The President's Analyst

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Sidney Schaefer (James Coburn), a psychiatrist, is chosen by the U.S. Government to act as the President’s top-secret personal psychoanalyst, through Don Masters (Godfrey Cambridge), a Central Enquiries Agency (CEA) assassin who vetted Dr. Schaefer while undergoing psychoanalysis. The decision to choose Schaefer is against the advice of Henry Lux (Walter Burke), the director of the all-male, under-five-foot-six-inch Federal Bureau of Regulation (FBR). (Lux, like Hoover, was once a famous line of vacuum cleaner.) Dr. Schaefer is given a home in affluent Georgetown and assigned a comfortable office connected to the White House by a tunnel. From this location he is to be on call at all hours to fit the President's hectic schedule. However, the President's Analyst has one problem: There is no one to whom he can talk about the President's ultra-top-secret and personal problems. As he steadily becomes overwhelmed by stress, Schaefer begins to feel that he is being watched everywhere — which is actually true — until he becomes clinically paranoid; he even suspects his sweet girlfriend Nan (Joan Delaney) of spying on him — also true — as an agent of the CEA.
Schaefer goes on the lam with the help of a "typical" American family of gun-toting liberals who defend him against foreign agents attempting to kidnap him off the streets. He escapes with the help of a hippie tribe, led by the "Old Wrangler" (Barry McGuire), as spies from all over the world attempt to kidnap him for the secret information the President has confided to him. Meanwhile, agents from the FBR seek him out on orders to liquidate him as a national security risk. Eventually, he is found and kidnapped by Canadian Secret Service agents masquerading as a British pop group. Schaefer is rescued from the Canadians and an FBR assassin by Kropotkin (Severn Darden), a KGB agent who intends to spirit him away to Russia. Kropotkin has second thoughts about his plan, following a psychoanalysis session with the doctor, during which Kropotkin begins to come to terms with his unrealized hatred of his KGB-chief father. Now feeling he needs the good doctor's help to continue his self-analysis, he instead returns him to U.S. soil.
Kropotkin arranges a pickup with his trusted CEA colleague Don Masters, but Schaefer is kidnapped again — this time by TPC (The Phone Company), a far more insidious organization than the FBR or KGB, which has been observing him throughout the film.
Taken to TPC's headquarters in New Jersey, he is introduced to the head of TPC (Pat Harrington, Jr.), who wants Dr. Schaefer's help in carrying out their plan. TPC has developed a "modern electronic miracle", the Cerebrum Communicator (CC), a microelectronic device that can communicate wirelessly with any other CC in the world. Once implanted in the brain, the user need only think of the number of the person they wish to reach, and are instantly connected, thus eliminating the need for The Phone Company's massive and expensive-to-maintain wired infrastructure.
For this to work, every human being will be assigned a number instead of a name, and have the CC prenatally implanted. Dr. Schaefer is "requested" to assist TPC by blackmailing the President into pushing through the required legislation.
Masters and Kropotkin use their superspy abilities to come to Schaefer's rescue. They hand Schaefer an M16 rifle that Schaefer gleefully uses on The Phone Company's security staff. The three emerge victorious from the ensuing bloodbath, but months later, as Dr. Schaefer and his spy friends are enjoying a Christmas reunion, animatronic executives from TPC look on approvingly, while "Joy to the World" plays in the background.

Tags: psychological, satire

Review:
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.
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!".
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.
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 President's Analyst" walks a line between satire and the real feelings of the '60s (many of which are still held) about the government.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!.
A modern turning point in movie satire and comedy style..
"The President's Analyst" has always held a very high position on my list of 100 favorite movies, holding the #15 position for the past 12 years.
I remember being dismayed and shocked when many of my friends said they didn't consider it very good, ranking it with James Coburn's "Our Man Flint" B-movies.
I remember thinking, "am I the only person on earth who understands and appreciates this beautiful film?" Then I started reading the reviews of well known critics and accomplished film makers, acclaiming it as a cold-war era classic political satire, highly underrated.
I don't know if anyone could have done a better job playing Dr. Sydney Schaefer than James Coburn.
I consider it a modern turning point in movie satire and comedy style.
I always remembered how this film had just about everything from the 60s in it--spies, assassinations, conspiracies, the Cold War, national politics, international politics, racial politics, Zen, guns, gun control, karate, psychoanalysis, paranoia, suburban families, suburban homes, spy kits, kids wanting to have long hair, hippies with long hair, VW vans, free love, a super-tech villain lair, M-16s--and, of course, the standard sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
I especially always remembered the medley with the female vocals doing a hip (well, "hip" by 60's standards) rendition of "Joy to the World" at the beginning of the film as the James Coburn character roams about Manhattan digging life and his new promotion--before everything in his life and career goes south.All I could say about this film was that it was totally 60s.
It caught that era of American culture and politics perfectly as no other film did.Then my wife and I watched this film again recently and were surprised at how its comedy still works and how most of its satire is still relevant.
My wife laughed hardest at the Russian spy's description of how the Cold War would eventually wrap up--making this film a helluvalot more insightful than all of the fear and gloom of those who predicted nuclear holocaust.And then there is the "ultimate sex and violence sequence" where various spies in the background "eliminate" one another while the main character is being initiated into the joys of free love with a hot, if air-headed, hippie chick.What can you say?
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.
Dr. Sidney Schaefer (James Coburn) is picked to be the analyst for the president (never shown or named).
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 would like to have given this movie a higher rating, but it's just not up to the mettle of the great comedy satires.
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..
James Coburn is a psychiatrist selected for a major assignment: personal analyst to the President of the U.S. of A.
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.
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.
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..
Enjoyed this great comedy film starring James Coburn, (Dr. Sydney Schaefer) who is a very successful analyst in New York City and he is contacted by government agencies to inform him that he has been hired to become the analyst for the President of the United States.
It has references to hippies, the Cold War, 60's rock music, politics (nationally, internationally, and suburban), spies, psychoanalysis, race relations, and a tip of the hat to James Bond a la James Coburn (Our Man Flint no less!).Like Citizen Kane, this movie deserves several viewings to pick up on all of the mentioned topics.
The scene where William Daniels as the well-armed "Liberal" (a stand in for the Nixon 'Silent Majority' types??) guns down the muggers had the audience in stitches!Hard to believe a major studio today would finance and release such a compellingly anti-corporate politically explosive film.
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.
in every way "The President's Analyst" is very very good and very very funny.
This is because The President's Analyst is one of the most brilliant political satires and statements on our American lifestyle in the history of film.
The cast is ideal(James Coburn - at his coolest and most harried), Severn Darden, Godfrey Cambridge, Arte Johnson, Bill Daniels, Walter Burke and the yummy flower child Joan Delaney, among others) and they have a ball!And that script by director Ted Flicker?
No one seems to be able to carry off a poignant yet comical theme today without pushing censorship and freedom of speech/expression to the limit.James Coburn brilliantly plays the paranoid psychoanalyst for the leader of the free world at the height of the Cold War. Spies falling over each other's dead comrades to intercept the most dangerous mind in the world!What fun!
It's surprising this film didn't have some sort of revival, given the recent critical success of "Analyze This."This is probably the funniest movie I've ever seen, with most of its humor based upon these things.1.
The President's Analyst is just a cool, late 60's movie that pretty much encompasses everything that was "important" in 1967.
This personifies the 60's angst of guns, minorities and suburban life.The President's Analyst is one of the best movies ever made.
Not since "Duffy" had he been so good.There are also a couple of cameos that, in my opinion, add to the film without detracting from it.Fans of the late 60s/early 70s will appreciate the many in-jokes.The score/soundtrack will thrill fans of the 60s movies scene.For anyone who has worked for the federal government, you will surely appreciate the paranoid view of certain characters.Were we really like that back then ?A wonderful, fun movie..
Terrific spy comedy from the '60s that is a zillion times better than those labored "Flint" films that also starred James Coburn.
Though today's art doesn't seem to have much recognition for the genre, preferring either literal-mindedness or the totally bonkered (think Being John Malkovich), the "all forms of power are corrupt" mentality will still resonate.I love the fact that the greatest villains of all (way beyond the misdeeds of the national spy services, which were mostly just deluded) were The Phone Company.
Bell Telephone had an artful PR campaign developing movies mixing science fact and cartoons for classroom education (and indoctrination), which is mercilessly skewered in a critical scene--I have to admit that it reduced me to helpless hysterics the first dozen or so times that I saw it, so powerful the memories it brought up.
And the movie goes through the same sequence.It's intensely funny at times, hopeless sentimental at others, but ultimately possessing sound production values and some good acting (Coburn, of course, but also a remarkable performance from Godfrey McCambridge as a just-folks CIA man), a complex but well-designed plot, and some serious insight which still works (Cold War or no).
The cosmic Barry McGuire song over the secret agents killing each other trying to kidnap Coburn is priceless.I LOVE this film!
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.
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.
This is a cult movie, to be sure, with very dry humor, about the president'ts psychologist, and all the powerful groups who try to kidnap him, use him, or, in most cases, kill him.
I'm a big James Coburn fan, and this might be his best movie.
"The President's Analyst" is the sort of movie they wouldn't make today; it's a scatter-shot spoof without a mean-spirited bone in its body.
Nixon, elected president in 1968 and at the top of Hollywood's "Enemy's List" would never have been treated as reverently and indulgently as this unnamed President (obviously LBJ, who was president when this movie was made).James Coburn (flashing his trademark grin on many occasions) plays Dr. Sidney Schaefer, who is offered, an accepts, the post as analyst to the President of the United States.
Coburn is surrounded by a solid cast, chief of whom are Godfrey Cambridge and Severn Darden as friendly rival agents from different sides of the Cold War. They provide lots of laughs, as does Pat Harrington, who comes in late but makes the whole thing worthwhile.
He plays 'Dr.Sidney Schaefer', a psychiatrist given the important job of analyst to the President of the United States.
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.
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.
Simply one of the funniest movies ever made......I just watched my DVD of this and I'm amazed at all the new stuff I pick up and a lot of stuff nobody did or ever would.OK....it's a satire, but some of it is too clever for it's own good.
best movie ever made about The Phone Company.
This just may be the best movie ever made about "The Phone Company", and now, in 2006, it is perhaps more important than ever.
The main theme is political spying, which still dominated the news in those days of the Cold War. The film portrays a truly paranoid society.
At the start, James Coburn's "naive" character is shocked to learn that one of his patients, Godfrey Cambridge, has just killed someone, and enjoyed it.
In 1967 when this film first came out,I & everyone else raved about how funny & clever this political satire was.
The Telephone Company is no longer a one firm monopoly.There is one long scene involving a telephone booth (today you cant find any,public phones are almost extinct).None of these developments are funny or even slightly humorous today..James Coburn was at the beginning of his career in 1967 & this was a major starring role for him.
Indeed, the end of the film pulls back and we see an audience of 'people' from the phone company.
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.