The President's Analyst
| The President's Analyst | |
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Original theatrical film poster
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| Directed by | Theodore J. Flicker |
| Produced by | Stanley Rubin |
| Written by | Theodore J. Flicker |
| Starring |
James Coburn Godfrey Cambridge Severn Darden Joan Delaney Will Geer |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin |
| Cinematography | William A. Fraker |
| Edited by | Stuart H. Pappé |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | over $2 million |
| Box office | $2,450,000 (US/ Canada) |
The President's Analyst is an American satirical comedy film written and directed by Ted Flicker, starring James Coburn. The cinematography was by William A. Fraker, and Lalo Schifrin provided the film's musical score. The film has elements of political satire and science fiction. The film's themes include modern ethics and privacy concerns, specifically regarding the intrusion of the Telecom system, working with the U.S. Government, into the private lives of the country's citizens. it was released theatrically on December 21, 1967.
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.
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