James Coburn is a psychiatrist selected for a major assignment: personal analyst to the President of the U.S. of A. At first, he's beaming with pride at this great honour, until he realizes that he has to be constantly on call. Suffering a nervous breakdown, he goes A.W.O.L. This proves to be too much temptation for foreign powers to withstand, as they send agent after agent to abduct Coburn and find out just what the President may have told him during therapy. Meanwhile, Coburns' own government doesn't want him divulging anything, of course, so now he's expendable.
Written and directed by Theodore J. 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. It's not necessarily always funny in a "ha-ha" sort of way, but it should continuously amuse the viewer, especially if they were alive during the era when this first was released. Its plot involves such agencies as the "C.E.A." and the "F.B.R.", not to mention the most heinous of them all: "T.P.C." Over 50 years later, it still works quite well, with top performances by all concerned. It further benefits from grand widescreen photography and a jaunty soundtrack composed by Lalo Schifrin. 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. It's just hilarious to see him hiding out with the hippies, and wearing an appropriate disguise. (He also plays a mean gong.) He's very well supported by a clean-shaven Severn Darden as Russian agent Kropotkin, Godfrey Cambridge as amiable C.E.A. agent Don Masters, and the enticingly sexy Joan Delaney as Coburn's girlfriend. Other familiar faces include Pat Harrington Jr., Jill Banner, Eduard Franz, Walter Burke, Will Geer, William Daniels, Joan Darling, and Arte Johnson. 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.
