Clevercell Very disappointing...

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

gwnightscream Mel Brooks writes, directs & stars in this 1977 comedy that co-stars Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman. This is a send-up of Alfred Hitchcock films, mainly "Vertigo," "Psycho" and "The Birds" and Brooks plays Richard Thorndyke, a psychiatrist who has a fear of heights, "High Anxiety." He helps woman, Victoria Brisbane (Kahn) search for her father, but in the process he's falsely accused of murder and tries to overcome his phobia. Korman (Blazing Saddles) plays Dr. Charles Montague and Leachman (Young Frankenstein) plays Nurse Diesel who set Richard up. This is a good spoof, Brooks is great as usual, the rest of the cast is good as well as John Morris' score. If you enjoys comedies, check this one out.

Hitchcoc 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.

mark.waltz I've often heard that sometimes, it is the inmates who are running the asylum, and in the case of those who run the Hospital for the "Very, Very Nervous", they should definitely be patients, not doctors and nurses. Even newcomer Mel Brooks, the new head of the institution, has his own issues, and that is a grave fear of heights. Discovering this, jealous doctor Harvey Korman and the very butch Cloris Leachman (named "Nurse Diesel" with a little hint of a mustache that Leachman added herself) plan his downfall, unless a murder rap gets him first.This is practically a spoof of every Hitchcock film of the late 1950's and 60's, from "Rear Window" through "Marnie", and some of Brooks' ideas are so funny many comic writers and directors were probably jealous that they didn't think of them first. Of course, a few of his ideas didn't make it into the film, such as one of the characters apparently coming out of the nose of one of the Presidents on Mount Rushmore wearing all green. ("Family Guy" did grab that idea years later for one episode...) But what makes it in, whether it being a spoof of the shower scene in "Psycho", the chase by crapping birds, and the obvious take-off from "Vertigo", is pure ingenuity on the part of the great Mr. Brooks.An improvement on his previous spoof, "Silent Movie", this has a much higher ratio of laughs, going way over the limit on the speedometer, and rivaling "The Produers" and "Young Frankenstein" for consistency in chuckles. Some people are just funny by making an entrance, and that happens the minute that a very blonde Madeline Kahn makes her entrance heaving as she bangs on Brooks' San Francisco hotel suite door. "What are you wearing?", she asks an alleged obscene phone caller (actually Brooks, being attacked by a Richard Keil like tin-toothed villain), then later joins Brooks in old people disguise as they try to board a plane out of the city. Leachman almost tops Frau Brucher with Diesel, and after watching her, you too may join the thousands who imitate her here by saying, "The drapes. He wanted to change the drapes. Color is very important in the recovery of the mentally disturbed." Even in recent performances, Leachman emulates both of these Brooks characters she has become legendary for, and along with Kahn is surely to be listed among the funniest women in film.Many great character performers and familiar faces (Dick Van Patten among them as a doomed doctor; Charlie Callas as a mental patient who believes he's a cocker spaniel) pop in and out of the action, and there is so much to praise here that it is simply easier to tell people, "Just watch the movie and be delighted!".

Scott LeBrun Mel Brooks's "High Anxiety" isn't on the level of his masterpieces "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" but still works nicely as an affectionate spoof of the films of suspense master Alfred Hitchcock. Working in references to "Vertigo", "Psycho", "The Birds", and "North by Northwest", among other classics, it stars Brooks himself as eminent doctor Richard Thorndyke, who's just been hired as the new director of the Psycho Neurotic Institute for the Very VERY Nervous. He eventually gets wind of a dastardly plot engineered by institute staff, including hideous Nurse Diesel (a priceless Cloris Leachman) and weaselly Dr. Charles Montague (Harvey Korman). Fortunately, he has loyal chauffeur / sidekick Brophy (Ron Carey) and lovely Victoria Brisbane (Madeline Kahn, looking quite fetching in a long blonde wig) on his side, as he seeks to discover the fate of Victoria's father Arthur. "High Anxiety" is best described as the kind of movie that has moments; it does indeed have some great comedy set pieces, but others don't work quite as well. It's probably best appreciated by Hitchcock aficionados, who will delight in the references to Hitch's work. Mel, who co-wrote and produced as well, is fun to watch, with the supporting cast (also featuring Howard Morris, Dick Van Patten, Jack Riley, Charlie Callas, Murphy Dunne, and Robert Ridgely) truly getting into the spirit of the thing. Buffs will be pleased to note that that's legendary artist Albert J. Whitlock, who'd actually worked with Hitch, playing the role of Arthur Brisbane, and that future director Barry Levinson ("Diner", "Rain Man"), also one of the writers, plays the lazy, complaining hotel bellboy. Mel further entertains us by belting out the title ditty, which he also composed, and comes up with some genuinely laugh inducing gags. For one thing, we're always made well aware we're watching a movie, as cameras crash into windows and the characters on screen actually take notice of the music score. (Mel upon exiting an airport, at which point the score abruptly cuts off: "What a dramatic airport!") Mel and Madeline also make a wonderful pair and do a great routine at an another airport late in the film. Of all the spoofing done in the film, the jokes relating to "The Birds" are this viewers' personal favourite. Highly recommended to fans of both Hitch and Mel, this begins and ends brightly, and remains likable throughout. Seven out of 10.