FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

SimonJack Watching this movie again after many years, I had a familiar quote ringing in my ears: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." Joseph Heller penned that in his 1961 novel, "Catch- 22." I wonder if the makers of "The President's Analyst" hadn't read Heller's book, especially in the development of James Coburn's character, Dr. Sidney Schaefer. I agree that the cast are generally good in their roles. Coburn is good, but he doesn't quite seem to nail his character. Others like his grinning smile at times, but that seemed strange to me when at other times he was frightened. Godrey Cambridge and Severn Darden give the best performances of the film. The film story was a great idea – especially with the surprise ending. But I think the script didn't develop the story well. The first half of the film drags on, and the direction and film editing seem choppy. It shouldn't take an audience so long to get into the satire. And then, there aren't many scenes that bring out laughter. Other reviewers have noted the numerous conventions of the 1960s that this film pokes fun at. Sometimes many lampoons don't work as well as fewer but better developed ones. That may be the case with this film. I would like to have given this movie a higher rating, but it's just not up to the mettle of the great comedy satires. "Dr. Strangelove," "Ninotchka," "To Be or Not to Be," "The Great Dictator," "The Mouse that Roared," and others have wonderful plots with great mixes of witty dialog, spoofing scenes and general satire. One trait that the great films in this sub-genre have is a mix of roles. Some characters have genuinely serious roles, while others have cynical, and others outright comical roles. Coburn's character is the only one that has a semblance of seriousness at times. All the rest – the heads of the fantasized spy agencies, the "hit" men, the people in the groups being lampooned – are funny or silly. It seemed like a spy spoof that the Marx Brothers might make. Or, like the TV sitcom airing at the time, "Get Smart," in which most of characters were buffoons of one type or another. So, the satire doesn't work well. One other thing someone else observed seemed quite bad – the musical score in places. One line by Kropotkin (Severn Darden) seems quite poignant. Remembering that the film was made in 1967, his comments seem close to being fulfilled today. In a discussion with Dr. Sidney Schaefer (Coburn), Kropotkin says, "Logic is on our side. This isn't a case of a world struggle between two divergent ideologies of different economic systems. Every day your country becomes more socialistic, my country becomes more capitalistic. Pretty soon we'll meet in the middle and join hands."With a solid rewrite of the script, this film could have been a much better comedy satire for the time.

dimplet Ah, the Sixties! It was the best of times and the worst of times, unlike today, which is just the worst. This is a cool movie, very much in touch with its times.It is one of the early works to come out of Paramount under the leadership of the legendary Robert Evans, one of the most improbable and incredibly lucky guys to head a movie studio. But he had the touch and knew how to make decisions and take risks.The beauty of Evans' movies like The President's Analyst is that they definitely were not created by a committee or even the marketing department, unlike so many unctuous movies today. There was a freedom to explore an artistic, unconventional vision. And that vision was a warped melding of The Prisoner and Get Smart, with a touch of Casino Royale and Blow Up thrown in. Sure, it gets a little strange toward the end, but by that point the blue ice cubes would have done their job on much of the audience.Speaking of the ending (spoiler alert), people these days probably don't really get the The Phone Company business. There was only one phone company in the U.S., ATT, Ma Bell, aside from small local outfits. It was a legal monopoly. And ATT owned Bell Labs, the premier R&D lab in, perhaps, the world. There was, indeed, a lot of futuristic work going on there, though not quite that futuristic.Godfrey Cambridge, poor soul, a jester and philosopher in one king sized body, which had slimed down prior to this movie. Listen to that astonishingly poetic, yet weirdly funny monologue in the beginning during psychoanalysis. He was a famous comedian who was way ahead of his time, but died too young. Casting him took guts. You must also see him in Watermelon Man.This is not a great or profound movie, though it does have a message embedded in the craziness that you simply have to see. The middle class couple from NJ wiping out the spies in Chinatown with their revolver and karate is such a biting commentary on suburban paranoia, even more true today.There were some great movies being made around this time. If Nixon hadn't gotten elected in 68, if the Vietnam War hadn't torn the country apart, America would have become a very different place. There was so much creativity, so much life, so many new ideas. All gone, along with the hope for a better world.

Woodyanders James Coburn gives a typically fine and engaging performance as Dr. Sidney Schaefer, a cool, mellow and modern psychiatrist who lands himself the plum job of being the president's analyst. Sidney soon finds himself in considerable jeopardy when enemy agents from all over the world try to nab him in order to obtain the valuable information he knows. Writer/director Theodore J. Flicker gleefully satirizes the 60's hippie counterculture, Cold War tensions, middle-class America, and the US government. Moreover, Flicker ably maintains a deliciously deadpan tone throughout and astutely captures the topsy-turvy social lunacy of the 60's. Coburn effortlessly carries the picture with his supremely amiable and charismatic screen presence. The bang-up supporting cast includes Godfrey Cambridge as cunning CEA agent Don Masters, Severn Darden as shrewd Soviet agent V.I. Kydor Kropotkin, Joan Delaney as Sidney's sultry girlfriend Nan, William Daniels as nutty suburban patriarch Wynn Quantrill, "Spider Baby" 's Jill Banner as flighty flower child Snow White, Will Geer as cranky shrink Dr. Lee Evans, Barry McGuire as psychedelic rock band singer Old Wrangler, Walter Burke as austere FBR chief Henry Lux, Pat Harrington, Jr. as affable phone company president Arlington Hewes, and Dyanne "Ilsa" Thorne as a cocktail waitress. The subplot about the phone company's plan for monopolizing world communication is simply priceless. Lalo Schifrin's swinging funky'n'jazzy score and William A. Fraker's gorgeously crisp widescreen cinematography are both up to par. A real wacky treat.

Merwyn Grote My lasting view of Soviet-U.S. relations was clearly defined after watching THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST. Soviet spy/assassin V.I. Kydor Kropotkin, played by Severn Darden, explains to kidnapped American psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Schaefer, played by the irrepressible James Coburn: "Logic is on our side: this isn't a case of a world struggle between two divergent ideologies, of different economic systems. Every day your country becomes more socialistic and mine becomes more capitalistic. Pretty soon we will meet in the middle and join hands." Beautiful, simple logic, clearly stated in a whacked-out, slightly psychedelic satirical farce about Cold War paranoia. A gem of genius in a world gone mad.Of course, it didn't pan out that way. The U.S.S.R., trying to maintain its communistic ideology in a world of blissful capitalistic greed, just couldn't keep up and went bankrupt -- financially, morally, socially and politically -- long before the great day of unification could arrive. If only the Reds had made THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST required viewing, maybe they could have hung in there just a tad longer. Of course, the U.S. still continues to slip-slide to the left, but, oh well, that's politics.Coburn stars as the title character, a New York psychiatrist who lands the plum job of being the confidant to the President of the United States, who basically needs a shoulder to cry on before the job drives him looney tunes. At first, Coburn is elated at his new job, but soon he learns that a President's life isn't an easy one -- nor is the life of his shrink. But worse, the things that the good doctor learns under physician-patient confidentiality are a valuable commodity in international espionage circles. Thus, some people want to kidnap him and brainwash him for his secrets -- others just want him dead. Dr Schaefer suffers a bit of a nervous breakdown and hits the road; a gaggle of spies in hot pursuit.You'd be hard pressed to come up with a political satire more quintessentially sixties than Theodore J. Flicker's THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST; giddily spaced out and always flirting with being just a little too silly and a little too over the top. It's a 1967 political satire made in the days before political satire became mean and strident. I mean, the unseen "president" in the title is treated with surprising respect, even though it would be fair to assume that he might be LBJ, hardly a man who endeared himself to anybody. Politics and political satire became surprisingly mean and vindictive from the Nixon years on, but a film like THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST retains a sense of mischief rather than malice.As such, the film exists in something of a protective bubble of style. It is very sixties in tone -- dreamy pop-rock music in the score, a vaguely anti-establishment attitude, etc. -- yet, though the sexual revolution is just taken for granted, there isn't a mention of Viet Nam, anti-war protests, social unrest or anything too real that might distract from the superficial style and goofy story. Unlike, say DR. STRANGELOVE, the sardonic comedy isn't threatened by the gravity of its dark subject matter.As a spy movie, the film is sort of anti-James Bond; by the time it gets around to the high-tech shenanigans about a plot to control the world, it has already taken a good-natured look at everything from suburbia to rock 'n' roll. There aren't any Connery-esquire Bond types -- or even anyone like Coburn's own Derek Flint -- rather the superspies the film offers tend to be chubby and middle-aged, with a cheerfully pragmatic view of their profession. Indeed, America's top agent is played by roly-poly African-American comedian Godfrey Cambridge. And though practically everyone in the film turns out to be a secret agent, the film gleefully works to avoid as many spy clichés as possible, and only surrenders to the clichés that can be gently mocked.The film has that giddy air of laid-back sophistication that suggests that it was created by smart people, all of whom were just a little bit high on some sort of illegal substance. Rather than having the martini-sipping, Playboy magazine-style of cool detachment of Bond, the film goes for the trippy, brownies-munching cool disenchantment of Sgt. Pepper. With a bit of MAD Magazine's "Spy vs. Spy" tossed in. The result is as amusing as it is thought provoking. And it is a sensational solution to the hostility problem -- assuming, of course, you don't already have a license to kill.