User Reviews

James Coburn is "The President's Analyst" in this 1967 dark-humored film also starring Godfrey Cambridge, Severn Darden, Eduard Franz, Will Geer and Barry McGuire. Coburn is Sidney Schaefer, a New York psychiatrist chosen to be the analyst for the President of the United States. It's a great honor and all that, but the assignment turns out to be nothing but trouble. He becomes paranoid and when he starts to believe his girlfriend is a spy, he escapes his many watchers by joining a White House tour and attaching himself to a couple, Bing and Jeff Quantrill (Wiliam Daniels and Joan Darling). Claiming that he works for the President who wants to get a handle on what Americans are thinking, they agree to take him back to the New York suburbs with them. But Sidney can't escape - everyone seems to know where he is, even later on, when he runs away with a group of hippie musicians and dons a wig. One faction of the U.S. government wants him found and returned to Washington; another one, the FBR, wants him dead. All the other countries want him to find out what he knows, or they want him dead so no one else learns anything.

There are lots of great things in this film, but the best is the segment with William Daniels and Joan Darling, who play two liberals who have more guns in their house than a gun store. "The people next door are Fascists," Bing says. "They ought to be gassed." With Sidney in Chinatown, government agents approach them to kidnap Sidney. Jeff attacks with karate while Bing shoots to kill - and Sidney takes off.

Baby boomers will especially enjoy all the '60 elements. "The President's Analyst" walks a line between satire and the real feelings of the '60s (many of which are still held) about the government. And it succeeds beautifully. James Coburn was an underrated actor who always delivered unique characterizations, and he was never without some underlying humor. You can see the analyst deteriorate - he starts off with an ego as big as New York after getting his assignment, and bit by bit he descends into nervous breakdown-land. The other performances are excellent, from Godfrey Cambridge, Eduard Franz, Will Geer and the rest. But Daniels and Darling - priceless.

Excellent film, highly recommended.

James Coburn is a psychiatrist selected for a major assignment: personal analyst to the President of the U.S. of A. At first, he's beaming with pride at this great honour, until he realizes that he has to be constantly on call. Suffering a nervous breakdown, he goes A.W.O.L. This proves to be too much temptation for foreign powers to withstand, as they send agent after agent to abduct Coburn and find out just what the President may have told him during therapy. Meanwhile, Coburns' own government doesn't want him divulging anything, of course, so now he's expendable.

Written and directed by Theodore J. Flicker, "The President's Analyst" is a very sharp and clever political satire, taking aim at so-called "liberalism", the hippie generation, the Cold War, etc. It's not necessarily always funny in a "ha-ha" sort of way, but it should continuously amuse the viewer, especially if they were alive during the era when this first was released. Its plot involves such agencies as the "C.E.A." and the "F.B.R.", not to mention the most heinous of them all: "T.P.C." Over 50 years later, it still works quite well, with top performances by all concerned. It further benefits from grand widescreen photography and a jaunty soundtrack composed by Lalo Schifrin. Best of all is the priceless left turn the film takes in the final act, when it shows us just who the TRUE villains are.

Coburn is always fun, and he shines once again in this performance. It's just hilarious to see him hiding out with the hippies, and wearing an appropriate disguise. (He also plays a mean gong.) He's very well supported by a clean-shaven Severn Darden as Russian agent Kropotkin, Godfrey Cambridge as amiable C.E.A. agent Don Masters, and the enticingly sexy Joan Delaney as Coburn's girlfriend. Other familiar faces include Pat Harrington Jr., Jill Banner, Eduard Franz, Walter Burke, Will Geer, William Daniels, Joan Darling, and Arte Johnson. In one interesting twist, we never do see the President on screen.

Good fun, and somewhat forgotten over time, although you CANNOT miss it if you enjoy a solid satire and / or are a big fan of the eternally cool Coburn.

Eight out of 10.

I forgot what a masterpiece of paranoia this movie is; only in this

case, it isn't paranoia, everyone really IS out to get you! This is

James Coburn's best performance in my opinion, as a psychiatrist

who has been conscripted to become the President's analyst, and

when he decides to quit, discovers just how disposal American

citizens are. This is my pick for THE paranoia movie of the 1960s.

That this movie came out in 1967 is incredible; it deals with

assassination carried out casually by the FBI, the CIA, the violence

that has been absorbed as wholesome by America, the escape

from violence into sex and drugs, and much, much more, all

during the time of the Vietnam War and zero tolerance for differing

views. The speech by the black FBI agent in the beginning on

how he discovered racism is especially painful, and remarkable

given the time period.

The movie is hysterically funny, cynical, black, and most ironically,

hopeful, and a must-see for any film lover. The script is terrific, but

the direction stands out in the inspired camerawork. This

obviously was a labor of love by the director/writer, and

interestingly, one of only two or three non-t.v. films he ever directed.

If you see it, you may be bored by today's sex and gore standards.

But if you remember the 60s, keep them in mind when you see

this film. You'll wonder how it ever got made.

Ten out of ten stars, because there isn't anything I can find wrong

with this film; it's brilliant in every aspect.

Too many films want it both ways, but this is that rare example of a film that actually gets it. It genuinely is of its age - all swinging Sixties and cultural revolution - but it also sends all that up.

Read the plot elsewhere but suffice to say that those numb-nuts who believe it to be shambolic clearly don't know a carefully structured film when they see one. It's a comedy thriller that zips along whilst never missing an opportunity to provide some of the best satire you'll ever see on Flower Power, Psychiatry, American Liberalism and the Cold War.

Furthermore, for me, it's James Coburn's best performance because we get to see his comedic skills whilst at the same time get a generous slice of just what makes him the coolest cat ever to grace the silver screen.

I'm gobsmacked that this - one of my Top 25 films - is not considered a classic. For me it's up there with Dr Strangelove because it's got everything: great direction, a great great story, great dialogue, great sound-track, and did I mention the acting...?

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.

When James Coburn passed away in 2002, it was sad to see how little fanfare was generated by this event. Coburn's resume is as strong as any actor of the Sixties and Seventies. For almost a decade, Coburn played in some of the strangest and most unorthodox films of the era. Everyone knows that he capably spoofed the popular spy genre with his "Flint" films. But it wasn't until he became the President's analyst that he really hit his stride. The fabulous panoramic views of a pre-World Trade Center New York duel with the more grimy shots of the Manhattan Garment District. Look for a humorous assassination involving a knife and a clothing pushcart. Nostalgic observation: the New York Skyline appears the way it does on the New York Mets' uniform patch. The plot concerns the President's need for a head shrinker. Wanted: a man who can be trusted with the leader of the free world's secrets. Grandpa Walton (Will Gear) shows up as the President's prior therapist. He is wonderful as always. Edgy pop singer, Barry McGuire, plays a stoner with a catchy song on his acoustic guitar. One memorable sequence combines McGuire's tune (something about "changes") and a team of assassins in a field, attempting to kill our hero, Coburn. The killers use everything from guns to gas to blow darts. Even a net. In widescreen, the final shot of the movie resonates with a sly, satirical nod to the genre. The villain of the piece comes as a big surprise to anyone under the age of forty: think telephone exchanges and room-size computers. And mix. Bravo!

I had read that this movie was a great satire--funny irreverent and cleaver. However, after the movie was about half over, it degenerated into a 2nd rate imitation of an OUR MAN FLYNT movie (which itself is a third-rate Bond knockoff). It seemed like MAYBE they had a good idea for a film but midway through they spliced in some crappy movie. In other words, everything they set in motion to be a good film completely lost its way---almost like it changed writers or directors. The bottom line is that it was NOT cleaver, funny or even remotely interesting from that point on--just bad. Since I saw it more recently, I assume MAYBE some of the glowing reviews I'd read or heard about came from people who saw the movie when it first came out in the 1960s. Perhaps then it seemed like a good movie, but in today's light it just seemed very dumb and pointless.

"The President's Analyst" is a satirical counter-culture classic that takes aim at everything and everyone, including the counter culture itself. It's also endlessly quotable and is probably the only movie where you'll hear a line like "Don't say Chinks. Say Chinese restaurant. Chinks is bigoted." Absolutely golden.

My father used to work for The Phone Company and he absolutely loved this movie, as did I from the first time I saw it. I taped it off AMC years ago before they turned evil (back when there were no commercial breaks and they still showed plenty of films letterboxed), and I wouldn't part with my tape for anything in the world -- expect maybe a special edition DVD with all of the original footage and music restored.

To anyone who says this film is boring or unfunny, I say, "Poppycock!"

Theodore J. Flickner should get some credit after the fact: The President's Analyst is nothing if not original, for its time anyway. Take the topic of analysis, of the psychological profession, and put it to use in a political satire on the Cold War and the period of total paranoia. And casting James Coburn was a wise choice as he's an untapped source of comic potential (sometimes with just a smile or grin with those big pearly whites of his), often in subtle bits of acting and facial movements. But it's unfortunately not quite as successful as it could've been; the potential here is wide and great in skewering, for example, LBJ and his plunging-America-into-Vietnam administration. While the filmmaker does go after the paranoid aspects pretty well- and does something almost half-clever in not ever showing the president let alone his analyst sessions- at some point it veers off into strange and dated territory.

For the latter, I mean the stuff involving the phone company. Maybe things were different with those times of the phone company acting like total wastes of space, but nowadays its hard to relate to that skewering, particularly if you didn't live in that time period. It's still kind of interesting with the robots attached to the wall as scary bureaucrats, but one would rather see either the wacky on-the-run theatrics of Coburn's character (i.e. following the Mr. Feeney actor on his way to Seaside heights) or the oddly subtle scenes like with the Russian spy on the ship or even those Roger Corman-style exploitation scenes with the hippies (one of them, with the assassins killing each other off in the grassy fields, is the maybe the funniest scene in the movie).

So it's worth seeing, but it's more of a 'rental' kind of thing than rushing out to buy or seeing on a re-release at an art-house. It is, up to a point, like how one critic described it as "Philip K. Dick meets MAD magazine", but that being said it's only with so-so PKD and MAD.

I had high expectations for this movie, and maybe that was my problem. Most of the funny parts were self-conscious attempts, and occasionally they did OK, but mostly they fell flat. The dramatic parts were sometimes dramatic, but they were ruined by the awful music and sound effects. (At first they seemed artsy or innovative, but oh so quickly they became annoying). Granted, this was the "video" version. I would like to see if the original uncut version is any more watchable.

Enough about style; about content: My first clue this was going to be a bad movie was 20 minutes in, when the Analyst is dining in a restaurant; he is paranoid and afraid; people really are after him. Suddenly his bowl of soup starts flashing a bright red beam. Is this funny that his President's signal is coming out of his dinner? Not really.

Another hint it was a bad movie came when the agents from five countries try to kill him, but only manage to kill each other. In a very dull and plodding sort of way.

The final straw was when my credulity was stretched to the breaking point by the sudden appearance of a car on a boat that wasn't funny or really clever.

I wish this movie were more funny.

Au contraire, Jacob Cremins, The President's Analyst is a brilliant snapshot of mid-60s America, with all the insane paranoia and absurdity of a culture spinning out of control. It is intensely funny to anyone born before 1955. I'm sorry you had such a disagreeable experience viewing it. Your generation will have your movies, this one is mine.

This is a wonderful Christmas movie for the old fart on your shopping list. William Daniels' role as a gun-happy suburbanite is worth the price alone. The talented, and woefully under-used Godfrey Cambridge finally gets a star turn as a government agent undergoing analysis. And Barry ("Eve of Destruction") McGuire as the leader of a band of hippie musicians is a dead-on send up of the emerging flower children.

Yes, one had to be a telephone customer before the advent of the Baby Bells to grasp the sheer villainy of THE PHONE COMPANY!

This film is so 60s it's hard to believe it's still so funny. Coburn is perfect as the Presidential shrink, and the spies -- well, you'll have to see them for yourself.

In addition to the shrinks and the spies, this movie has hippies, tourists from New Jersey and the mother of all sinister organizations, bent on nothing less than World domination.

I first saw this movie a year or so after joining the military, and it couldn't have been better timed for me. Making fun of the paranoia that engulfed us all then was just what I needed. Watching it again on cable in 2002 was just as much fun.

Think "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." meets "Get Smart," with a literate script and you'll get the idea.

"Dr. Sidney Schaefer" (James Coburn) is a successful psychiatrist who works in New York and has been unknowingly vetted for a top-secret position as the analyst for the President of the United States. Needless to say, he is quite surprised when he is suddenly offered the job but he readily accepts as he considers it a tremendous honor. Not long afterward he and his girlfriend "Nan Butler" (Joan Delaney) moves to Washington D.C. where he can begin his new practice. However, although things proceed smoothly enough at first, the stress of the job begins to take its toll when the president soon becomes much more demanding. It's then that he realizes that the information he has obtained during his sessions have made him a valuable target for intelligence officials in other countries and because of that he begins to develop a sense of foreboding which only gets worse as time goes by. So eventually fearing for his safety he decides to run away until he can figure things out. Unfortunately, it soon becomes apparent that his own government considers him a security threat and orders are issued to have him killed before any other country can abduct him for their own intelligence purposes. To that effect, he now discovers that he has become the most hunted man on the face of the earth with nobody around him that he can trust. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film may not appeal to everyone because it has so many scenarios that were unique to the period in which it was produced. But for those who remember the Cold War, acid rock and hippies then they might be able to appreciate some of the humor a little better. In any case, although it is quite dated I found this to be an enjoyable film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

James Coburn...............at his best!

Godfrey Cambridge......at his best!

Severn Darden..............at his best!

Did you think Dr. Strangelove was the best satire of the '60s? Then you never saw this movie. WHAT A HOOT!

There's poor James Coburn, on the lam, hiding out with a "typical American family" picked at random. They go to dinner in NYC, and suddenly the spies of many nations leap out from everywhere. The couple's eyes light up! Mom yells, "MUGGERS!!!" Dad whips out a gun...Mom takes a karate stance...and they lay waste an entire street full of professional killers. Coburn escapes again.

There's subtle humor, whacky humor and very strange humor here. The FBI probably started dossiers on everybody involved.

To me this is the movie about the paranoia of the 1960s. Theodore Flicker has made a gem.

In my estimation this movie features the best performances by both James Coburn and Godfrey Cambridge. The beauty of the film is that it moves from serious tones to comedy to farce without effort.

I hope this is a movie that no one tries to remake. In today's market there would be a car chase and this would turn into an out and out thriller.

One of the best films of the 1960s. Go to your video store or your movie rental company and take this movie home today. Sit back and laugh.

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.

Ok, I'll admit it. There are occasional days when, if you ask me my favorite movie of all time, this is the movie I'll name. Don't ask me why. Maybe it is my deep seated hatred and paranoia toward the phone company. Maybe it is just that this film captures my view of politics, diplomacy, and psycho analysis in a nutshell. Maybe it's just the way Coburn delivers the line "Canadian spies?" I don't know. Regardless, this, while it may not be the best movie ever made, is one of the most fun. Say it with me: "We are your phone company. . . "

The erie ironies about our society this film conjures are amazing. Especially, the TPC subplot. The writer was certainly a visionary. Makes you wonder about SKYNET from the Terminator series.

This film is among my personal top five, and I am so thrilled that it's been forever preserved on DVD, with such a high quality encoding. It is brilliantly filmed, the dialog is witty, it is 1960s spy humor at it's best, the Lalo Schifrin soundtrack is a tasteful masterpiece on its own, and the direction captures a James Coburn with a male persona that rivals the best Sean Connery out there. This is a film that should be an integral part of any serious film study curriculum, and it may very well be in some schools for all we know.

This is nothing but a time capsule of a timeless masterpiece of film making.

Amazing work. I hope I can one day have lunch with someone who may have worked on this film, and express my gratitude. 'Nuff said. Get it on DVD widescreen and enjoy!

A very important and excellent scene was cut from the many TV and VHS versions of the film. That is where just after Sidney does his walk through NY, he goes to a experimental film and meets Nan, apparently at random. The vignette is a wonderful send up of Greenwich village types and without this scene we don't know that Nan is not an established lover, but a sudden free love intimate. At least apparently. Can anyone tell me if this is restored in the DVD version? One of the finest scripts of sardonic comedy, certainly on a par with 'Dr Strangelove' and 'the assassination bureau'. The anamatronic and unkillable CEO of the phone company is a deeply frightening perception of the bland, machinelike, self-righteous and perhaps unstoppable movement to box in the human being. Of course with today's technology we won't see a wire coming out of our president's shoe.