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FILMSthe Day1“THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST”(At th« Boulevard, Twin, Crest, Riverside, Englewood, Metro Dickinson and Shawnee)Comedy written and directed by Theodore J, Flicker, produced by Stanley Rubin and released by Paramount wm these orincioal players:Dr. Sidney Schaeffer .. Jamas CobumDon Masters ...... Godfrey CambridgeKroootkin .............. Severn DardenNan Butler .............. Joan Delaney• -IIBy Giles M. Fowler(The Star's Motion Picture Editor)ALTHOUGH “The President’siiAnalyst” classifies as comedy,1the word falls short of de-1| scribing it. I prefer to call thefilm a psychedelic mega-satire with sado-burlesque overtones.It isn’t the President of theUnited States who’s shown asicrazy, as you might think from the title, but the whole scheme1ItIiiFof contemporary life. Both the glory and the failing of this picture is that it ridicules so many kinds of madness, from such dis-lpa rate sources as the American home, the CIA, the FBI, the hippie rebellion and even (hat’s off) the telephone company.This is all too much for oneittsatire to handle, and there are times when the film almost goes to pieces trying—or goes totasteless excess, which is a lot worse. But when it works, under the agitated, electric razzle-dazzle of Theodore J. Flicker’s di-trection, it can be a screamingly funny (sometimes just plain screaming) experience.tI€S*Flicker also wrote the scriptabout a presidential psychiatrist(James Coburn) who becomesJ1privy to state secrets, then finds that two-thirds of the worldwants him kidnaped or killed From this opening contrivance, the story suddenly swells into a full-scale, mind-bending comicacnightmare. To name a few of itsgrotesques:A typical American family —Dad, a “liberal” who totes a pistol (“when the Right Wingers disarm, we'll disarm !”L Mom agiggling karate student, and Junior a vicious little stool-pigeon.• A vast corporation, which uses the best audio-visual techniques, including a public relations cartoon, for a torture session.A team of solemnly pious federal agents, all promiscuous killers and not a one of themover five feet tall.A love idyll in the grass, uninterrupted by a chain homicide (with dart gun, pitchfork, knife and crossbow) of a dozenmen 20 feet away.Coburn is just right as the be-\leaguered doctor. At times he seems to be hanging on to threads of sanity with his veryteeth, clenched in a desperate grin. Also in the cast are Godfrey Cambridge as a Negro spy, Severn Darden as a Russianagent and Joan Delaney as Coburn's girl friend.
Newspaper Details
Kansas City Star
Kansas City, Missouri, US
Thu, Feb 29, 1968
Page 37
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 22 Jun 2020
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