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High Anxiety

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High Anxiety (1977)

December. 25,1977
|
6.6
|
PG
| Comedy Thriller Mystery
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A psychiatrist with intense acrophobia (fear of heights) goes to work for a mental institution run by doctors who appear to be crazier than their patients, and have secrets that they are willing to commit murder to keep.

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Reviews

Cortechba
1977/12/25

Overrated

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Mathilde the Guild
1977/12/26

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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Juana
1977/12/27

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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Darin
1977/12/28

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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Red-Barracuda
1977/12/29

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.

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Mr-Fusion
1977/12/30

"High Anxiety" never reaches the heights of other Brooks classics (despite coming highly recommended), but it ain't bad. Inconsistent, sure, but there are some solid laughs throughout. The gags tend to come at you pretty fast, and Mel takes on everything from "Vertigo", to "Psycho" to "North By Northwest". But it works as both an homage and parody of Alfred Hitchcock, and he's not just shooting fish in a barrel; he's paying due (off-color) respect to the suspense master. Its heart is in the right place. And then there's Cloris Leachman, who takes disturbing to outlandish heights. She's gotta be seen to be believed. She's easily the movie's best feature, no question. 6/10

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mark.waltz
1977/12/31

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!".

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LeonLouisRicci
1978/01/01

Unlike Woody Allen, Mel Brooks Films are better when He is off Screen. In short doses the Famed Funny Man can pull it off, but His Charisma is not enough to pull off the Lead as is attested by this rather Flaccid Performance. The Comedy works the best when Brooks is in the Director's Chair and not Mugging it up.Nowhere near at the Top of His Game, the Movie finds itself in the Not Best but Not Worst Category. There are enough Gags that work to make it a worthwhile View, but Sadly some of the Stuff just Bombs Big Time.Unfortunately the Hitchcock Take-Offs that the Movie is built around don't come off as well as when the Funny Cast just goes Bonkers for no reason other than to be Silly and not paying any attention to the Hitch References. Go figure. It was a Good Idea, maybe, but once on the Screen the Tribute to Alfred Hitchcock seems a bit forced and all too obvious. Best for Mel Brooks Fans but Hitchcock Lovers may be disappointed.

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