Watch the brilliant prophetic political “satire,” The President’s Analyst, that foreshadowed and predicted much that would later become the darkest reality of the deep state.  The film has elements of satire and science fiction, including themes concerning modern ethics and privacy, specifically regarding the surveillance intrusion of the telecommunications monopoly, working with the US Government, into the private lives of the country’s citizens.

I was in high school when I saw it with my best friend and his family (his step-father was a mid-level executive who worked for “The Phone Company” and heard about this film from office colleagues). It was my first real introduction to the clandestine netherworld of intelligence, particularly the internecine rivalry between the CEA (CIA) and the FBR (FBI).

The head of the CEA is a wonderful characterization of Allen W. Dulles (of the CIA) and the FBR director that of J. Edgar Hoover. The real Hoover hated this movie and the head of Paramount Studios, Robert Evans, claimed that during production of the film he was visited by FBI special agents, who told him that the Bureau did not want the film made due to the unflattering portrayal of the FBI. Evans refused, but when pressured by his studio he changed the “FBI” to “FBR”, and “CIA” to “CEA” by redubbing the voice track slightly out-of-sync. Evans believed that his telephone was monitored by the Bureau (or the phone company) from then on.

The was the beginning of the FBI’s assertive campaign to marginalize and destroy the impact of this movie.  The film’s opening credits include a disclaimer that it was made without cooperation from the FBI or CIA.

The Best of Charles Burris