Greeting Geoff,
 
By the standards of the 1960s it was enough to say "Chairman" or "Chairman Mao" to
inspire shock and awe.  Mao Tse-tung or Mao Zedong was seen by many as a threat
to peace during that period especially after the split with the USSR.  President Lyndon
B. Johnson had a morbid dread for Red China and Chairman Mao.  The movie's title
was not as generic as you might think.  For many, the life and times of Mao Tse-tung
is legendary.  It has been known that the present Chinese leadership would ask Henry
Kissinger about Mao Tse-tung, Chou En-lai, and Deng Tsiao-Ping (I use the old standard
for the Chinese personages).
 
I myself read the Kennedy book about four years after I first saw the movie.  I found it
very wanting and tasteless in comparison to the movie.  First, there are significant
differences between the protagonists.  In the book John Hathaway is a young
academic impersonating the son of a magnate who is granted permission to visit
Red China and meet the Chairman.  The movie version made is easier for Hathaway
to be a biochemist with the knowlege to solve the problem and extract the McGuffin
to the free world.
 
It is a very different China after Mao Tse-tung.  The Bamboo Curtain had been
dismantled.
 
     End Run,
 
     David in MA


--- On Sun, 2/2
6/12, Geoff Willmetts <gfwillmetts@...> wrote:


From: Geoff Willmetts <gfwillmetts@...>
Subject: [probe_control] The Chairman
To: "chat search" <probe_control@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, February 26, 2012, 7:03 AM





Hello David



      The problem with ‘The Chairman’ as a title
is its too generic. It looks like a board of directors, even back in the 70s
(on TV not cinema by the way when I think I saw the opening). I think I would
have gone for a title more appropriate to Hathaway’s predicament for the film.
After all, it was also released under the title ‘The Most Dangerous Man In The
World’ which is also vague. Who does it refer to: Hathaway or Mao?? Is there
any major differences between the book and film before I go after the former??



      I saw a couple of the extras on the DVD yesterday
including a more explicit scene with Ziena Merton
which I presume was in the rest of the world cut?? Back in those days there
were very few oriental or oriental looking actresses, let alone actors, over
here and these three were the most regularly used. Eric Young appeared all over
the place, including ‘The Champions’ pilot and the SF film ‘Invasion’ where I
remembered him most from. Burnt Kwouk was already legendary.



Geoff



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