If you have Turner Classic Movies (and really, you should) and enjoy offbeat spy movies, tune in at 7 tonight for one of my all-time favorites, THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST.
The late, great James Coburn stars in the title role as a psychiatrist with the most powerful patient in the world. Trouble is, having access to all those secret thoughts makes him a target for every assassin and spy agency on the planet. The only ones he can trust, in fact, are a CIA agent (Godfrey Cambridge) and his KGB counterpart (Serven Darden), two guys who happen to be best friends despite (or maybe because of) the fact that they’re employed by opposite sides of the Iron Curtain.
THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST is full of oddball characters and scenes, from William Daniels as a gun-packing liberal to an elaborate assassination in a field where everyone gets killed except the intended target. Yes, it’s a bit dated, what with the groovy music and Coburn disguised as a hippy, but it’s also whip smart and endlessly surprising. I highly recommend giving it a look.
Here’s the trailer …
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