"The President's Analyst" is a satirical counter-culture classic that takes aim at everything and everyone, including the counter culture itself. It's also endlessly quotable and is probably the only movie where you'll hear a line like "Don't say Chinks. Say Chinese restaurant. Chinks is bigoted." Absolutely golden.

My father used to work for The Phone Company and he absolutely loved this movie, as did I from the first time I saw it. I taped it off AMC years ago before they turned evil (back when there were no commercial breaks and they still showed plenty of films letterboxed),and I wouldn't part with my tape for anything in the world -- expect maybe a special edition DVD with all of the original footage and music restored.

To anyone who says this film is boring or unfunny, I say, "Poppycock!"

James Coburn gives a typically fine and engaging performance as Dr. Sidney Schaefer, a cool, mellow and modern psychiatrist who lands himself the plum job of being the president's analyst. Sidney soon finds himself in considerable jeopardy when enemy agents from all over the world try to nab him in order to obtain the valuable information he knows. Writer/director Theodore J. Flicker gleefully satirizes the 60's hippie counterculture, Cold War tensions, middle-class America, and the US government. Moreover, Flicker ably maintains a deliciously deadpan tone throughout and astutely captures the topsy-turvy social lunacy of the 60's. Coburn effortlessly carries the picture with his supremely amiable and charismatic screen presence. The bang-up supporting cast includes Godfrey Cambridge as cunning CEA agent Don Masters, Severn Darden as shrewd Soviet agent V.I. Kydor Kropotkin, Joan Delaney as Sidney's sultry girlfriend Nan, William Daniels as nutty suburban patriarch Wynn Quantrill, "Spider Baby" 's Jill Banner as flighty flower child Snow White, Will Geer as cranky shrink Dr. Lee Evans, Barry McGuire as psychedelic rock band singer Old Wrangler, Walter Burke as austere FBR chief Henry Lux, Pat Harrington, Jr. as affable phone company president Arlington Hewes, and Dyanne "Ilsa" Thorne as a cocktail waitress. The subplot about the phone company's plan for monopolizing world communication is simply priceless. Lalo Schifrin's swinging funky'n'jazzy score and William A. Fraker's gorgeously crisp widescreen cinematography are both up to par. A real wacky treat.

During the first few minutes of "The President's Analyst", it's a little hard to tell what's going on. But once James Coburn gets a stressful, paranoid job as the Chief Executive's personal psychiatrist, all bets are off as every government on Earth is after him. And to think that throughout the movie, we hear some Christmas songs - often sounding like they were sung by hippies! Anyway, this is a really funny movie. I get the feeling that Coburn is sort of spoofing his own role as Derek Flynt, what with all the espionage stuff. And the fact that he has a hot young woman (Joan Delaney) as his soul-mate. But the movie partially plays off of our various pet peeves about contemporary life. It has the definite feeling of a zany '60s comedy. Also starring Godfrey Cambridge and Severn Darden.

The Phone Company. Ha!