Product Description

When Nobel-winning scientist Hathaway (Peck) receives a strange letter, the last place he expects it to lead him is into Communist China â?" as a spy! Sent to decode a formula that could save millions, Hathaway has no idea whom he can trust, and no assistance. Worst of all, his handlers haven't told him that the transmitting device implanted in his head is also a bomb. And if things get too hot, they're prepared to detonate!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23808 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-11-07
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Customer Reviews

Curious Film - Long Unavailable
I can't think of another thriller where a living world leader was depicted onscreen, not using stock footage like Day of the Jackal or Hennessey, but by an actor. Perhaps that's why this film vanished for decades. (Or that may have been due to the hero's humanist impulses.) In any event, this is still worth watching and the picture looks great on the DVD.
The commentary track is the same guys as several of these 60s era thrillers and they do a good job. (Although a fair amount of time is taken up instructing us that Mao was a bad guy.) But they also seem to think the picture's scenes set in China are documentary evidence of the country at the time and not, in fact a Western entertainment's take on it. (As they tell us themselves -- some of this footage was shot in Scotland!)

Great film and superb extras
It was great to see this film get the five star treatment it deserves. The deleted scenes, especially the ones for 'overseas' countries are fantastic. The audio commentary is both informative and entertaining.
A must have DVD for any fan of 60s cinema and Gregory Peck. Now if only Fox will release Hard Contract (1969) with James Coburn...

Best of Genre
Gregory Peck was without peer as a convincing actor who always brought something special to every role he played.

Here, he was a renowned scientist, pretending to know more about hybrid plant species than he did. This helped him in a role of deception so that he could unlock a secret from an enemy (Red-China) that would neutralize their ability to have an undue and unbelievable influence on third world nations struggling to feed themselves.

What Peck's character did not know was that people in his own governmment,(the USA) were not telling him everything about his covert mission and what he did not know could have killed him.

An exciting film about a very nervous time in our recent history.