High Anxiety
by Mel Brooks
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DVD details
Actor: Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Mel BrooksDirector: Mel Brooks
Brand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-05
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of High Anxiety
DVD Review: "I got it... I got it... I got it... I ain't got it!"
Summary: 4 Stars
Nobody is safe from satire, not even Alfred Hitchcock. But Mel Brooks straddles the line between parody and affectionate homage in "High Anxiety," a hysterical psychiatric comedy that deftly references all sorts of Hitch films -- while keeping in Brooks' trademark slapstick, hilarious dialogue, and weird characters.
Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Brooks) has just been hired as the director of Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous, after the sudden death of the previous administrator. Something odd seems to be going on -- screams are heard, a patient signals Thorndyke with a mirror, and Dr. Charles Montague (Harvey Korman) frightens a patient into fits. Then one of the doctors dies mysteriously, while trying to leave the conspiracy.
And when Thorndyke is lecturing at a psychiatry convention, the evil Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) sends a hired killer (wearing a Thorndyke mask) to frame the doctor for murder. Now Thorndyke must elude the police and the killer, clear his name with the help of a mysterious blonde heiress (Madeleine Kahn), and overcome his crippling "high anxiety."
As a homage/spoof, this is gold. Brooks deftly weaves together elements and storylines from various Hitchock movies, including "Vertigo" and "Spellbound," with some nods to "Psycho," "North By Northwest" and "The Birds." There's dizzying looks down a wooden tower, newspaper "stabbings" in the shower, and Madeleine Kahn's strange not-so-icy blonde.
But it's also a great movie in its own right. Rather than outright slapstick as in some of his movies, Brooks instead crafts a clever thriller framed with delicious comedy -- he even makes fun of some standard filmmaking devices. For example, Thorndyke's hotel suite is switched for a top-floor room because of a call from... "a Mr. McGuffin."
And he fills it with hysterical comedic situations, like Victoria mistaking the sounds of a life-or-death struggle for a phone sex pervert, or Thornduke being assaulted by a crazed bellboy. And his dialogue is solidly quotable in this one ("Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup"). The highlight has to be murder-by-bad-pop song, where a man is trapped in a car with the unspeakably bad "If You Love Me Tell Me Loud Loud Loud."
Gene Wilder wasn't available when this was made, so Brooks took the lead himself. The seriousness of the character doesn't entirely fit him, but he's a solid enough Thorndyke, especially when he has to give a G-rated speech about penis envy.
Most of the comedy comes from an unfortunately blonde Madeleine Kahn as the chic love interest, as well as a ghoulish Leachman and S&M enthusiastic Korman ("Too much bondage, too much bondage, not enough discipline!"). And Ron Carey and Howard Morris round the cast off, as the photographically obsessed chauffeur and the stereotypical little German shrink.
"High Anxiety" is an affectionate parody/homage to Hitchcock -- even Hitchcock was pleased by it -- but it's also a solid comedy movie. Definitely worth seeing!
Description of High Anxiety
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