High Anxiety
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| High Anxiety | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for High Anxiety. |
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| Directed by | Mel Brooks |
| Produced by | Mel Brooks |
| Written by | Mel Brooks Ron Clark Rudy DeLuca Barry Levinson |
| Starring | Mel Brooks Madeline Kahn Cloris Leachman Harvey Korman Dick Van Patten Howard Morris |
| Music by | John Morris |
| Cinematography | Paul Lohmann |
| Editing by | John C. Howard |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1977 |
| Running time | 94 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,400,000 USD (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
High Anxiety is a 1977 comedy film directed by and starring Mel Brooks. Veteran Brooks ensemble members Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman and Madeline Kahn are also featured.
The film is a parody of the suspense film genre, most obviously the films directed by Alfred Hitchcock and most notably Vertigo.
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[edit] Synopsis
Brooks' character, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, arrives as new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous to discover some suspicious goings-on. When he's framed for murder, Dr. Thorndyke must confront his own anxiety disorder, "high anxiety," in order to clear his name.
[edit] Characters
- Dr. Richard Harpo Thorndyke: The new head administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. He suffers from high anxiety and is trying to find out more about the shady dealings going on inside the Institute.
- Victoria Brisbane: Victoria is the concerned daughter of Arthur Brisbane, an industrialist who was entered into the Institute months ago for a nervous breakdown. She starts a relationship with Dr. Thorndyke at the end. She is often referred to as "The Cocker's Daughter".
- Brophy: Brophy is Dr. Thorndyke's sidekick. He works as his chauffer and is a bit of shutterbug. He also has trouble lifting very large objects.
- Nurse Diesel: Nurse Diesel is the controlling and domineering nurse of the Institute. She is in a BDSM relationship with Dr. Montague, and is the puppet master behind the scenes.
- Dr. Montague: Charles Montague was set to take over the Institute before Dr. Thorndyke arrived, and has trouble hiding his jealousy. He is in a BDSM relationship with Nurse Diesel, who treats him like a dog.
- Professor Lilloman: Often called Professor "Little Old Man", Lilloman was Dr. Thorndyke's teacher from school and currently works as a consultant at the Institute. He is helping with Dr. Thorndyke with his high anxiety.
- Arthur Brisbane: A very rich industrialist and Victoria's father. He was entered into the Institute nearly a year ago, yet Nurse Diesel and Dr. Montague have been keeping him there because of how much money Victoria is paying them. Currently, they replaced him with a man who thinks that he's a dog. Because he was replaced by a man who thought he was a dog, other characters have called his daughter Victoria "The Cocker's Daughter".
- Braces: The man with the braces was hired to frame Thorndyke and later to kill him. He killed Dr. Ashley and Dr. Wentworth. He has a very high love of killing and lets people know it.
- Dr. Wentworth: Wentworth knew about what was going on at the Institute, and this weighed down on his conscience so much he left, but Nursel Diesel worried that he might talk, so she had Braces kill him. He rigged his car radio to play a very loud and annoying song that wouldn't shut off, and the strain it caused on his body trying to make it stop caused a cerebral hemorrhage.
- Dennis: A rather tightly-wounded bellhop who was constantly reminded to get Dr. Thorndyke his newspaper to the point of him attacking the doctor in the shower with the aformentioned paper.
- Dr. Ashley: Dr. Thorndyke's predecessor at the Institute was killed before he had a chance to make some "big changes".
[edit] List of referenced films
These films are spoofed or parodied in the movie:
[edit] Hitchcock films
- Spellbound — Hitchcock's film about an insane asylum, the basic source of the plot.
- Vertigo — same San Francisco Bay setting at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, same bell tower location, similar movie poster graphics, and gives the main character his condition, Victoria Brisbane wears a gray suit similar to the one Madeleine Elster wears.
- Psycho — shot-by-shot parody of the famous shower scene; the closing shot - a zoom out from a hotel room - is a reverse of Psycho's opening shot; also the suspenseful soundtrack is similar.
- The Birds — also partially set in San Francisco, the jungle-gym scene is parodied.
- North by Northwest — main character's name is a take-off of Roger O. Thornhill, but unlike Thorndyke, Thornhill never reveals his middle name; at one point Thorndyke tells Victoria to meet him in the North by Northwest corner of a park.
- The Man Who Knew Too Much.
- Torn Curtain — The Professor Lilloman is similar to Professor Gustav Lindt, the German scientist.
- The Ring — In fighting for his high anxiety under hypnosis Thorndyke and Lilloman engage in a boxing fight.
- The Thirty-Nine Steps — When Victoria comes in the hotel room, she askes to move from the door and window, and close the drapes; She then kisses him when someone comes in, similar to the train situation.
- Suspicion — Prior to Wentworth's death the lattice work of the window throws a shadow like a spider's web behind him.
- Notorious.
- Under Capricorn.
- Dial M for Murder — the struggle in the phone booth is similar to the struggle Grace Kelly has in "Dial M": She is nearly strangled and all the opposite end can hear are the fighting noises. Also, the character causing the struggle gets stabbed in both cases through the back (or in the back). The pictures on the wall of Professor Lillloman's office are another allusion.
- The Wrong Man.
- Frenzy — Thorndyke hides in the park and calls from the payphone.
- Family Plot — Car sabotage by radio being played too loud.
- Rebecca — Stern countenanced Nurse Diesel in long black dress is reminiscent of Rebecca's Mrs. Danvers.
[edit] Other films
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest — Nurse Diesel's name and bosom are in reference to Nurse Ratched.
- The Wizard of Oz — when Nurse Diesel falls to her death she is holding a broom and cackles like the Wicked Witch.
- The Spy Who Loved Me — the assassin with metal braces on his teeth.
- Blowup - Brophy's multiple enlargements of the crime scene photo spoof the repeated blowups produced by Thomas in Antonioni's film.
[edit] Quotes
Brophy: (said frequently when ever he attempts to pick up a heavy object) I got it... I got it...I got it... (drops object) I ain't got it.
[edit] Trivia
- Two of the film's writers appear in comical supporting roles: Rudy DeLuca as the killer "Braces," and Rain Man-director Barry Levinson as the tightly-wound bellhop, "Dennis."
- This movie was dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock, who loved this film enormously and went as far as to send Brooks a bottle of champagne [1].
- In The Birds scene, spinach dip was flung at Mel Brooks, as the pigeons could not be made to defecate on command.
- One of Brooks' comic schticks was an impression of Frank Sinatra, which he employed in this film to sing the film's theme song.
[edit] External links
- High Anxiety at the Internet Movie Database.
- A write-up on High Anxiety references.
| Films Directed by Mel Brooks |
| The Producers | The Twelve Chairs | Young Frankenstein | Blazing Saddles | Silent Movie | High Anxiety History of the World, Part I | Spaceballs | Life Stinks | Robin Hood: Men in Tights | Dracula: Dead and Loving It |
