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.
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.