Höhenkoller

Mel Brooks is a very funny man, and though sometimes I think his comedy is a little on the low side, "High Anxiety" has some truly hilarious moments.

Mel riffs on Hitchcock, right down to Madeline Kahn's gray suit a la Kim Novak in Vertigo. He combines scenes from "Spellbound," "Vertigo," "Foreign Correspondent," "The Birds," "Psycho," "Dial M for Murder," and "North by Northwest" in this story of a man taking over as the head of a mental sanitarium, replacing a man who is murd - uh, dead.

Kahn is the Hitchcock blonde whose father is in the asylum. To give you an idea of this place where the lunatics have definitely taken over - Cloris Leachman plays a nurse who's into S&M with Harvey Korman. Both of them are a riot. Mel plays it straight which makes him even funnier.

I have two favorite scenes - the first is Mel, doing a perfect imitation of Sinatra's style, singing "High Anxiety" to Kahn. He's fabulous, and the look on Kahn's face is delicious.

My other favorite scene occurs when Brooks and Kahn disguise themselves as elderly people to get through airport security. Psychiatric expert Brooks thinks the more noise you make, the less people notice you. The two of them do a fabulous skit which is priceless.

We really lost a treasure when we lost Madeline Kahn, one of the all-time great talents. It's wonderful to see this and remember her.

I do believe that because of the humor, the film can be enjoyed without having seen the Hitchcock films spoofed, but of course, it's all the better if you have. A delightful film.

This movie was better the first time I saw it but that said, it is worth watching for several good comedy bits and the lovely performance of Madeline Kahn.

Kahn rescues the film when she enters halfway through.

Brooks also comes up with a brilliant twist towards the end which I think on its own turns this from an average to disappointing movie to a good to very good one.

I was torn between giving this a 6 or a 7 but went with a 6 since there is a lot of subpar points in the film you need to get through.

That said, Brooks is great, Cloris Leachman is amazing and nearly steals the show.

Harvey Korman is splendid.

Sad that Kahn died so young, she was a treasure as you see here.

Mel as a psychiatrist? That's crazy!

But it's funny.

And so is "High Anxiety", a spoof of everything Hitchcock, with a few touches of Mel's own creativity dashed here and there.

As head psychiatrist for the Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous, Mel finds strange goings-on involving kidnapping, murder, double-crossing and Harvery Korman in leather.

Nearly every big Hitchcock scene is clobbered as the story progresses: the shower scene in "Psycho", the jungle gym scene in "The Birds", the shooting in "North by Northwest", the climax of "Vertigo".... The list goes on and on.

Mel does too, God bless him. Laugh after laugh after laugh is produced, and Mel and his writers seem to have an inexhaustable supply of sight gags, one-liners and word plays. And they all work.

Suffice it to say, this isn't as funny as "Blazing Saddles", but it's prime Mel and if you're like me, almost any Mel is good Mel.

Eight stars. And he has a lovely singing voice, too.

Dr Richard Thorndyke is a psychiatrist who, despite himself having a fear of heights, is on his way to become the new chief administrator for the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very Very Nervous. Despite what his driver thinks, Thorndyke's predecessor died of a sudden heart attack – leaving the position to be filled. On arrival, Thorndyke immediately notices that in some ways his staff are not totally different from his patients but it is not long before he cannot help but noticed a myriad of suspicious and unusual occurrences around him and his new workplace.

In theory this should be a hilarious spoof of Hitchcock but disappointingly, it is only an amusing one with very few belly laughs in it. The plot is a reasonably good attempt at aping Hitchcock but does hang together in a narrative that you will care about. Instead what Mel Brooks does is continually look to where the next spoof scene is coming from, whether it totally fits in with the flow or story or not. Of course this should really matter if the audience is laughing hard throughout but, like I said, I wasn't. Problem mainly is that it just isn't a very clever spoof at all, with the material signposted and obvious. This is still not to say that it is worthless, because it is funny but to be honest you will probably find it funniest if you have quite a childish sense of humour.

As director, Brooks does OK in setting his scenes up but I was disappointed by his performance – he isn't good enough as a comic actor in this case and too many scenes end with him just standing there. I assume he was letting the laughs come at his blank reaction to things but you need a really good presence to make that work, and he doesn't manage it. Conversely I loved Korman simply because he is funny just by standing there. Leachman has a simple character but she also does it well. Kahn is not that good because the material handed her is weak.

Overall, an amusing spoof but certainly not a good one. The jokes and such are quite obvious so, although it will raise a chuckle, don't expect it to be anything inventive or inspired.

Mel Brooks arrives at the "Institute" to find suspicious goings on, and tries to find out what's going on and who is behind it. Cloris Leachman and Harvy Korman are fellow doctors at the asylum, and watch over the institute when Mel must attend a conference. Watch for Barry Levinson (writer, director, producer) as he plays the bellboy. Ron Carey from Barny Miller plays the chauffeur who tries to help Mel when he runs into trouble with the always funny Madeline Kahn. The references to all of Hitchcocks films are many and great, and Mel even sings a song in the movie. His speech given for fellow doctors at the conference goes on a little long, but can be forgiven as it is offset by the quick action for most of the movie. Cloris Leachman is hilarious as Nurse Diesel, and her manner is a funny as her costume. Half the jokes in this movie are things as simple as camera angles, facial expressions, and what people are wearing.