High Anxiety

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{{Infobox_Film

 | name = High Anxiety
 | image = High Anxiety VHS.jpg
 | caption = 
 | director = Mel Brooks
 | writer = Mel Brooks
Ron Clark
Rudy DeLuca
Barry Levinson
 | starring = Mel Brooks
Madeline Kahn
Cloris Leachman
Harvey Korman
Dick Van Patten
Howard Morris
 | music = John Morris
 | cinematography = Paul Lohmann
 | editing = John C. Howard
 | producer = Mel Brooks
 | distributor = 20th Century Fox
 | released = December 251977
 | runtime = 94 min
 | language = English
 | budget         = $3,400,000 USD (estimated)
 | imdb_id = 0076141

}} 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.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 List of referenced films 2.1 Hitchcock films 2.2 Other films 3 Trivia 4 External links

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.

List of referenced films

These films are spoofed or parodied in the movie:

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
• Psycho — shot-by-shot parody of the famous shower scene
• The Birds — also partially set in San Francisco, the bird-attack 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
• The Thirty-Nine Steps
• Suspicion
• Notorious
• Under Capricorn
• Dial M for Murder
• The Wrong Man
• Frenzy

Other films

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest — Nurse Diesel's name and bosom is in reference to Nurse Ratched
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Spy Who Loved Me

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."

External links

• {{{2|{{{title|High Anxiety}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
• a write-up on High Anxiety references

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