The President's Analyst (1967)
Grade: 64
Perhaps this purportedly hilarious satire was never that funny, even in 1967. But there are positive things to say about "The President's Analyst". James Coburn does well in the lead role, the sets and cinematography are good, and there's plenty of action.
Dr. Sidney Shaefer (Coburn) has been selected to be the President's psychiatrist. At first, Shaefer is pleased with his important position. But he soon tires of being at the President's beck and call. He is constantly tailed by 'FBR' and 'CEA' agents. Worse, the unpleasant 'FBR' chief has separated him from his girlfriend (Joan Delaney) because he 'talks in his sleep'.
Shaefer decides to flee. But having been privy to Presiential secrets, he becomes a kidnapping target for Russian spies, and thus an assassination target for American spies. Much silliness follows, including Shaefer joining a hippie rock band led by Barry Maguire, and an assault on the insidious telephone monopoly.
There is much cartoonish violence in this satire. Many fiendish agents meet their maker. Violence does not bother me in films when it is necessary or when its consequences (i.e. suffering) are shown. But in "The President's Analyst" the shootings, stabbings, stranglings, etc. are solely intended to be humorous, and not ironical or repressive.
The biggest surprise in "The President's Analyst" is that the Russians, represented by their top spy Kropotkin (Severn Darden), are the good guys. The 'FBR' and 'CEA' agents prefer Shaefer dead, except for Don Masters (Godfrey Cambridge), who wants Shaefer to return as his personal analyst. The second surprise is that when Coburn wears a hippie wig he looks a lot like Neil Young. Also, Will Geer looks like Colonel Sanders, but this is not as surprising.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews