Rating: 
Summary: Beware of the Phone Company!
Review: Forget the "Flint" movies...this was the role James Coburn was born to play! Unlike the empty-headed 60's spy spoofs Coburn's name usually evokes, "The President's Analyst" is a satire with substance, the kind of film that actually gets better the more times you watch it-on a par with "Dr. Strangelove". Coburn shines as a psychoanalyst who is recruited to be the President's personal shrink by one of his patients. Godfrey Cambridge (in a wonderful performance) is the patient who happens to work for the "CIE" (as opposed to the "FBR"!). The ensuing intrigue and conspiracy paranoia plays out like "Three Days Of The Condor" on acid (literally!). Consistently amusing and a bit "slapstick-y" at times, but the clever political and social satire remains smart and sharp throughout (there's even a scene where a character is desperately trying to reach the White House on a pay phone-a possible homage to the aforementioned "Strangelove"!) You may be surprised at how contemporary this 1967 release feels, despite some inevitable "Summer of Love" trappings. In fact, "President's Analyst" contains the type of elements that would soon find thier way into the more "socially relevant" films of the 1970's, so it was a bit ahead of its time (listen carefully to Godfrey Cambridge's monologue about racism, played directly into the camera; nothing "ha-ha" funny going on there.) A real winner on all fronts. DVD notes: Paramount has given us a sparkling transfer with good audio quality, although dialogue could have been re-mixed with a bit more gain (music and sfx seem to blast and blare in comparison). A minor quibble, as this gem has been long overdue for DVD release!
Rating: 
Summary: Odd duck
Review: Here's a strange bird. The end is oddly unsatisfying, but the movie is lovingly wacky and well put together. It's maybe the best 2nd billing to the original Manchurian Canidate. It has something to say about the cold war and race relations and government control and the counter-culture movement and corporate pervasiveness and of, course, paranoia. Everyone's a spy, but that's okay. Is the analyst's life in danger, or is he just going through a perfectly normal psychological crisis that would be expected in his position?
It's not the laughfest I expected, though I did laugh at loud thrice.
Coburn's great, Godfrey's great. The phone booth is great.
Great supporting cast.
I say check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Restore missing footage/music for Six stars
Review: I agree with most of the previous reviewers. I can't say enough about this movie.It's the sixties, it's America, it's funny as hell. It's a buzz, sort of like O Brother Where Art Thou+conciousness. And I can't believe it, another human being remembers the art-theater scene!(Vaughn's review)I only saw that once, probably in 68' on TV. It was cut shortly there-after. I allmost thought I'd mixed that up from some other movie. Thanks!("Look at what he's holding in his hand")I don't know why Barry McGuire's music was cut a few years ago, but it belongs in there, along with him strumming and singing in the field scene. Anyway, don't miss it! It's too cool!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Film
Review: I agree with most of these reviews. This is a wonderful dark comedy of the 60's. I originally saw it in the theaters and laughed until I cried. I then cried again when I saw the VHS version, but this time not with joy. I cried with sadness because the original meeting between Coburn and his future spy/wife had been "cut out" and Barry Maguire's singing had also been cut out of the movie and/or replaced (what were they thinking, that no one would notice?). The DVD really needs to have the original music and scenes put back in. Don't we buy DVD's their completeness and "extra" features? If they return it to the original movie, I'll definitely purchase it.
Rating:
Summary: Where are those missing moments!
Review: I bought the VHS (please make a DVD) from Amazon and was very disapointed to find that the it was the television version where an important 10 minutes are edited out. How our hero 'randomly' meets his girl and a nice put on of art films. A classic and important film, somewhere out there in some television broadcasters dust bin are those edited moments. Why didn't mr. Flicker make more films and television, a great and humane man.
Rating:
Summary: All-purpose satire
Review: I just picked up this film on VHS and am looking forward to the day when it's released on DVD. James Coburn plays a psychiatrist who is recruited by the FBI and CIA (re-dubbed as the FBR and CEA) to spend time with the President and keep him from going over the edge. Unfortunately, HE goes over the edge; as he tries to escape from his job he becomes the target of many international agencies who are after the confidential info that the President has passed on to him during his sessions. Everyone is skewered in this film; hippies, suburban families, spies in general, Disneyland, Ma Bell-- take your pick. The weird thing is that the murderous characters in this film are all normal and likeable (once you get to know them), and yet there's this big body count. That's probably the satiric point; it's all in a day's work for the spies and there are no hard feelings (Severn Darden and Godfrey Cambridge play KGB and CEA agents respectively and appear to be good friends), while the average families with their karate lessons and Do-It-Yourself Spy Kits are just doing their patriotic duty. This is a cool film in the vein of Coburn's "Flint" movies. It also displays some of the sensibilities of Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner", but turned in a comedic direction. Arlington Hewes' master plan is explained to Coburn via a cartoon that is a dead-on parody of those movies (like Bell Labs' "Hemo the Magnificent") that some of us used to watch in science class during the '60s and '70s. And the themes of this movie are still relevant decades later.
Rating:
Summary: Mother's Milk...
Review: I saw this movie on a Saturday night when I was a teen and I roared! Surprisingly, it was almost uncut except for the small amount of nudity in the 'killing fields.' Although dated this film is still hysterical. A 60s black comedy about the reality of the spy business - all to get inside the President's head! Can you imagine a Canadian secret service???? Coburn as the President's analyst is perfect. His wry smiles while he slowly decends into paranoia is unbelievble. The scenes of him being summoned by the Commander in Chief are priceless! Godfrey Cambridge as a black 'license to kill' agent who has 'baggage' from his childhood is a scream. Severn Darden Godfrey's Russian counterpart, despite the fact he is prepared to kill at the drop of his Russian Ushanka is Godfrey's best buddy. The scene with Pat Harrington, Jr. as the phone 'agent' is just over the top! I agree with Vince Mack and the critics this must be put on DVD in widescreen format with Barry McGuire's music and the 'art cinema' scene where Coburn's character meets Joan Delaney's as well as the weird disembodied-eyeballs sequence. This is an absolute Gem of a movie that needs to be preserved in tact! Additionally since we're talking James Coburn I'd like to see "Waterhole No. 3" another Coburn classic also transferred to DVD!
Rating:
Summary: The craziest American movie ever made
Review: James Coburn, known recently for his grizzly, violent, Oscar-winning turn in "Affliction," is a character actor of unparallelled versatility. He is able to parlay his unique physical gifts - the deep, powerful voice; the toothy, feline grin; the wiry lankiness - into any project with surefire credibility. He can play dumb or smart, aggressive or tentative, funny or straight, mean or pussycat, country or city. And judging from most of his work, you might think the only emotion he can't exhibit is "uncool." "The President's Analyst" is the exception. Across the psychodelic, satirical backdrop of the late '60s, Coburn's urbane sophistocate of an analyst unravels into every imaginable thread of postwar paranoia. And he's funny all the way through. I guess a true comic actor fools you into thinking that he's funny without trying to be funny. Coburn's "Analyst" does just that. As a fiercely logical man (he tells his girlfriend: "I love you, and it's my clinical opinion that you love me, too") set to probe the mind of a modern president, he (and mostly the writer/director Theodore Flicker) stumble upon a very funny premise: that even the smartest man among us has precious little hope of understanding life in the modern age.
Rating:
Summary: Which cut is this?
Review: Loved this movie when I saw it many years ago - but the TV cut from the 1970s deletes a bunch of stuff and adds a long hippy commune sequence that was cut from the theatrical version. So, which version is this DVD?
Rating:
Summary: Unique, entertaining film; socialogically interesting.
Review: More should be made about the "perversion" of cutting out Barry Maquires songs, which really are an integral part of the mood of the original release. Only if enough people inquire and complain about the politics that caused this, are we likely to see a future release in its intact form.
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