.<\/p>\n

None of the film\u2019s montages, especially Hathaway\u2019s preposterous escape from a tightly guarded compound, are digestible without Jerry Goldsmith\u2019s outstanding score. While his Main Titles bear a slight resemblance to the composer\u2019s dour, gut-wrenching theme for The Sand Pebbles<\/strong> (1966), Chairman<\/strong>\u2019s material is designed to keep the drama moving, avoiding even a hint of possible romance, hence a nearly total lack of warm cues. The militaristic main theme evolves into a medium-epic statement which Goldsmith soon breaks apart into rhythmic variations, many featuring loose, abstract moments which match Hathaway\u2019s own dilemma in trying to acquire the formula under surveillance.<\/p>\n

Hathaway\u2019s crawling through floorboards and entering the bunker that houses the formula is patently absurd \u2013 he succeeds solely because the house happens to have big gaps between the floors, and none of the sentries hear what probably sounds like a big rat scurrying above the rafters \u2013 but the sequence works because of the seamless choreography between actor, editor, and composer.<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s toughest chore as director was finding the right balance between seeing Hathaway in action in China, and the reactions and pre-emptive actions of his handlers in Europe: tin U.S. soldier Shelby (Arthur Hill, pitching the one-eyed officer as cold-hearted but never tipping into parody), his British counterpart, and Soviet rep Shertov (fine Israeli actor Ori Levy). Everything Hathaway hears and says is radioed back to them, but Hathaway is very much on his own, relying on a mole to aide in his escape (The Pink Panther<\/strong>\u2019sBert Kwouk).<\/p>\n

Where a hack filmmaker might render complex montages as formulaic (or bungle them outright), Thompson and Best\u2019s edits often acts as counterpoint to Goldsmith\u2019s increasingly raw, rambunctious cues that ultimately explode with full orchestra backing during an outrageous (and improbable breakout sequence, and his race to reach the China-Soviet union border before literally losing his head.<\/p>\n

The final exchanges between Hathaway and Shelby could\u2019ve been short quips, snickers, and a Bondian punchline to finish the denouement, but Maddow\u2019s prose maintains the sharp divide between the deeply cynical military industrial complex and earnest everyman Hathaway. The disdain stiff Shelby has for Hathaway\u2019s progressive ilk is synthesized in a double-shouting of \u201cNothing!\u201d (The moment\u2019s power may also be due to a trick edit in which Thompson cut to a second closer shot take that bleeds with sharper disdain.)<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s connection to the James Bond franchise is more than borrowed tropes: uncredited cinematographer Ted Moore shot six Bond productions including Dr. No<\/strong> (1962), Goldfinger<\/strong> (1964), and Thunderball<\/strong> (1965); credited cinematographer Wilcox would later shoot Hammer Films\u2019 highly unsuccessful kung fu-Bondian hybrid Shatter<\/a><\/strong> (1974); and in a peculiar case of typecasting, Mai Ling, who played the nosey stewardess in Goldfinger<\/strong>, plays a communist agent masquerading as a stewardess in Chairman<\/strong>\u2019s opening scenes. (Her other Bondian credit is an unbilled role in You Only Live Twice<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

The Chairman<\/strong> isn\u2019t a great Cold War espionage thriller, but it just <\/em>works perhaps because its makers kept it pulpy. There\u2019s also the fascination of locations and objects preserved on film: Hong Kong\u2019s harbour and the gritty, disintegrating city streets of 1968; Peck\u2019s plane screaming over houses before landing at Kai Tak Airport<\/a> (see this video link<\/a> for a great montage of landings & take-offs); the superb Main Title montage that\u2019s a glossy collage of news stills of the foaming Red Guard; and chunky technology, namely the giant reel of computer tape that within 32.5 seconds precisely <\/em>make mush of Hathaway\u2019s noggin\u2019, and the bulky monitors displaying oscillating frequencies and huge VU meters tracking Hathaway\u2019s pulse, blood pressure, psychological state!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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THE CHAIRMAN (1969) U.S. poster: torn from the headlines!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Scandinavian poster for THE CHAIRMAN (1969).<\/p><\/div>\n

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British VHS sleeve for THE CHAIRMAN, released as THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN THE WORLD, and inferring Gregory Peck’s head is packed with flammable timber.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Twilight Time\u2019s disc sports a sharp HD transfer which flatters the gritty location cinematography, as well as the standing \u2018China\u2019 sets left over from Inn of the Sixth Happiness<\/a><\/strong> (1958) and later repurposed in Satan Never Sleeps<\/a><\/strong> (1962). Thompson\u2019s perfectly timed close-ups are especially impactful in HD, with every sharp detail of visages filling the screen.<\/p>\n

Like Fox\u2019s 2006 DVD, the film was remixed in bullshit stereo, but the mono mix is the better choice, as it doesn\u2019t suffer from the faux depth effects that give an already flat, dry mix a drainpipe quality. Goldsmith\u2019s score did enjoy LP and later CD releases, but TT\u2019s disc marks the first time the stereo stems are available with surviving isolated mono music & effects cues; some of the best chase music only survives in this lesser form, so this is the most complete presentation of this underrated musical gem fans will likely get.<\/p>\n

Also retained from the Fox DVD are two alternate scenes from a slightly longer European version, best described as the booby-friendly edit. An early scene in Shelby\u2019s office has a smidge of extra dialogue, but it\u2019s the extra material with Zienia Merton that clarifies an incoherent reference to buying butterflies in the hotel seduction scene: a fully disrobed Ting Ling opens a basket of butterflies after a very provocative stance on the rug.<\/p>\n

Now, fans of the film (and Merton) will wonder if the international version contains other scene extensions, and whether there\u2019s a HD transfer that might only be available to European licensees, but it is a pity Fox didn\u2019t supply the complete version, or allow for seamless branching to choose which version to play, but TT\u2019s disc also includes a digest version that\u2019s reportedly compiled using outtakes and alternates.<\/p>\n

The inference is the mini-movie was a cut down version for consumers, but it may well have been an exhibitor\u2019s promo edit, as was done for Peck\u2019s 1978 Nazi sleaze thriller The Boys from Brazil<\/strong>, which similarly contained extra material not in the final cut. The mini-movie uses a number of cues from the Goldsmith-scored Fox epic The Sand Pebbles<\/strong>, and the extra bits of dialogue likely trimmed for pacing, redundancy, or tone. Presented in widescreen, the montage of events also includes a bit more of very naked Merton fiddling with Peck\u2019s belt, making it more logical to assume the mini-movie was a teaser to entice theatres into booking the studio\u2019s latest hot button, cosmetically over-sexed thriller.<\/p>\n

TT also includes the original theatrical trailer, but like the mini-film, there are some serious technical issues. The trailer\u2019s first half has no dialogue \u2013 just a 1 kHz tone followed by a silent gap before the\u00a0way<\/em> out of sync<\/em>\u00a0audio comes in at 1:33, and continues to the trailer’s end. Also affected is the mini-movie which suffers less severe but still serious sync issues.\u00a0These sync issues aren’t present o the Fox DVD.<\/p>\n

(In an email from Twilight Time, the label confirmed the fault lies in the compression and mastering facility which failed to catch the sync issues, and as the feature proper, its multiple audio tracks + the extra scenes aren’t affected, no recall is planned.)<\/p>\n

Also carried over from the prior disc is an strong commentary by film historians Eddy Friedfeld and Lee Pfeiffer who pack a ;pt of information informative and contextualize the production as an effort by both its director and aging star to find a viable project with box office appeal.<\/p>\n

Much of the commentary peaks with lively discourse and disagreements, but their extended closing comments on filmmusic are preposterous; like their simultaneously recorded track for Fox\u2019s Our Man Flint<\/a> <\/strong>(1966), their narrow (and ludicrous) view dismisses post 1960s composers and scores as unimportant and unimpressive. Equally subjective is the claim that 70s films are hard to enjoy because of gaudy fashion which distracts from story, plot, and performances; with a few exceptions like H.B. Halicki\u2019s Gone in 60 Seconds<\/a><\/strong> (1974), most productions aren\u2019t wholly saddled with poodle hairdos, self-propelling shirt collars, and bulky quasi-colonial wood trim. Sometimes the most egregious fashion faux pas add to a film\u2019s attraction, and enjoyment.<\/p>\n

Mike Finnegan\u2019s liner notes celebrate the film\u2019s fun factor, and its peculiar origin as a proposed script before Kennedy, also a screenwriter – To the Ends of the Earth<\/strong> (1948), I\u2019ll Cry Tomorrow<\/strong> (1955), TV\u2019s The Man Called X<\/strong> (1956) – reworked it into a novel, after which it became a script proper, a quirky route similar to Michael Crichton\u2019s Jurassic Park<\/strong> (1993), and Logan’s Run<\/strong> (1976), scripted & novelized by George Clayton Johnson and William F. Nolan.<\/p>\n

Gregory Peck and director J. Lee Thompson collaborated on the blockbuster The Guns of Navarone<\/strong> (1961), the chilling & nasty thriller Cape<\/strong> Fear<\/strong> (1962), the bloated western Mackenna\u2019s Gold<\/strong> (1969), and The Chairman<\/strong> (1969).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2019 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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