Parrot expression of dismay by president on film (8)
I believe the answer is:
lorikeet
'parrot' is the definition.
(I know that lorikeet is a type of lory)
'expression of dismay by president on film' is the wordplay.
'expression of dismay' becomes 'lor' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'president' becomes 'ike' (nickname of Dwight Eisenhower).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'film' becomes 'ET' (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial).
'lor'+'ike'+'et'='LORIKEET'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lorikeet that I've seen before include "Bird -- any of the small lories" , "Kite role (anag) - parrot" , "Small parrot" .)