The Chairman (1969)
4/10
Promises much, delivers little
16 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Gregory Peck plays a secret agent Nobel Prize-winning scientist Atticus Finch type sent to Mao's China to ostensibly collaborate on a revolutionary (?) agricultural enzyme, but in fact to steal it for the West - which they subsequently suppress.

Part 1969 Communist China travelogue, part early Bond flick, part time-jumping mess, 'The Chairman' descends into a 'time-clock' plot device - ie, will the hero beat the explosive countdown in his satellite-connected mastoid canal? - that we know the outcome of well in advance.

A twist would have helped, but what there is, is about as twisty as a basic child's slide.

Interesting setup, lacking any worthwhile development at all. Bert Kwouk playing a Chinese soldier for a change.
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