Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

the audience applauded

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Great satire of many of our social institutions of the mid-Vietnam era. But not so funny now; too much dirty water over the dam since then. Plainly what passed for Liberals in those days were pilloried, as well as tired old targets--some more deserving than others--such as J Edgar Hoover, FBI, and CIA who apparently had enough muscle in those days to persuade Hollywood to change their initials, although to what end God only knows. I noted that the "right wing extremists" label was used in the movie, which was old hat then and is still the battle cry of Democrat propagandists. The more things change, the more things remain the same, and propaganda slogans become eternal verities. But old Ma Bell, THE telephone company of those days, isn't with us to kick around any more. Our present crop of corporate and financial rulers are nothing like the benign despot portrayed in this picture. Our boys don't pretend to serve; they just brazenly exploit, and laugh all the way to the bank with their "bail out" billions. Anyhow, all and all The President's Analyst is a good evening's entertainment with some nice acting and even a slice of history. But who was the analyst's very obliging sweety working for?

Dr. Sidney Schaefer (James Coburn) is picked to be the analyst for the president (never shown or named). However the president's problems begin to affect Schaefer and he gets paranoid and wants to escape from his job and life. He does--but secret agents from all over the world are out to get him because he knows so much...This was not a big hit when it came out. My guess is that it was TOO strong for its time--a lot of severe editing happened before it was even released and it was butchered in initial TV showings. But now it's been released uncut and it's been regarded as a classic. The movie is quick, powerful and never stops moving. It basically goes after everybody--the CIA, the FBI, liberals, conservatives, Russians...you name it. It's not really THAT offensive in today's climate (and it is very dated in some respects) but I can only imagine the reaction this got in 1967. The cast is dead on target. Godfrey Cambridge is amusing in a supporting role as is Joan Darling. William Daniels is downright hilarious in his small role. But Coburn holds this together. He's engaging, charismatic and full of life and energy. He's such a likable character you're rooting for him all the way. Every time he flashed that amazing grin I was grinning too! Fast, funny, loads of fun. Sadly I don't think Coburn lived long enough to see this appreciated (he passed away in 2002). It's still not well known but VERY much worth seeking out. Recommended.

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.

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.