The President's Analyst
Encyclopedia
The President's Analyst is a 1967 satirical
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 elements of political satire
and science fiction
, and resembles many of the spy spoofs that proliferated in the mid-60s in the wake of the James Bond
phenomenon, including Coburn's Our Man Flint
and In Like Flint
. The film's themes include privacy concerns, specifically regarding the U.S. Government’s intrusions into the private lives of its citizens.
), 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, the director of the all-male, under-five-foot-six-inch 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 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.
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, a far more insidious organization than the FBR or KGB, which has been observing him throughout the film.
Taken to TPC's headquarters in New Jersey, he is introduced to the head of The Phone Company (Pat Harrington, Jr.
), who wants Dr. Schaefer's help in carrying out their plan. TPC has developed a "modern electronic miracle", the Cerebrum Communicator (CC), a microelectronic device that can communicate wirelessly with any other CC in the world. Once implanted in the brain, the user need only think of the number of the person they wish to reach, and are instantly connected, thus eliminating the need for The Phone Company's massive and expensive-to-maintain wired infrastructure. (The operation of the CC is shown in animation that parodies the animated sequences in the Bell Telephone Science Series television programs.)
The catch is that, for this to work, every human being will have to be assigned a number
(instead of a name), and the CC prenatally implanted. Dr. Schaefer is "requested" to assist TPC by blackmailing the President into pushing through the required legislation.
Masters and Kropotkin use their superspy
abilities to come to Schaefer's rescue. They hand Schaefer an M-16 rifle that Schaefer gleefully uses on The Phone Company's security staff. The three emerge victorious from the ensuing bloodbath, but months later, as Dr. Schaefer and his spy friends are enjoying a Christmas reunion, animatronic executives from TPC look on approvingly, while Joy to the World
plays in the background.
. Years later Flicker met Coburn at a Christmas party where he showed Coburn the script of the film that Flicker wished to direct. Coburn had just made Waterhole #3
for Paramount and showed the film to Robert Evans who loved it. A deal for production was made in five days.
Evans claimed that during production of the film he was visited by FBI
Special Agents who told him that the Bureau didn't want the film made due to the unflattering portrayal of the FBI. Evans refused, then when pressure came from his studio he changed the FBI to the FBR and CIA to CEA by redubbing the voice track. Evans believed that his telephone was monitored by the Bureau (or the phone company) from then on.
The musical band of hippies led by McGuire was a Los Angeles rock group called Clear Light
. They evolved 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.
When the elevator doors in the underground corridor open, the sound effect is the sliding door sound from Star Trek
, which was at the height of its popularity on American television at the time and was also being filmed at Paramount Studios.
While fleeing from assassins, Dr. Shaefer runs underneath a theater marquee. The movie humorously listed on the marquee is "No Running". No movie by that title had been released at the time The President's Analyst was filmed.
The Internet fax service The Phone Company
took its name from this film.
following.
, replacing them with generic instrumental music due to music copyright issues. The 2004 DVD release restores the songs.
A scene missing from current editions of the film is where Dr. Schaefer meets his lover Nan seemingly randomly at a 1960s-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 a CEA agent. (A still from the missing scene can be seen at Roger Ebert
's site.http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19680216/REVIEWS/802160301/1023)) Another reportedly missing scene featured glowing eyeballs appearing while Sidney Schaefer goes paranoid.
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
written and directed by Theodore J. Flicker
Theodore J. Flicker
Theodore Jonas "Ted" Flicker is an American playwright, theatrical producer, television and film director, actor, screenwriter, author, and sculptor.-Early life:...
, starring James Coburn
James Coburn
James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
. The widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
cinematography was by William A. Fraker
William A. Fraker
William Ashman Fraker, A.S.C., B.S.C. was a cinematographer, film director, and producer. He has been nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. In 2000, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers honoring his career...
, and Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...
provided the film's musical score. The film has elements of political satire
Political satire
Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly...
and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, and resembles many of the spy spoofs that proliferated in the mid-60s in the wake of the James Bond
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
phenomenon, including Coburn's Our Man Flint
Our Man Flint
Our Man Flint is a 1966 action film that parodies of James Bond genre. The film was directed by Daniel Mann, written by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr, and starring James Coburn as master spy Derek Flint...
and In Like Flint
In Like Flint
In Like Flint is a 1967 film directed by Gordon Douglas, the sequel to the parody spy film Our Man Flint . It posits an international feminist conspiracy to depose the ruling American patriarchy with a feminist matriarchy. To achieve and establish it, they kidnap and replace the U.S. President,...
. The film's themes include privacy concerns, specifically regarding the U.S. Government’s intrusions into the private lives of its citizens.
Plot
Dr. Sidney Schaefer (James CoburnJames Coburn
James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
), a psychiatrist, is chosen by the U.S. Government to act as the President’s top-secret personal psychoanalyst, through Don Masters (Godfrey Cambridge
Godfrey Cambridge
-External links:*...
), a Central Enquiries Agency (CEA) assassin who vetted Dr. Schaefer while undergoing psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
. The decision to choose Schaefer is against the advice of Henry Lux, the director of the all-male, under-five-foot-six-inch Federal Bureau of Regulation (FBR). Dr. Schaefer is given a home in affluent Georgetown
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown is a neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years...
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
Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...
), 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
Severn Darden
Severn Teakle Darden, Jr. was a comedian and actor, and an original member of The Second City Chicago-based comedy troupe as well as its predecessor, the Compass Players...
), 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
Godfrey Cambridge
-External links:*...
), the CEA assassin who vetted Dr. Schaefer while undergoing psychoanalysis, but Schaeffer is kidnapped again — this time by TPC, a far more insidious organization than the FBR or KGB, which has been observing him throughout the film.
Taken to TPC's headquarters in New Jersey, he is introduced to the head of The Phone Company (Pat Harrington, Jr.
Pat Harrington, Jr.
Pat Harrington, Jr., is an American voice, stage, and television actor most popularly known for his role as building superintendent "Schneider" on the CBS sitcom One Day At A Time. He is the son of Pat Harrington, Sr.- Biography :...
), who wants Dr. Schaefer's help in carrying out their plan. TPC has developed a "modern electronic miracle", the Cerebrum Communicator (CC), a microelectronic device that can communicate wirelessly with any other CC in the world. Once implanted in the brain, the user need only think of the number of the person they wish to reach, and are instantly connected, thus eliminating the need for The Phone Company's massive and expensive-to-maintain wired infrastructure. (The operation of the CC is shown in animation that parodies the animated sequences in the Bell Telephone Science Series television programs.)
The catch is that, for this to work, every human being will have to be assigned a number
National identification number
A national identification number, national identity number, or national insurance number is used by the governments of many countries as a means of tracking their citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents for the purposes of work, taxation, government benefits, health care, and other...
(instead of a name), and the CC prenatally implanted. Dr. Schaefer is "requested" to assist TPC by blackmailing the President into pushing through the required legislation.
Masters and Kropotkin use their superspy
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
abilities to come to Schaefer's rescue. They hand Schaefer an M-16 rifle that Schaefer gleefully uses on The Phone Company's security staff. The three emerge victorious from the ensuing bloodbath, but months later, as Dr. Schaefer and his spy friends are enjoying a Christmas reunion, animatronic executives from TPC look on approvingly, while Joy to the World
Joy to the World
"Joy to the World" is a Christian Christmas carol.The words are by English hymn writer Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98 in the Bible. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts' collection; The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and...
plays in the background.
Production
James Coburn first met Theodore Flicker on the set of Charade where Flicker was visiting his friend screenwriter Peter StonePeter Stone
Peter Hess Stone was an American writer for theater, television and movies.-Life and career:Stone was born in Los Angeles. His mother, Hilda , was a film writer, and his father, John Stone was the writer and producer of many silent films, including Shirley Temple and Charlie Chan movies...
. Years later Flicker met Coburn at a Christmas party where he showed Coburn the script of the film that Flicker wished to direct. Coburn had just made Waterhole #3
Waterhole (film)
Waterhole #3 is a 1967 Western comedy film directed by William A. Graham. It is considered to be a comic remake of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly....
for Paramount and showed the film to Robert Evans who loved it. A deal for production was made in five days.
Evans claimed that during production of the film he was visited by FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
Special Agents who told him that the Bureau didn't want the film made due to the unflattering portrayal of the FBI. Evans refused, then when pressure came from his studio he changed the FBI to the FBR and CIA to CEA by redubbing the voice track. Evans believed that his telephone was monitored by the Bureau (or the phone company) from then on.
The musical band of hippies led by McGuire was a Los Angeles rock group called Clear Light
Clear Light
Clear Light was a psychedelic rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1966.-History:In 1966, The Brain Train formed and was managed by Sunset Strip hipster Bud Mathis. They recorded one single before changing their name to Clear Light and signing to Elektra Records; Doors' on which producer Paul A...
. They evolved from the band Brain Train and were just about to be signed to Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
when they were cast in the film. They were, however, between vocalists (Cliff DeYoung
Cliff DeYoung
Clifford Tobin DeYoung is an American actor and musician.DeYoung was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended California State University....
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
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
but they turned it down.
When the elevator doors in the underground corridor open, the sound effect is the sliding door sound from Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
, which was at the height of its popularity on American television at the time and was also being filmed at Paramount Studios.
While fleeing from assassins, Dr. Shaefer runs underneath a theater marquee. The movie humorously listed on the marquee is "No Running". No movie by that title had been released at the time The President's Analyst was filmed.
The Internet fax service The Phone Company
The Phone Company
The Phone Company is a volunteer network providing a free email-to-fax service.It is one of the few grandfathered users of the '.int' domain. It takes its name from the similarly named organisation in the film The President's Analyst....
took its name from this film.
Response
The film was a commercial failure, but a favorable critical response and numerous television showings over the years have helped it to develop a cultCult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
following.
Deleted scenes
Television prints and videocassette versions of the film were missing some songs written and performed by Barry McGuireBarry McGuire
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...
, replacing them with generic instrumental music due to music copyright issues. The 2004 DVD release restores the songs.
A scene missing from current editions of the film is where Dr. Schaefer meets his lover Nan seemingly randomly at a 1960s-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 a CEA agent. (A still from the missing scene can be seen at Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
's site.http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19680216/REVIEWS/802160301/1023)) Another reportedly missing scene featured glowing eyeballs appearing while Sidney Schaefer goes paranoid.