High Anxiety (1977) User Reviews

Very funny Mel Brooks spoof/homage to Hitchcock

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 12 March 2006]

Mel Brooks is a very funny man, and though sometimes I think his comedy is a little on the low side, "High Anxiety" has some truly hilarious moments. Mel riffs on Hitchcock, right down to Madeline Kahn's gray suit a la Kim Novak in Vertigo. He combines scenes from "Spellbound," "Vertigo," "Foreign Correspondent," "The Birds," "Psycho," "Dial M for Murder," and "North by Northwest" in this story of a man taking over as the head of a mental sanitarium, replacing a man who is murd - uh, dead. Kahn is the Hitchcock blonde whose father is in the asylum. To give you an idea of this place where the lunatics have definitely taken over - Cloris Leachman plays a nurse who's into S&M with Harvey Korman. Both of them are a riot. Mel plays it straight which makes him even funnier.

I have two favorite scenes - the first is Mel, doing a perfect imitation of Sinatra's style, singing "High Anxiety" to Kahn. He's fabulous, and the look on Kahn's face is delicious. My other favorite scene is when Brooks and Kahn disguise themselves as elderly people to get through airport security. Psychiatric expert Brooks thinks the more noise you make, the less people notice you. The two of them do a fabulous skit which is priceless.

We really lost a treasure when we lost Madeline Kahn, one of the all-time great talents. It's wonderful to see this and remember her. I do believe that because of the humor, the film can be enjoyed without having seen the Hitchcock films spoofed, but of course, it's all the better if you have. A delightful film.

Fast and furious gags in monumental spoof tribute to Hitchcock...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 24 September 2006]

HIGH ANXIETY suffers only by comparison to Mel's YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, but it stands by itself as a frisky, very funny screwball spoof of the works of Alfred Hitchcock.

I do agree with others who complain that Mel should have given the Dr. Thorndyke role to someone like Gene Wilder since Brooks does lack the charisma needed to carry this sort of thing. But the other pros in the cast more than made up for this handicap--especially HARVEY KORMAN, CLORIS LEACHMAN, MADELINE KAHN and HOWARD MORRIS.

Cloris Leachman is hilarious as Nurse Diesel (practically repeating her formidable character in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN) and Madeline Kahn is equally funny as the blonde femme fatale who finds herself in one ditzy situation after another as she tries to reach her father inside the asylum--here called "Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous." Nothing subtle here. The gags are touch and go, some funny, some painfully unfunny--so it's strictly a mixed bag.

But if you know MEL BROOKS and his kind of satire, this has enough gags to keep you satisfied. Just don't expect anything on the level of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

"Get the newspaper, get the newspaper!"

[Quinoa1984 · 8/10 · 14 January 2006]

Mel Brooks, if nothing else, is spectacular at collecting up the clichés, the stereotypes, the conventions, the seriousness, and at the same time the joy and entertainment that comes in the different works he has made fun of over his career (countless westerns with Blazing Saddles, historical epics with History of the World part 1, the sci-fi boom of Star Wars/Trek with Spaceballs, silent films with Silent Movie). Here is no exception, as he tackles squarely the unmistakable catalog of Sir Alfred Hitchcock. All of the hits are here, and transfused into a story that is kooky, predictable, but all the while giving some very good belly laughs. Even if it doesn't always strike where the iron is unexpectedly hot like with Saddles or the Producers, it still makes its mark with uncanny ability in making the film watchable while being often unrelenting (whether everything works gag-wise or not) with the spoofs.

Mel Brooks stars as Dr. Richard Thorndyke, a psychiatrist with his own problem- a fear of heights (Vertigo, anyone). In the midst of this a murder takes place (it's an usual one, by the way, involving a scene in a car that's unsettling while hilarious). The major set-pieces take place at a hotel Dr. Thorndyke stays at for a conference, where the plot seems to thicken even tighter. At times one wonders if the film maybe should take itself a little more seriously to work, like with Young Frankenstein. But by also not letting up with the silliness and over-the-top gags, there are at least a few that stand-out in the overall Brooks oeuvre. One or two are just plain dumb funny, like a wolf-man imitation ala Harvey Korman to a patient afraid of werewolves during a session with Brooks. More often than not in the film, the gags are very expected, getting right to the point as it were.

The chief examples lie in two scenes that work great, and one that works OK. The first involves a particular bellhop not too fond of getting order for a newspaper (played by a young Barry Levinson), which leads to an all too obvious but shamelessly funny Psycho spoof. Or, of course, the scene in the park with the birds of THE Birds, which remains a truly disgusting scene in some respects (even if the laughs wear down towards the end, its a brilliantly constructed set-up). One that doesn't quite go up to snuff is a near-murder scene by a telephone booth. Madeline Kahn's character is on the other end, and the scene is maybe a little too familiar, even as a Hitchcock parody. Towards the end its funny, but only after the fact. It's not totally that the timing is off, maybe just something else that's hard to say. It might be funnier to others.

Still, its the glee thats put forth in the performances, and the little running gags (i.e. "I'll get it, I'll get it...I don't get it"), to make it a notable entry in Brooks' body of work. If you've seen Hitchcock's films and not Brooks' I'd still recommend it at least once, if only out of curiosity, as just from a film buff stand-point its kind of fascinating how a satirist like Brooks takes on Hitchcock's style, which often had its own morbid sense of humor (Psycho, in some ways, is more of a pitch-black comedy than a horror film). For me, the merging worked well, if not for a great overall comedy. And, at the least, there's another catchy title song by Brooks himself, leading to a sweet nightclub scene.

A "High" old time....

[Mister-6 · 29 August 1999]

Mel as a psychiatrist? That's crazy!

But it's funny.

And so is "High Anxiety", a spoof of everything Hitchcock, with a few touches of Mel's own creativity dashed here and there.

As head psychiatrist for the Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous, Mel finds strange goings-on involving kidnapping, murder, double-crossing and Harvery Korman in leather.

Nearly every big Hitchcock scene is clobbered as the story progresses: the shower scene in "Psycho", the jungle gym scene in "The Birds", the shooting in "North by Northwest", the climax of "Vertigo".... The list goes on and on.

Mel does too, God bless him. Laugh after laugh after laugh is produced, and Mel and his writers seem to have an inexhaustable supply of sight gags, one-liners and word plays. And they all work.

Suffice it to say, this isn't as funny as "Blazing Saddles", but it's prime Mel and if you're like me, almost any Mel is good Mel.

Eight stars. And he has a lovely singing voice, too.

It's a Worthy Venture--Doesn't Quite Work--But That's Mel Brooks Anyway

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 24 December 2016]

Mel Brooks takes on Hitchcock movies like "Vertigo" and "Spellbound "with a dash of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" thrown in. This is an excuse to get the whole Brooks' gang dealing with mental institutions and mental illness. Of course, it is utter zaniness as Brooks as the hospital director is in a madhouse (no pun intended). The patients have nothing on the doctors when it comes to outrageous behavior. The problem here is that Brooks never knows when to quit. With really well done comedies like "Young Frankenstein" and "The Producers" we see his genius with good scripting and characters filling out the fabric of the film. Here it's almost anything for a joke, including a casual reference to Jack Benny and highly dramatic music in one scene which turns out to be a concert band going by in a bus. These are fun, but some of the stuff isn't and draws attention outward.

That Kid Gets No Tip

[ShootingShark · 7/10 · 17 March 2007]

Dr Richard H. Thorndyke is a psychiatry professor appointed to run a prestigious mental hospital in California after his predecessor dies in shady circumstances. Once there he starts to suspect foul play and is contacted by the daughter of a patient who insists her father is being held against his will ...

This is a truly wonderful, lovingly crafted satire of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, filled with sly references, dazzling recreations of famous scenes, themes and characters from his suspense classics, chiefly The 39 Steps, Spellbound, Vertigo and Psycho, although there are nods to many others (The Birds gag is wonderful). Some of the pastiche is broad but some is also very subtle; for example, the shower scene from Psycho is a riot, with one of the funniest punchlines in any movie, but did you spot that the montage of shots of Van Patten driving through the rain with oncoming headlights glaring at him also comes from Psycho ? The comedy is both beautifully staged and beautifully played - everyone is good, but the late great Kahn in particular is simply wonderful. She really could be a Hitchcock blonde - she's Madeleine Carroll / Kim Novak / Eva Marie Saint - and she plays cool, elegant, neurotic, scared with fearless hilarity. Best of all, even if you haven't seen any Hitchcock films, the movie is still hilarious in its own right, with a wonderfully harebrained plot, some great schtick (the lounge-lizard act, the cocky-doody psychiatry convention discussion, the Yiddish airport security double-act) and more than enough hilarious moments to keep you smiling throughout. My personal favourite gag is the beautifully-framed tracking shot into the French doors of the dining-room; only Brooks could come up with such an inspired moment. Also unforgettable is the fabulously romantic string score by John Morris, which is simply irresistible movie music and drives the film so much higher. Written by Brooks, Clark (the neck-pain / werewolf patient), DeLuca (the teeth-braces killer) and Levinson (the psychotic bellboy), this is a wonderful satirical but easy-going comedy classic, not to be missed.

Worth seeing for Madeline Kahn

[Nate-48 · 6/10 · 24 August 2018]

This movie was better the first time I saw it but that said, it is worth watching for several good comedy bits and the lovely performance of Madeline Kahn.

Kahn rescues the film when she enters halfway through.

Brooks also comes up with a brilliant twist towards the end which I think on its own turns this from an average to disappointing movie to a good to very good one.

I was torn between giving this a 6 or a 7 but went with a 6 since there is a lot of subpar points in the film you need to get through.

That said, Brooks is great, Cloris Leachman is amazing and nearly steals the show.

Harvey Korman is splendid.

Sad that Kahn died so young, she was a treasure as you see here.

Affectionate and fun Hitchcock spoof

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 13 August 2016]

By 1977 Mel Brooks had already spoofed the western, Universal horror films and movies of the silent era, so with High Anxiety he decided to take an affectionate aim at the suspense films of Alfred Hitchcock. It would probably be fair to say that the results are quite mixed, although in fairness even Brooks at his best can be uneven. The humour is a mixture of the very broad to the somewhat subtle. There are a few dud moments sprinkled throughout but it is successfully funny on occasions too. But High Anxiety sort of gets away with the poorer moments more or less and is really quite enjoyable from the point of view of its Hitchcockian references alone. If you are a fan of the master of suspense you will probably get a kick out of this one to some extent. The story has a psychiatrist with a fear of heights appointed the head doctor at the Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, when there he discovers a web of crime.

Many of the films in Hitchcock's filmography are targeted, such as Spellbound (1945), Dial M for Murder (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963). I'm sure there must've been others too but, those ones I actually noticed. Some of the references are dealt with in very obvious ways such as the shower scene from Psycho and the climbing frame moment from The Birds. Those ones aren't especially clever really but they have some good things about them. At other times the spoofing is less directly obvious but it's fun spotting them in any case. I have to say though that I thought the funniest sequence in the film wasn't even connected in any way to the films of the master of suspense, it was an uproarious scene where Brooks and Madeline Kahn get through airport security by being loud and annoying. It's definitely true that Brooks in the main role isn't necessarily a good thing. He's not exactly bad but he's no Gene Wilder either. If a better comic actor had played this character it might have improved the film overall I reckon. A few regular actors from his other films return here to greater effect, like Madeline Kahn as the requisite Hitchcock ice blonde, while Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman give amusingly spirited performances as fellow doctors who are up to no good. In the final analysis, while High Anxiety isn't a total success, it's very likable and for this reason I find it very easy to get on board with it.

If You Love Hitchcock, You'll Love HIGH ANXIETY!

[dtb · 9/10 · 10 September 1999]

Mel Brooks' delirious comedy/thriller is a delight even if you're not already an Alfred Hitchcock fan--but if you *are,* you'll love it even more as you peg specific spoofs/references to such Hitch classics as SPELLBOUND, VERTIGO, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH '56 (Brooks' piano bar rendition of the title song is the movie's highlight) and THE BIRDS. While Gene Wilder would've been perfect casting as acrophobic psychiatrist Dr. Richard H(arpo). Thorndyke, Brooks is nevertheless as irresistable as he is irrepressible, with Madeline Kahn a fine match for him as the flakiest mysterious blonde this side of Kim Novak. Brooks' stock company of Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Ron Carey, and Howard Morris (as Professor Little-Old-Man, er, Lillolman) are in fine form. Like all of Brooks' best movies, the plot would work just fine as a straight thriller, and the spoofing is as affectionate as it is hilarious. It's a comedy to go crazy over!

Satire on Alfred Hitchcock

[ComedyFan2010 · 6/10 · 7 December 2017]

Mel Brooks is a well known name in comedy and since I also know Alfred Hitchcock movies I thought it would be a good idea to watch this one.

It ended up not as great as I expected, but it is still not a bad movie. Unfortunately most of the time I didn't find it too funny. I am not sure if this was like that back when it came out as well or if the humor has changed in the mast few decades.

I definitely enjoyed the parody scenes. Mainly the one in the shower, that one was hilarious. The one where the birds are after him is also pretty good. As well when he comes out of the airport in the beginning.

Otherwise it wasn't that great. But I really did like the character of Nurse Diesel. This was a great one.A wonderful job by Cloris Leachman. Actually the best scenes in the movie that didn't involve Hitchcock's parody were the ones with her and Harvey Korman. I believe if they wouldn't be in it I would see this movie as below average.

Groans galore...and what happened to Brooks' style?

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 27 October 2001]

At the beginning of "High Anxiety", Mel Brooks arrives at Los Angeles Airport and is lead into the men's restroom by a man who turns out to be a lisping flasher (an excruciating moment). Later in a cocktail lounge, he snaps a microphone cord like a whip and makes Madeline Kahn hyperventilate with passion. Brooks thinks he is so cute, both women AND men want him! It's this kind of egomania that drives "Anxiety" into the ground. The picture might have worked (it's a wacky spoof of Hitchcock moments), but not with this cornball script--nor with Brooks in the lead as a vertigo-prone psychiatrist. He flashes his overbite, mugs like a rubber man, and as the lead writer manages to give himself the final word on everything ("What a dramatic airport!"). The film is offensive visually and verbally--what happened to the style he gave pictures like "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles"? This looks like a failed TV pilot. ** from ****

another Mel Brooks zany

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 30 January 2005]

Mel Brooks arrives at the "Institute" to find suspicious goings on, and tries to find out what's going on and who is behind it. Cloris Leachman and Harvy Korman are fellow doctors at the asylum, and watch over the institute when Mel must attend a conference. Watch for Barry Levinson (writer, director, producer) as he plays the bellboy. Ron Carey from Barny Miller plays the chauffeur who tries to help Mel when he runs into trouble with the always funny Madeline Kahn. The references to all of Hitchcocks films are many and great, and Mel even sings a song in the movie. His speech given for fellow doctors at the conference goes on a little long, but can be forgiven as it is offset by the quick action for most of the movie. Cloris Leachman is hilarious as Nurse Diesel, and her manner is a funny as her costume. Half the jokes in this movie are things as simple as camera angles, facial expressions, and what people are wearing.

"We're dealing with sick people here..."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 26 December 2014]

Alfred Hitchcock gets the Mel Brooks treatment here with rapid fire parodies of films like "Psycho", "The Birds", "North by Northwest" and "Vertigo", so if you're a Hitchcock fan there's some amusing stuff here. I thought the Mr. MacGuffin reference was clever but didn't see any other fans pick up on it in their reviews here. Charlie Callas must have been the MacGuffin in this picture, after we see him the first time he doesn't show up again. Harvey Korman makes for an interesting match as Dr. Montague for Cloris Leachman's Nurse Diesel character. Gosh, wasn't she hideous as the nurse from hell? I thought Louise Fletcher was pretty intense as Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", but Diesel would have given her a run for the money. As others have noted, Mel Brooks himself might not have been the best choice for Thorndyke, and the parodies are mostly way over the top (The Bird droppings are particularly gross), but it's what you've come to expect from the comic director. It's not his best work, but you can tell the players are having fun. It would have been very cool if Hitch had made a cameo, why didn't anyone think of that?

The worst possible outcome of a decent concept

[zetes · 5/10 · 8 October 2001]

Mel Brooks has had his stinkers, some much worse than this (Dracula: Dead and Loving it being by far his lowest point), but this came at the end of an era of great comedic successes for him. It's only four years after Young Frankenstein, for instance, which is one of the funniest films I've ever seen. And the concept of this film, a spoof of Hitchcock films, seems like gold. There's more than a dozen well known films and a hundred well known sequences that Brooks could have parodied. For some reason, he forgets to do it through a good 75% of the film, only parodying Vertigo, Psycho, the Birds, and Marnie with one or two throw-aways to North by Northwest. They are all from late Hitchcock, and the only one I may be missing is the Jimmy Stewart version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, probably the only major Hitch film I haven't seen. But these films are only mentioned a little, besides Vertigo, which is, more or less, the basis for 90% of all the parody. There's a take off of Psycho's shower scene, some pigeons poo on Brooks, and there is a flashback near the end that seems to be parodying Marnie. None of those parodies work. Almost none of the rest of the jokes work, either. Cloris Leachman is the only person on screen who ever gets a single laugh, as Nurse Diesel, the wack-job, manly, conniving, dominatrix, but she's trying so hard that she only managed to make me laugh a couple of times. I don't even know what Madelaine Kahn is doing here, although the phone booth/obscene phone call scene was one of the couple of scenes that made me laugh. I hope Hitchcock never actually saw this. I wouldn't be so mean as to call it an insult to his films, but it certainly stands as a major embarrassment to Mel Brooks who can't even demonstrate in his direction that he understands WHY Alfred Hitchcock is "the master of suspense," as he calls him in the kindly dedication. 5/10.

Dizzy parody is Brooks at his height.

[James.S.Davies · 2 May 2000]

Though often overlooked in favor of Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, I believe this to be the pick of Brooks' parodies. Whether you share this opinion would depend on your familiarity with all things Hitchcockian.

It is not only Vertigo, as the title suggests, that gets the Brooks treatment here, but The Birds, Spellbound and Psycho are all parodied to various degrees of subtlety. Many of these films key scenes are simply re-enacted with comic touches, whilst the Hitchcock formalae is very much in evidence. The style is particularly amusing in its parody. Highlights include a probing camera becoming all too literally intrusive when it crashes through a pane of glass in the window, and a dramatic sound composition turning out to be merely the didactic passing bus load of a touring philamonic orchestra.

Resisting the out and out farce of his earlier effort, Blazing Saddles, and managing not to evolve into simply being a one joke movie such as the tendency of his recent efforts, High Anxiety is Brooks at his most clever. The cast, mainly consisting of Brooks regulars, all display splendidly entertaining and aptly silly impersonations of recognisible Hitchcock stereotypes. It is Brooks' finest hour however, with not only directing, writing, and acting to his credit but singing as well!!!

A Winner for Brooks

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 6 May 2011]

Dr. Richard Thorndyke arrives as new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous to discover some suspicious goings-on.

I feel like there was a shortage of jokes at times, but that is Brooks' style. He is more about the scene and less about the jokes. A constant atmosphere of humor, of fun.

Picking Hitchcock to lampoon was a great choice, too. I was able to catch a handful of references but probably missed many, too. That would only add to the film's humor, I suppose. I recommend the film for any Brooks fan, though I would say it is neither his best or worst.

"Blazing Saddles" Lite

[VitoCorleone1972 · 7/10 · 15 July 2018]

The Master of Parody takes on the Master of Suspense in "High Anxiety."

As insinuated in the headline for this review, this movie seems to operate to me as a sort of "Blazing Saddles" Lite. The two films even share two actors besides Mel Brooks, those being Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman. I make this comparison because this film has a similar style of humor, yet the jokes are not quite as clever and they don't come as fast as in "Saddles."

But, it's not exactly fair to compare these two films, so let's look at "High Anxiety" on its own.

Starting with the script, the dialogue is written in a way that is rather corny at times to parody the seriousness and arguable melodrama of films like "Vertigo." It's fairly amusing, but not as much so as the visual gags, which really drive the humor of the film.

As for the acting, in comedies like this, the way to judge an actor's performance is by judging their ability to react to the comic goings on around them. As to this, everyone here does a fine job. Kahn and Brooks play their straight dialogue in just that way while Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman relish their roles as villains who are so cartoonishly evil that they might as well be twirling their mustaches the entire time.

Finally, the direction. The whole thing is shot and scored very dramatically, going as far as to have the characters look into the camera during loud and bombastic music cues. This also serves to parody the style of Hitchcock.

As mentioned earlier, most of the jokes are visual in nature. They are consistently funny and there are only a few that don't quite land. Brooks paces the action in a way that makes the jokes somewhat unexpected, if nothing else.

Overall, this is a solid tribute to Alfred Hitchcock and a decent entry in Mel Brooks' filmography. It's main flaw is that it simply isn't quite as funny as some of Brooks' other work. On its own, however, it works quite well. Sit back, relax, and try not to get any "High Anxiety."

Brooks Comedy With A Hitch

[slokes · 6/10 · 11 May 2005]

Forget Spielberg or Lucas: In 1977, the most eagerly anticipated film in the house I grew up in was the latest from Mel Brooks. This was the guy who transformed neighing horses and baked beans into comedy gold. Now he was taking on Hitchcock. So what if that silent thing he did the year before went nowhere? This was going to be good.

And "High Anxiety" is good, sort of, sometimes. A Nobel laureate psychiatrist, one Richard Harpo Thorndyke, shows up at a mental hospital "for the very, VERY nervous" and soon realizes Nurse Diesel's rigid fruit-cup policy is the least of his staff's issues. Attending a convention in San Francisco, he finds himself wanted for a brutal killing, and with the help of a strange woman who doesn't believe her father is a cocker spaniel, he goes back to the hospital, and his own childhood, to conquer his lifelong fear of heights.

There's a lot of Hitchcock references in "High Anxiety," beginning with an unnecessary dedication to "the master of suspense." The takeoff on "The Birds," a pigeon attack where Thorndyke gets the newly-washed-car treatment, works best, though most of the Hitchcock bits have a kind of inert, pasted-on quality that detract from the movie.

The real challenge Brooks gave himself, and was seriously hobbled by, was in his choice of lead actor: Himself. Brooks is very funny in films when he has some small part, like "The Gov" in "Blazing Saddles." But here you are stuck with him walking through hallways, getting in and out of cars, talking to other characters, i.e. advancing the plot, and it's a great demonstration for anyone who thinks screen presence comes easy. Brooks can mug, but he can't act, and his joke-free scenes (of which there are too many here) have the same awkward quality of watching your nine-year-old nephew's violin recital.

At least he calls on some of his old friends, like Cloris Leachman as Diesel and Harvey Korman as her boy-toy, both of whom are sure laugh-getters. No one makes answering the phone as funny as Madeline Kahn, whose entrance parodying Lucie Mannheim's in "The 39 Steps" is one of Brooks' most effective and subtle nods at Hitchcock's direction.

"High Anxiety" works best when it's not referencing Hitchcock, like when Thorndyke finds himself called on to sing a song at a hotel bar and turns into Sinatra. That's an influential scene in its own right, referenced in "Anchorman," and it is not only funny but showcases a cool title song. Brooks uses his microphone chord as a whip and counsels his audience in mid-chorus to "be good to your parents, they've been good to you."

"High Anxiety" is funny like that off and on, sometimes for five whole minutes at a stretch. But there's too many awkward pauses and some key missteps, like when Brooks and Kahn jump out of character to do an old Jewish couple bit or when Dick Van Patten as one of the hospital staff dies from a serious attack of AM radio. The film also feels like a comedown in the way its shot, which is not with that visually dramatic style Hitchcock perfected but more like a "Love Boat" episode. Given how right Brooks gets tone in his earlier directorial efforts, you really miss it here.

Back in 1977, my father and I walked out of the theater agreeing "High Anxiety" was okay, but nothing special. That still sounds about right. Brooks could have done better; unfortunately, as he soon proved, he could also do worse.

High Anxiety (1977)

[rockman182 · 6/10 · 9 January 2017]

The satirical comedy is a real hit or miss genre, more so miss in recent years. When the humor is constant and a mix of ridiculous and witty, we can end up with something brilliant like Airplane! However, some of the modern satirical films that spoof popular films can crash and burn easily because of not having anything funny or original to offer. I have seen most of Mel Brooks' films and knew that I had to see this for number of reasons. I loved Young Frankenstein; it was a brilliant humorous take on the classic Frankenstein film and Gene Wilder is phenomenal in it. I mostly enjoyed other films like Silent Movie and The History of the World Part 1 but there are lapses in comedy in both films. As a matter of fact I'd say Brook's brand of humor isn't always consistent (and somewhat dated) but there are enough laughs to make for a good time.

Another reason I had to check out High Anxiety is because Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite filmmakers ever and I had to see Brooks' take on some of Hitchcock's most famous work. I definitely enjoyed being able to spot some of the references to Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, and of course, Vertigo. Some of the film's humor may have been funny for an earlier generation. I think the best comedic moments come when Brooks pays his tribute to Hitchcock. The most memorable scene in the film is when the lobby boy 'stabs' Brooks with the newspaper in the shower and the smudged ink of the paper circles the drain (akin to the blood in the shower scene in Psycho). Some of the Hitchcockian references are smart, others feel tacked on. None of it really takes away from experience though.

I did enjoy some of the characters and their outrageous natures in the film. Lilloman is a fun character and the moments he and Brooks spend together on the scene bring for a delightful patient-doctor experience. I'd say the best is stiff and pale Nurse Diesel. She plays a memorable villain in her own right, despite the villain being spoofed off of a previous incarnation of something Hitchcock devised. Much like Silent Movie and History of the World Part 1, there are passages in the film that just kind of pass through without really eliciting a response. I guess its dependent on the viewer and their brand of humor, as I'd expect people would react differently to the comedic situations.

I'm not the biggest Mel Brooks fan but I have no problem admitting he's an icon in the satirical comedy genre. I don't think this film touches something like Young Frankenstein or The Producers but its a fun little ode to the master of suspenseful cinema. Its dated but enjoyable. Honestly I didn't expect anything more from this film so I am satisfied with what I saw.

6.5/10

Absolutely HILARIOUS if you dont get parodies DONT WATCH IT loved it!! Brilliant CAST! COMEDY GEM!!!

[joiningjt · 10/10 · 12 March 2022]

1st off I read some COMPLETE moron say the Hitchcock jokes didnt work especially the Birds and Vertigo jokes OMG those were some of our favorites!! You of course have to have a SENSE OF HUMOR to get them so I apologize he probably isnt a moron he is an uptight prick. Anyway here we are DECADES later and it's still hilarious my wife and I both laughed till our sides hurt. This and young Frankenstein are our favorites. We ADORE the Genius of the Late Mr Wilder but we also love the Genius of the EXTREMELY UNDERRATED Cloris leachman she again creates an unforgettable HILARIOUS character here. Every scene she is in she steals and I cant think of any actress that created more memorable characters than her yet rarely is brought up amongst the greats. THIS IS A CLASSIC!! BRAVO to Mr Brooks and the WHOLE CAST AND crew even though this is so much later but remember that it will be appreciated for decades more to come!

worth a look

[cwillard-86003 · 7/10 · 6 October 2018]

While some may say pass on this one, I strongly disagree. If you are a fan of Mel Brooks and Harvey Korman humor, then this is right up your alley. I know a lot of the jokes are tongue-in-cheek, but hey , this was in the era before you could just drop the F-bomb every other word, and some call that funny or great comedy. Cloris Leachman as Nurse Wilhelmina Diesel just about steals the show in her scene as a Nazi dominatrix, with Harvey Korman as her "subject". Madeline Kahn is gorgeous as Victoria Brisbane, and it is refreshing to see her character not treated as "the chick" like in Blazing Saddles. Check it out, if you don't laugh at least once, you had better check your pulse.

High anxiety = more like low rent

[hart221 · 1/10 · 12 June 2009]

I think i might have liked this movie when i was 8 years old but I don't think it really stands the test of time. To be fair I have grown to dislike Mel Brooks movies more and more as I get older while my love for Hitchcock has gone in the opposite direction. High Anxiety is so toe curlingly bad it sits well with the rest of the Brooks cannon. While there are plenty of nods to classic Hitchcock from the Birds to North By Northwest through to Vertigo there is little in this film to raise it above the utterly appalling. A stupid screwball script with annoyingly delivered performances and a touch of woody allen neurosis this was a dirge from start to finish. There is no finesse in the style of Brooks and if he had stopped making films after this one the world would have been a better place. I have read that Hitchcock saw this movie at a private screening and said nothing (although later sending Brooks a case of wine) ...although partial to pranks I feel he must have been feeling generous at a time when his work was finally being reassessed. Total Dross.

Not as funny as other Mel Brooks films but still good

[leftistcritic · 8/10 · 2 February 2019]

Last night I watched this film again. It is a parody of a number of Alfred Hitchcock movies, like Vertigo, Psycho, the Birds, and Spellbound. In the process it ends up being a bit formulaic as it seems certain movies were just used as a checklist for this movie to check off. On the other hand, the jokes are strong at times and can be very funny. Mel Brooks (playing Dr. Richard Harpo Thorndyke) does a great job as the protagonist and Madeline Kahn (playing Victoria Brisbane) does well also. Harvey Korman (playing Dr. Charles Montague) is good as always but Cloris Leachman (playing Nurse Charlotte Diesel) and Ron Carey (Brophy) are great in their supporting roles. The movie obviously does not paid psychology very positively as it shows it as sexist and a way to keep patients at the institute beyond their will. All in all, despite its problems, this is still one of the better Mel Brooks movies.

One paragraph reviewing this film does not do it justice. This comedy and drama is relatively effective not only through the acting of Brooks himself, along with Korman, Leachman, Carey, and Kahn, but in the situational comedy. Leachman is one of the best of the lot, with her character, perhaps a nod to the film two years earlier, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as she is a very controlling nurse just like Nurse Ratched (played by Louise Fletcher) is in that film. The reason for Thorndyke's high anxiety is laughable and hilarious, adding to the comedy of the film, as does the antics of Brody with his "I got it" (as he strains to pick up the suitcase), followed by "I don't got it" as the suitcase drops to the ground, while Thorndyke effortlessly picks up the suitcase. The use of photographs to find out whom really killed a man in the hotel, as a person with a mask of his face shot someone while he was coming down the elevator is almost reminiscent of the 1966 English mystery and thriller film, Blowup, flouting the Hay Code, leading to its collapse in 1968. Dr. Philip Wentworth (played by Dick Van Patten) and being run off the road, then killed by loud music coming out of his stereo, not able to escape his car, may be seen now as a nod to Silkwood, but that film was actually not released until 1983!

All in all, while this movie is not as good as other Mel Brooks movies, which is why it is rated an 8 rather than a 9 or 10, it still holds together well, although it almost seems like he was trying to parody too many Hitchcock films.

Fitfully Funny Hitchcock Homage Suffers for a Miscast Brooks and a General Gag Overload

[EUyeshima · 6/10 · 20 May 2006]

Just three years after his twin peaks of "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" (probably his comic apex), Mel Brooks made this fitfully funny send-up of Hitchcock's suspense classics. The most detrimental change here is that he lost the wonderfully manic Gene Wilder as his leading man and chose to make himself the star. Brooks is unfortunately miscast as Dr. Richard Thorndyke lacking the enigmatic leading-man charisma so central to most of Hitchcock's classics. To some degree, he knows his limitations since he inserts several irrelevant bits of business that have little to do with the character, like his sudden piano-bar crooning of the title tune or his Catskills-level disguise as the old Jewish man at the airport. However, in catering to his own persona, he compromises what there is of a suspenseful element to the movie.

The plot centers on Thorndyke as he becomes the new Chief of Staff at The Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. Suffering from an actual condition called "high anxiety", he cannot stand heights but perseveres in trying to run the medical facility despite the connivances of the scarifying Nurse Diesel and the weak, bondage-loving Dr. Montague. Thorndyke is then shuttled off to a medical convention at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco - the ideal setting to challenge his acrophobia - where he meets a mysterious blonde named Victoria and gets framed for murder. It all works toward a climax that plays like a riff on "Vertigo".

Brooks produces some genuine laughs along the way - the camera smashing through glass doors in zooming upon a dinner scene, the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra providing atmospheric thrill music on a passing bus, and basically anything related to the wonderful Madeline Kahn as Victoria. Looking resplendent in a blonde wig, she comes awfully late into the film but makes her moments count, especially her stimulated reaction to what she thinks is an obscene phone call. Alas, there are a lot of bits that aren't that funny - comedian Charlie Callas as an inmate who thinks he is a cocker spaniel, the self-inflicted censorship after Thorndyke's speech and the Jewish couple charade at the airport.

The film also takes quite a while to establish itself and only increases momentum when the action moves to San Francisco. Future director Barry Levinson, one of the movie's four writers, has a hilarious bit as a high-strung bellboy resistant to getting Thorndyke a newspaper. This leads to a funny take-off of the "Psycho" shower scene, though I could have done without seeing Brooks in the buff. There is another funny take-off on the schoolyard scene from "The Birds" though it honestly feels wedged in for no narrative purpose. There are also references to non-Hitchcock films like "Call Northside 777" (the photo enlargement plot turn) and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Cloris Leachman deserves a medal for looking so horrendous as Nurse Diesel, though she plays the role quite similarly to her Frau Blucher in "Young Frankenstein". Harvey Korman has always been more a sketch comic and proves that again as Montague, as do Howard Morris as kindly Professor Lilloman (Little-Old-Man) and Ron Carey as double-speak sidekick Brophy. John Morris's music score is a fitting tribute to Hitchcock, though Paul Lohmann's cinematography seems particularly washed out in the print transfer on the DVD. There are no extras other than the original trailers for four other Brooks films.

One of the Rare Brooks Misfires (and Even That Isn't Bad)

[brando647 · 5/10 · 20 March 2017]

HIGH ANXIETY is Mel Brooks' loving poke at the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Unfortunately, I'm not well-versed in the works of the legend. I know enough about his more prominent classics thanks to their lasting impact on film and pop culture but the only one of his films I've actually seen is ROPE. What I'm saying is, I am probably not the best person from whom you should consider an opinion when determining if HIGH ANXIETY is worth your viewing. I'm sure there are an abundance of little nods to Hitchcock's films that went completely over my head with only the more blatant ones (references to VERTIGO, PSYCHO, or THE BIRDS for example) landing for me. A lack of familiarity with the subject isn't enough to keep me from a Brooks' comedy though, so I was excited to watch HIGH ANXIETY for the first time when it was included with a boxed set. It tells the story of Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Brooks), a prominent psychologist who has recently accepted a position at the head of the Psycho- Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous in Los Angeles. Upon arrival, he meets Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) and Dr. Montague (Harvey Korman), a shady pair with an air of menace and the implication that they're up to something underhanded. Something is going on at the institute that has some staff members on edge and, when a visit to a psychiatric conference brings him into contact with a desperate woman (Madeline Kahn) seeking her father, Thorndyke realizes he may have stumbled onto something nefarious.

I haven't seen all of Brooks' films so I can't go so far as to say HIGH ANXIETY is his worst film, but I can say it's definitely not one of his best. Brooks is one the master comedic filmmakers and even his worst is bound to have some silver linings, but I didn't find a whole lot to laugh at in HIGH ANXIETY. For a large part of the movie, I was…and I hate to say it…bored. A lot of the gags just weren't cutting it for me. The laughs weren't anywhere near the level of BLAZING SADDLES or YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. We're talking scenes like one of the institute patients, who happens to believe himself to be a cocker spaniel, humping Brooks' leg. In another scene, Brooks runs panicked through a park while being pelted with pigeon crap in the film's homage to THE BIRDS. Stuff like this is too cheap and easy and it feels like a downgrade after watching Brooks' other, superior comedies. Or maybe I just didn't take to the movie's jokes because I spent so much time waiting for something of interest to happen that I was that much more disappointed when a gag fell flat. Because HIGH ANXIETY is operating in the vein of Hitchcock's thrillers, it gives itself a slightly more…I don't want to say "serious" vibe but that's what it is. Brooks' other films always seem to have a self-awareness. The characters know they're in outrageous situations and it feels like they're in on the joke. In HIGH ANXIETY, not so much.

HIGH ANXIETY received some pretty positive reviews so I know I'm probably in the minority here, and that may have something to do with my lack of Hitchcock awareness. But this isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the film in any sense. There were some bits and pieces scattered throughout the movie that worked for me. The ever-talented Madeline Kahn arrives about halfway through the film as the desperate Victoria Brisbane who searches out Thorndyke in hopes he might be able to help her reach her wealthy father, a patient of Thorndyke's institute. Kahn is fantastic in anything and this is no different. Any scene with her rises above the rest. I also loved Rudy De Luca's character, Braces. Braces is a hired assassin utilized by Diesel and Montague to eliminate potential threats to their operation; he's a soft-spoken, tightly-wound spring of a man who sincerely appreciates any chance he's given to kill someone. Literally every line of dialogue he delivered garnered a laugh from me. Overall, the funniest bits in the movie are any time Brooks goes for a camera gag. I guess Hitchcock was keen on creative camera placement and movement, and Brooks sprinkles a few great visual jokes based on that with cameras bashing through a window or peering up through a glass coffee table while frantically trying to frame a shot as characters constantly shift objects over the lens.

What laughs the movie earns are easily erased by the tedium I feel as we wait for the next decent one to hit. I've watched this movie twice now since adding it to my collection and I realized, when I went to sit down for my second viewing, I couldn't remember a thing about it from the last time. Any other Brooks' film I've seen leaves some sort of lasting impression with me, a favorite line or joke or character, but HIGH ANXIETY draws a blank. I'm sure I'll forget about it again in another few months and I'll give it another shot then, and hopefully I'll discover more with each subsequent viewing to really appreciate it. For now though, I'll leave HIGH ANXIETY locked in the violent ward with the cocker spaniel.