"The audience think they are at a circus-until they realize they are watching the news." production notes, Mr. Freedom Klein's satire on events circa 1967-68 zaps and pops in comic-book primary colors; its world is peopled by secret agents, lunatic politicos and femme-fatales. But there is a mad seriousness to this Ubu Roi-like burlesque. "There is no exaggeration in the film, to my mind," Klein said in a 1969 interview with Grove Press. (Indeed, the eponymous hero's dialogue is a compilation of lines from Rusk, Johnson and MacNamara.) Mr. Freedom (John Abbey) is a global cowboy-a cross between James Bond and John Wayne, that is, an Oliver North prototype-out to save the world from communism and replace it with apple-pie à la napalm. Sent by his leader, Dr. Freedom (Donald Pleasence), to France, where the anti-Freedomites are revolting, Mr. Freedom finds himself involved with the mercurial Marie-Madeleine (Delphine Seyrig), his arch-enemy Moujik Man (Philippe Noiret), and Sami Frey as Christ Man. (Klein couldn't have cast his low-budget costume extravaganza more brilliantly if he had shot the film today.) The French government was convinced that the film was "about" May '68 and held up its release for nine months, but not enough has changed to make Mr. Freedom a period piece.