High Anxiety (1977)
Directed by Mel Brooks

Film Review

Not long after he delivered cinema's most side-splittingly hilarious spoofs of the western and gothic horror genres in Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974), Mel Brooks turned his penchant for parody to another of cinema's great icons, the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.  Whilst the plot for High Anxiety is most reminiscent of Spellbound and Vertigo, numerous other Hitchcock films are gleefully referenced, notably Psycho, Dial M for Murder, The Birds and North By Northwest.  As in his previous films, Brooks manages to craft an affectionate parody which pays homage to the object of his lampoonery whilst simultaneously eking every last scintilla of comic possibility out of it.  No one extracts the Michael (or, in this case, the Alfred) with more style than Mel Brooks.

Brooks and his talented team of writers and technicians clearly had great fun giving a comic twist to some of the most memorable set-pieces of Hitchcock's films.  The best example of this is the shower sequence from Psycho, a deliriously funny shot-by-shot recreation, in which the hero is attacked not with a knife but with a newspaper (presumably proving that the pen is indeed mighter than the sword). 

The film also pokes fun at Hitchcock's oft-emulated technique.  In a typically Hitchcockian tracking shot, the camera goes too far and smashes through a window.  In another similar shot at the end of the film, the camera crew almost demolish half of the set.  Although he is clearly having a laugh, Brooks also reminds his audience that it isn't easy to copy a true master.

High Anxiety is an absolute treat for all aficionados of Hitchcock, who will doubtless be in their Seventh Heaven spotting all of the references to his films (many of which are surprisingly obscure).  But it is also a great piece of comedy entertainment with very broad appeal.   Yes, the humour is somewhat scattergun - many of the jokes are stillborn and go virtually undetected.  But for every three or four misfires there is at least one belter that will have you laughing your entire bronchial apparatus out onto the carpet.  The film may not achieve the dizzying comedy heights of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, but it is unquestionably sublime entertainment, with enough laugh-out-(very)-loud gags to land you well and truly in the funny farm.

Film Synopsis

Dr Richard H. Thorndyke, an esteemed Harvard psychiatrist, is proud to take up the post of director at the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous.  But within minutes of his arrival at the remote coastal establishment he suspects that something is amiss.  The staff are a very strange bunch who look as if they could benefit from being locked up in a padded cell, especially the weird Nurse Diesel, who seems to strike terror into the hearts of her colleagues.   Thorndyke becomes concerned that some of the patients under his care are exhibiting signs of normality and should have been released months ago.  Dr Montague, his senior analyst, soon disabuses him of this notion, with the help of some elastic bands and a set of werewolf teeth.   Realising that Thorndyke poses a threat to her evil machinations, Nurse Diesel decides that he must be put out of circulation.  Rather than kill him, which would be a bit too obvious, she hires a man to frame Thorndyke for the murder of another man whilst he is attending a psychiatry conference.  The scheme works and Thorndyke is forced to go on the run from the police.  Victoria Brisbane, the daughter of one of the inmates at the institute, contacts him and agrees to lend her support in clearing his name.  Fortunately, Thorndyke's snap happy chauffeur, Brophy, took a photograph of the killing, with Thorndyke just visible as an innocent bystander in the background.  But before Brophy can get his enlarged photograph to the police, the wicked Nurse Diesel gets to him.  Thorndyke has one last hope to save himself and Victoria's father, but this requires him to face his greatest fear, an acute fear of heights...