Along with Stanley Donen's 'Bedazzled', Theodore J.Flicker's 'The President's Analyst' is my favourite motion picture of the '60's. It is so insane as to defy description. James Coburn produced and starred in it, hot on the heels of his two 'Derek Flint' spy spoofs. He plays 'Dr.Sidney Schaefer', a psychiatrist given the important job of analyst to the President of the United States. At first, he regards it as an honour, but then senses that he is being followed everywhere by intelligence agents. He talks in his sleep, and his girlfriend Nan ( Joan Delaney ) is no longer allowed to go to bed with him as the knowledge in his head had made him into a prime security risk. When Schaefer's nerve breaks, he goes into hiding, and is hotly pursued not only by his own side, but agents of other world powers too.
Coburn is marvellous in the title role, and is ably supported by Godfrey Cambridge, Severn Darden, Joan Delaney, and William Daniels. In one of my favourite scenes, Schaefer takes refuge with the Quantrill family. The father, an avowed liberal, is just as mad about guns ( he keeps them in his car and every room in the house ) as his so-called right-wing neighbours, the Bullocks, the mother is a karate expert, while son Bing listens to conversations using homemade bugging devices. Throwing in his lot with a gang of hippies, the doctor makes love to one in a corn field while spies murder each other attempting to murder him. In a brilliant climax ( which has to be seen to be believed ), Schaefer is taken to the headquarters of T.P.C. ( The Phone Company ). Its chairman, Arlington Hewes ( the wonderful Pat Harrington Jr. ) wants Schaefer to influence the President into throwing the weight of public opinion behind the Cerebral Communicator - a device that does everything a normal phone can do, except that it is inserted into the brain. Depersonalisation in other words.
If your jaw does not drop about fifty times ( or maybe more ) during the course of this picture, you must be unshakable. Like Tony Richardson's 'The Loved One', the picture sets out to ridicule all and sundry - from the Cold War to '60's pop music to the Hippie Movement to American politics to spy movies - and succeeds brilliantly. Why it was not nominated for an Oscar for 'Best Picture' is beyond me. Oh, and there's a cool soundtrack by Lalo Schrifrin to boot!
The reputations of many '60's pictures have been destroyed by crass remakes, let us hope this one does not go down the same road.
Coburn is marvellous in the title role, and is ably supported by Godfrey Cambridge, Severn Darden, Joan Delaney, and William Daniels. In one of my favourite scenes, Schaefer takes refuge with the Quantrill family. The father, an avowed liberal, is just as mad about guns ( he keeps them in his car and every room in the house ) as his so-called right-wing neighbours, the Bullocks, the mother is a karate expert, while son Bing listens to conversations using homemade bugging devices. Throwing in his lot with a gang of hippies, the doctor makes love to one in a corn field while spies murder each other attempting to murder him. In a brilliant climax ( which has to be seen to be believed ), Schaefer is taken to the headquarters of T.P.C. ( The Phone Company ). Its chairman, Arlington Hewes ( the wonderful Pat Harrington Jr. ) wants Schaefer to influence the President into throwing the weight of public opinion behind the Cerebral Communicator - a device that does everything a normal phone can do, except that it is inserted into the brain. Depersonalisation in other words.
If your jaw does not drop about fifty times ( or maybe more ) during the course of this picture, you must be unshakable. Like Tony Richardson's 'The Loved One', the picture sets out to ridicule all and sundry - from the Cold War to '60's pop music to the Hippie Movement to American politics to spy movies - and succeeds brilliantly. Why it was not nominated for an Oscar for 'Best Picture' is beyond me. Oh, and there's a cool soundtrack by Lalo Schrifrin to boot!
The reputations of many '60's pictures have been destroyed by crass remakes, let us hope this one does not go down the same road.