Not Coming to a Theater Near You

High Anxiety / USA / 1977

Second-tier Mel Brooks offering opens with Dr. Thorndyke, a man with a terrible fear of heights (High Anxiety, get it?), flying west to assume command of the prestigious Institute for the Very, Very, Nervous. Tragically, the clinic’s previous chief met with an untimely demise, and there are some, including driver-lackey-amateur photog Brophy, who think that the Doc’s death was no accident, and that Thorndyke may be next.

Structured around loving homages to several Hitchcock classics, particularly Spellbound, and Vertigo, High Anxiety, like all Brooks, offers hilariously high comedy (Harvey Korman’s patient-terrifying werewolf impersonations) muddled with repetitive and banal humor (Brophy’s endless insistence that he’s “got it”), with several scenes in between that I’m not quite sure what to make of (Is Brook’s crooner rendition of “High Anxiety” a funny tune about a fear of heights, or forgettable time-filler?).

But also like all Brooks, with time, and repeat viewings, comes an appreciation of the comedic genius at work. Somehow the man’s films grow on you, and each successive screening is more enjoyable than the last. It’s as if once the inane plot out of the way, you’re free to focus on all the little things happening in the background, the sly touches that make the films, and the man, pure magic. For who but Brooks could stage a parody of The Birds, with defecating pigeons in place of murderous crows, or mock the infamous Psycho shower scene with a disgruntled hotel employee and a newspaper?

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Twentieth Century Fox DVD
04 Apr 2008 12:13 AM | Submit Comment