The President's Analyst

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The President's Analyst

Original movie poster
Directed by Theodore J. Flicker
Produced by Stanley Rubin
Written by Theodore J. Flicker
Starring James Coburn
Godfrey Cambridge
Severn Darden
Music by Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography William A. Fraker
Editing by Stuart H. Pappé
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) 1967
Running time 103 min
IMDb profile

The President's Analyst is a 1967 comedy film written and directed by Theodore J. Flicker, starring James Coburn. The widescreen cinematography was by William A. Fraker, and Lalo Schifrin provided the film's musical score. The film has strong elements of political satire and science fiction, and has some resemblance to many of the spy spoofs that proliferated in the mid-60’s in the wake of the James Bond phenomenon.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Dr. Sidney Schaefer (James Coburn), a psychiatrist, is chosen by the U.S. Government to act as the President’s top-secret personal psychoanalyst, against the advice of Henry Lux, the director of the all-male-under-5'6" Federal Bureau of Regulation (FBR). Dr. Schaefer is given a home in affluent Georgetown and assigned a comfortable office connected to the White House by underground tunnel. From these locations he is to be on-call at any/all hours to fit the President's hectic schedule. However, the President's Analyst has one problem: there is no one he can talk to 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, which she is, as an agent of the Central Enquiries Agency (CEA).

Schaefer goes on the lam with the help of a typical American family 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 (Godfrey Cambridge), the CEA assassin who vetted Dr. Schaefer while undergoing psychoanalysis, but Schaeffer is kidnapped again — this time by TPC, otherwise known as The Phone Company. Masters and Kropotkin use their super-spy abilities to come to Schaefer's rescue, and help him to foil a TPC plan to enslave the human race. They emerge victorious from the ensuing bloodbath but, months later, as Dr. Schaefer and his spy friends are enjoying a Christmas reunion, robot executives from TPC look on approvingly.

[edit] Response

The film was a commercial failure at the time of its initial release, but a favorable critical response and numerous television showings over the years have helped it to develop a cult following. Godfrey Cambridge, Severn Darden, William Daniels, Joan Darling, and Arte Johnson, among other cast members, also give standout performances. The film scores many amusing and surprisingly prescient points about privacy concerns, specifically regarding the U.S. Government’s intrusions into the private lives of its citizens.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Television prints and videocassette versions of the film were missing some songs written and performed by Barry McGuire, replacing them with generic instrumental music. The 2004 DVD release restores the songs.
  • The musical band of hippies led by Mcguire was a Los Angeles rock group called Clear Light. They envolved from the band Brain Train and were just about to be signed to Elektra Records when they were cast in the film. They were, however, between vocalists (Cliff DeYoung joined them as singer after the film was made and is their lead singer on their sole album); McGuire played that part. The band only released one album and one single before breaking up, yet not only were they lucky enough to be cast in a film, but a few members actually had spoken lines! Reportedly, the role was originally offered to The Grateful Dead but they turned it down.[1]
  • The film originally repeatedly mentioned the CIA and FBI by name, but pressure of some kind was apparently asserted by both agencies, resulting in hasty redubbing of these references to “CEA” and “FBR”.[2]
  • An important scene is reportedly missing from current editions of the film. Originally Dr. Schaefer meets his lover Nan seemingly randomly at a 60's style underground movie. It's a satire of the art films of the time and sets the audience up for the paranoia of discovering that she's actually CEA. Some fans believe this is a very important vignette and it is not known why it has not been restored. (A still from the missing scene can be seen at Roger Ebert's site [1])
  • While fleeing from assassins, Dr. Shaefer runs underneath a theater marquee. The movie listed on the marquee is "No Running."
  • Another reportedly missing scene featured glowing eyeballs appearing while Sidney goes paranoid. Some fans claim this scene was in the original cut of the film.
  • Director Flicker went on to work on TV's Barney Miller.
  • The internet fax service The Phone Company takes its name from this film.[3]

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Garcia: An American Life, by Blair Jackson
  2. ^ Evans, Robert The Kid Stays in the Picture Faber & Faber 2004
  3. ^ TPC.INT: FAQ: The History of TPC.INT