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. "[10] Vincent Canby of The New York Times agreed, writing that the film "is as witty and as disciplined as Young Frankenstein, though it has one built-in problem: Hitchcock himself is a very funny man. Im writing High Anxiety before its a movie its just an idea. From Psycho to The Birds, from North by Northwest to Vertigo, the laughs just never stop in this film. Kahn is the Hitchcock blonde whose father is in the asylum. Charlie Callas must have been the MacGuffin in this picture, after we see him the first time he doesn't show up again. Why do you think it still seems fresh? We loved even her most cloying portrayals, her most annoying attitudes. Kahn played Alice Gold, her husband is a school principal who has a fling with a schoolteacher. Never.. Thorndyke, Brooks is nevertheless as irresistable as he is irrepressible, with Madeline Kahn a fine match for him as the flakiest mysterious blonde this side of Kim Novak. I am not going to listen to any more of this, I mean; Ive had just about enough! Brooks: I thought when Richard Pryor died, that was the end of comedy. Very very funny Hitchcock spoof with some adult humor. High Anxiety (1977) In Mel Brooks' hilarious comedy - a satirical parody of famous moments and scenes from various Hitchcock films - and his . He's got to get the real lighting, the real texture. It is an Affectionate Parody of the films of Alfred Hitchcock. My tits are falling off). Originally cast as Agnes Gooch in the 1974 film Mame, she was fired by comic icon Lucille Ball over artistic differences. The only really wacky character is Cloris Leachman as a nurse from heck. As such, it is I suppose also the quietest of the Brooks films, with fewer bellylaughs and more appreciative chuckles. He then takes a shower, during which the bellboy enters and, in a frenzy, mimics stabbing Thorndyke with the paper while screaming, "Here's your paper! What does it look like? "[6], On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 73% based on 30 reviews. It goes on. Campy Available to rent or buy Rent HD $3.99 Buy HD $9.99 More purchase options This is Brooks' first film as a producer and first speaking lead role (his first lead role was in Silent Movie ). All Rights Reserved. Veteran Brooks ensemble members Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, and Madeline Kahn are also featured. If youre just doing things for laughs and not paying attention to human truths, its not gonna last. "[13] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "probably the most coherent of the Brooks movies since The Producers, in the sense of sustaining a tone and story line and characterizations from start to finish. Diesel is extremely domineering and is soon revealed to be in a BDSM relationship with the submissive Montague. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Her first husband had disappeared, but she explains that because he was an illusionist, that was his job. 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. She can be distracted, confused and preoccupied, often at the same time, without ever losing focus, without ever losing funny. Like all his pictures, it's a hit-or-miss affair, sometimes reaching high hilarity, other times plummeting like the proverbial lead balloon. Do go on, I do believe you were discussing my cherry., Although best known as a comedian, Kahn had originated dramatic roles on stage in 1974s In the Boom Boom Room and 1977s Marco Polo Sings a Solo. Victoria is reunited with her father, marries Thorndyke, and they embark on their honeymoon. 11 of 49. How will Dr. Thorndyke handle this loony gang? Cloris Leachman is the only person on screen who ever gets a single laugh, as Nurse Diesel, the wack-job, manly, conniving, dominatrix, but she's trying so hard that she only managed to make me laugh a couple of times. I love him; I really admire his bravery. Extra footage added for network versions. 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. "[16], This article is about the film. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. He checks into the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, where, much to his chagrin as a sufferer of "high anxiety", he is assigned a top floor room, mysteriously changed reservation by "Mr. MacGuffin". High Anxiety is a 1977 comedy film directed by (and starring) Mel Brooks. They think comedy is frivolous. She knew what was really good, what was funny and what was unique and original. Showing Editorial results for madeline kahn. After she graduated in 1964 she fell into a depression and realized she wanted to be an actor. Most of the story takes place at the fictional Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, with exteriors filmed at Mount St. Mary's University in Los Angeles. High Anxiety (R4 DVD 1977) Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn AS NEW FREE POST. Peter Bogdanovich cast her in her first feature as Ryan ONeills controlling, tight-ass fiance, Eunice Burns (not A Eunice Burns, THE Eunice Burns, she drips disdainfully when denied entry to a black-tie dinner), in the Golden Globe-nominated Whats Up, Doc? 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. And I know I have Madeline Kahn. Basil E. Frankweiler, a childrens film based on E. L. Konigsburgs novel about a sister and brother who run away from home to live in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and find what looks like lost treasure. Mel plays it straight which makes him even funnier. Victoria barely represses her sexual longings as she gets closer to Brooks Dr. Thorndyke. He thinks hes Gods prophet and his life parallels Moses. 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Most of this stuff isn't especially hilarious, however. Sarah Silverman is genuinely talented and funny. After working with Kahn, Brooks always kept a box of handkerchiefs on hand to stuff in the crews mouths. Love is really a pretty bland guy named Charlie and Madeline wants to go swinging and eat health food. Penis envy" becomes "pee-pee envy"; the womb is temporarily rechristened "the woo-woo. Diesel leaps out from the shadows and attacks Thorndyke with a broom, but falls out the tower window, laughing hysterically and riding the broom to her death on the rocky coast below. Mel riffs on Hitchcock, right down to Madeline Kahn's gray suit a la Kim Novak in Vertigo. Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, - The film also starred Louise Fletcher, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Stockard Channing, Marsha Mason, Sid Caesar, John Houseman, Dom DeLuise, the ever-youthful Abe Vigoda, James Coco, Phil Silvers, Scatman Crothers and Dr. Zaius lookalike Paul Williams. Here, Ive waited all my whole life for you and now you dont even want me. Color-94m. As Estie Del Ruth, she walked Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood in 1976. She won a Daytime Emmy in 1987 for playing in the ABC Afterschool Special, Wanted: The. She appeared in three of The American Film Institutes list of the top 100 funniest movies: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and Whats Up Doc? If it was tired or cliched, she let me know in no uncertain terms. He never reappeared because he wasnt a very good illusionist. The second husband was a stupidly optimistic man. He was just great. With Broadway, vintage horror films, silents and westerns, the range is much broader. Kahn had played Pat Nixon when she hosted Saturday Night Live in a classic skit where she reminisces about the last days of her husbands presidency. A killer disguised as Thorndyke is exposed when Brophy enlarges a photo negative, as in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 Blow-Up, and the killer's metal-covered teeth must have been suggested by Jaws, the James Bond character who first appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me, released a few months months before High Anxiety. She almost quit show business. ONeal is still the youngest Oscar winner ever. This story first appeared in the June 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Montague takes Thorndyke to the light's source, the room of patient Arthur Brisbane, who thinks he is a Cocker Spaniel. His head had been cut off, and so had his, uh. Although she proclaims that life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage, her husbands death allowed her to append her beliefs, now that hes dead, I have a life. Blasted by critics at the time, who blamed John Landis for writing the script, Clue has gone on to become a cult favorite and Kahns comic flames soliloquy, which was improvised on set, is considered a classic comedy bit. Madeline learned to sing opera to get tips while singing beer songs in a German restaurant, called the Bavarian Manor. In 1993 she won a Tony Award for her role as Dr. Gorgeous in the play The Sisters Rosensweig by Wendy Wasserstein. (Hallo, cowboy, is that a ten-gallon hat on your lap, or are you just enjoying the show?) Premiere magazine ranked the von Shtupp role as #74 of the greatest performances of all time in their April 2006 issue. This film was directed by Mel Brooks.High. I hope Hitchcock never actually saw this. . 2023 Turner Classic Movies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Search the history of over 806 billion Thorndyke, for instance, is similar to names used in both, And Thorndyke meets up with someone at the ", Braces is a takeoff on Jaws from then-recent, Another non-Hitchcock reference is when Brophy enlarges one of his photographs to find proof of Thorndyke's innocence, taken straight from, Nurse Diesel riding her broomstick out the window to her death while cackling is another non-Hitchcock reference, to. Dr. Richard Thorndyke arrives as new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous to discover some suspicious goings-on. High Anxiety (1977), the first movie he produced as well as directed, co-wrote, and starred in, follows the pattern that had served him well in most of his five previous pictures and would remain a trademark in years to come: it's a movie about movies, a show about show business. Mel Brooks takes on Hitchcock movies like "Vertigo" and "Spellbound "with a dash of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" thrown in. I needed the cuts so that I could give the audience some rest from the relentless onslaught of farts. After a Harvard psychiatrist (Brooks) takes over the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, he realizes his predecessor died under suspicious circumstances. Cloris Leachman is hilarious as Nurse Diesel, and her manner is a funny as her costume. Near the middle of the movie, the story moves to San Francisco, taking advantage of settings used in Hitchcock's Vertigo, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Mission San Juan Bautista tower. Brooks: I loved it. by David Sterritt, - It was a caricature of Marlene Dietrichs vampy part in the 1939 classic western, Destry Rides Again. That's a lot to coordinate into 90-minutes of intended laughs. . After High Anxiety, Brooks went into something of a commercial decline as his style of humor fell out of favor with audiences. Madeline Kahn 11 of 49. . Dr. Wentworth, - The paper's ink runs down the drain. Later, Thorndyke hears strange noises coming from Diesel's room and he and Brophy go to investigate. This is Mel Brooks' spoof of over ten Alfred Hitchcock classics, including, Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser, [Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Stereo], Director,Songwriter,Producer,Screenwriter. What is the cutting? Kahn started in musical theater. She was informed that her part was cut from the play How Now, Dow Jones, backstage, on the night before the show was supposed to open on Broadway, by messenger. And another Brooks favorite, Madeline Kahn, is great as Thorndyke's love interest, although not even she can salvage the scene where she and Brooks do a Borscht Belt-type dialect routine to divert attention at an airport. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. Though often overlooked in favor of Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, I believe this to be the pick of Brooks' parodies. Production Design: Peter Wooley The picture might have worked (it's a wacky spoof of Hitchcock moments), but not with this cornball script--nor with Brooks in the lead as a vertigo-prone psychiatrist. Cloris Leachman gives a performance of tremendous skill and total commitment and creates another memorable character; unfortunately, much of what she and Harvey Korman are called upon to do, while daring in 1977, is a little embarrassing today. But these films are only mentioned a little, besides Vertigo, which is, more or less, the basis for 90% of all the parody. High Anxiety is definitely lesser Brooks and wildly uneven, but partisans will embrace it wholeheartedly. [8] After viewing the film himself, Alfred Hitchcock sent Brooks a case of six magnums of 1961 Chteau Haut-Brion wine with a note that read, "A small token of my pleasure, have no anxiety about this. After his shower, Victoria Brisbane, the daughter of Arthur Brisbane, bursts through the door, wanting help removing her father from the institute. (Madeline Kahn), a patient's wealthy daughter, and he was attacked from behind by assassin "Braces" (Rudy DeLuca) (a take-off on Bond's "Jaws"); with the cord wrapped around his throat to strangle him . Hitchcock's suspense melodramas are sparked by his perverse wit; they're satirical to start with. Here is no exception, as he tackles squarely the unmistakable catalog of Sir Alfred Hitchcock. In 1994, Kahn played Mrs. Munchnick in the holiday farce Mixed Nuts, which was based on the 1982 French comedy, Le Pre Nol est une ordure and directed by Nora Ephron. Madeline Kahn gave a deeply nuanced performance in the brief role of Martha Mitchell in Oliver Stones Nixon from 1995. How did having her by your side contribute to your career? Gene Wilder was originally considered for the part of Dr. Richard Thorndyke, but scheduling forced Wilder to turn the role down. is less interested in curing its rich clientele than in keeping them indefinitely and thus getting more of their money, Braces broke that glass himself trying to kill Thorndyke, UsefulNotes/Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy Film, UsefulNotes/Parental Guidance Suggested Rating. We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us! Kahn starred in her own TV series Madeline, which was based on the British series Pig in the Middle. Bogdanovich took out full page ads to apologize for that. 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. I cut to the campfire; I cut to the plate of beans; I cut to Slim Pickens; I cut to the horses. "[9], Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "One of the problems with Mel Brooks' 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. This is an excuse to get the whole Brooks' gang dealing with mental institutions and mental illness. Support. High Anxiety is a 1977 American satirical comedy film produced and directed by Mel Brooks, who also plays the lead. Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman. Brooks is an equal-opportunity satirist, so non-Hitchcock movies also get dragooned into High Anxiety. Revisiting Robert Zemeckis' Death Becomes Her, Mortal Kombat X: 8 Things to Expect in the Story, Always Sunny to Talking Sopranos: The Best TV Rewatch Podcasts Hosted By Cast & Creators, The Star Trek Story Bridging the Gaps Between Deep Space Nine and Picard, Taskmaster and The Underrated Comic Genius of Kiell Smith-Bynoe. Kahn was playful and sexy and sad and in a hurry. He is trapped in his car, his ears hemorrhage, and he dies from a stroke, aggravated by the loud music. But then his character has to carry the plot. 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. She insinuates interior and ulterior motives behind double and triple entendre. High Anxiety (R4 DVD 1977) Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn AS NEW FREE POST . Thorndyke's high anxiety prevents him from climbing the tower's steep stairs to help Brisbane, but with Lillolman's help, he overcomes his phobia. She made a German spectacle of herself as the seductive, saloon-singing spy, Lili von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles, which was co-written by Richard Pryor. 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 wil 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. Kahn first demurred because she thought that was a tasteless title and, because she was just getting known on Broadway, she thought she wasnt yet ready to do a bad movie. Mel Brooks is a well known name in comedy and since I also know Alfred Hitchcock movies I thought it would be a good idea to watch this one. When events take a murderous turn, he is accused of the crime and left with a full blown case of "High Anxiety." comes up again during the final chase up the stairs. She claims Diesel and Montague are exaggerating the illnesses of wealthy patients so they can milk rich families of millions (through methods demonstrated earlier). So give your brain a night off, brush up on your Hitchcock, and settle in for a potpourri of laughs, groans, dull spots, and inspired spots. Thorndyke also reunites with Professor Vicktor Lillolman, a past mentor now employed by the institute. 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. Most of the names are borrowed from other Hitchcock films. He is the TV Editor at Entertainment. Despite what his driver thinks, Thorndyke's predecessor died of a sudden heart attack leaving the position to be filled. I couldn't recommend High Anxiety enough for those who enjoy Mel films and / or admire Hitchcock films. The only sure thing is that you'll enjoy it most if you're acquainted with the works of Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense to whom Brooks dedicates the movie. But, unfortunately, there is much more good-naturedness that inspiration here. Mel Brooks and Madeline Kahn in High Anxiety (1977) Close. All rights reserved. He is suffering from a sense of vertigo but finds his room located at the top floor. The script is plot-heavy, yet it fails to contrive an amusing plot from Hitchcock sources. Kahn would work with Bogdanovich again in 1976 but, sadly, that would be in At Long Last Love, which starred a singing and dancing Burt Reynolds and Cybil Shepherd. Dr. Richard Thorndyke arrives as new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous to discover some suspicious goings-on. When she sings, its usually in character and her character always has something else up her sleeves or under her derby. Thorndyke and Victoria head back to LA where they rescue Brophy and see Montague and Diesel taking the real Arthur Brisbane to a tower to kill him. I would highly recommend High Anxiety for any Mel Brooks fan, it's a funny movie to watch and a guaranteed laugh. Bogdanovich quickly cast her again in Paper Moon in 1973 as Trixie Delight, who nobody started to call mademoiselle until she was 17 and started to get some bone structure. She only had fifteen minutes of screen time, but she got to sit up front with her big tits. That line wasnt in the script, but young Tatum ONeill encouraged Kahn to go with it. Keep your eyes open for other references as you watch. With some terrific actors we also recognize from Mel's best film ever, Young Frankenstein, you can tell the cast really enjoyed themselves and had fun with this movie. High Anxiety gets its comic energy largely from the actors, some of whom have multiple Brooks films among their credits: Leachman as the sadistic Nurse Diesel, Korman as the evil Dr. Montague, and Dick Van Patten as the semi-sympathetic Dr. Wentworth, who gets murdered by loud rock'n'roll that makes his ears bleed. Madeline Kahn is never doing just one thing onscreen. As everyone knows, humor is very, very personal. People Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn. Mel Brooks: I have never been saluted as a director in my life. Wentworth wants to leave the institute but Diesel refuses to let him. Same thing with Gene Wilder, whether it was sad and touching or whether it was hysterical. Mel riffs on Hitchcock, right down to Madeline Kahn's gray suit a la Kim Novak in Vertigo. Later in a cocktail lounge, he snaps a microphone cord like a whip and makes Madeline Kahn hyperventilate with passion. I find the airport scene strenuously unfunny, but you may laugh until, well, your ears bleed.