High Anxiety

Name: High Anxiety
Genre: Comedy
Released: December 25, 1977
Duration: 94 min
Rating: 55
Cast: Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks

1977

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Mixed or average reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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7.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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High Anxiety

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Movie Details & Credits

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: December 25, 1977 | Approved

Starring: Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks

Summary: Mel Brooks' spoof of the most famous Hitchcockian classics-"Vertigo," "The Birds," "Psycho" and "Spellbound." After a Harvard psychiatrist (Brooks) takes over the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, he realizes his predecessor died under suspicious circumstances. When events take a murderous turn, he is accused of theMel Brooks' spoof of the most famous Hitchcockian classics-"Vertigo," "The Birds," "Psycho" and "Spellbound." After a Harvard psychiatrist (Brooks) takes over the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, he realizes his predecessor died under suspicious circumstances. When events take a murderous turn, he is accused of the crime and left with a full blown case of High Anxiety.… Expand

Director: Mel Brooks

Genre(s): Comedy

Rating: Approved

Runtime: 94 min

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Critic Reviews

Nathan Rabin

Anxiety is nearly as obsessive in recreating Alfred Hitchcock's visual style as Gus Van Sant's Psycho was, but to much greater effect. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

As witty and as disciplined as "Young Frankenstein," though it has one built-in problem: Hitchcock himself is a very funny man. His films, even at their most terrifying and most suspenseful, are full of jokes shared with the audience. Being so self-aware, Hitchcock's films deny an easy purchase to the parodist, especially one who admires his subject the way Mr. Brooks does. Read full review

Roger Ebert

One of the problems with Mel Brooks's High Anxiety is that it picks a tricky target: It's a spoof of the work of Alfred Hitchcock, but Hitchcock's films are often funny themselves. And satire works best when its target is self-important. Read full review

Empire Ian Nathan

As with all great spoofers, you can feel the love the director has for Hitchcock, the thoroughness of his jokes vouches for that and the entire plot is loosely based on Spellbound. Perhaps, he was too devoted, the film lacks daring, it’s soft, Hitch would have sneered at such weakness. Read full review

Pauline Kael

This is a child's idea of satire - imitations, with a funny hat and a leer...There isn't a whisper of suspense, and there are few earned laughs; all Brooks does is let us know he has seen some of the same movies we have.

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