The Chairman (1969) on Netflix
A Nobel Prize-winning professor, Dr. John Hathaway, is asked to travel to China and retrieve an enzyme that lets crops grow anywhere. A device implanted in his skull carries a charge.
- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb5.6/101,590 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Dr. John Hathaway, a Nobel Prize-winning professor, is summoned to the U.S. embassy in London. Lt. General Shelby asks him to fly to China and visit Soong Li, his old teacher, who is said to have created an enzyme able to make crops grow in any climate. Hathaway is reluctant; Kay Hanna, a close friend in London, shares his unease. The President of the United States telephones him and urges him to go. Before departure, a transmitter is implanted in his skull. He is not told that the device also contains explosives that American officials can set off if the assignment goes wrong. Washington and Moscow both want the enzyme, and neither will let it stay solely under Chinese control.
Cast
Show all 14 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Chairman (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- China refused permission to film there and the production was ordered to leave Hong Kong after protests by communists; Jacobs said communists set off a fake bomb and warned of a real one, and J. Lee Thompson used guerrilla filmmaking to get Hong Kong location shots.
- English actress Anne Heywood is given second billing in The Chairman but appears only at the start and the end of the film, for a total of five minutes.
