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.
Inspired by The Farewell director Lulu Wang's call to action at the 2020 Independent Spirit Awards, we celebrate women filmmakers working in their field.
Mel Brooks brings his one-of-a-kind comic touch to the history of mankind covering events from the Old Testament to the French Revolution in a series of episodic comedy vignettes.
A filthy rich businessman bets a corporate rival that he can live on the streets of L.A. without the comforts of home or money, which proves to be tougher than he thought.
Director:
Mel Brooks
Stars:
Mel Brooks,
Lesley Ann Warren,
Jeffrey Tambor
In 1920s Soviet Russia, a fallen aristocrat, a priest and a con artist search for a treasure of jewels hidden inside one of twelve dining chairs, lost during the revolution.
An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.
The younger brother of the consulting detective tries to steal Sherlock's glory by solving an important case assisted by an eccentric Scotland Yard detective and a lovely but suspicious actress.
Dr. Richard 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 psychiatric condition, "high anxiety," in order to clear his name. An homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock; contains many parodies of famous Hitchcock scenes from THE BIRDS, PSYCHO, and VERTIGO.Written by
Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu>
The opening scene of Psycho (1960) shows the camera slowly panning through the hotel window and into the room where Sam and Lila have just finished making love. In High Anxiety (1977) Mel Brooks pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock when the camera crashes into the wall of the motel after showing Dr. Thorndyke and Victoria in the motel room, you hear the director say, 'pull the camera back slowly' and the cameraman reply; "going too fast, going to hit the wall." See more »
Goofs
Toward the end of the "BIRDS" scene when Dr. Thorndyke is sitting in the gardener's shed being showered by the pigeons above him, one gob of the 'mayonnaise and spinach' mixture enters the picture from the left and strikes him on his left shoulder. Who launched this horizontal projectile? See more »
When this was aired on Comedy Central in the 1990s, several scenes were inexplicably deleted:
When Dr. Thorndyke arrived at the airport, and is taken into a restroom by a flasher.
The professor reeling from being punched.
After being attacked by the pigeons, it dissolves to Thorndyke running into the dry cleaners and deletes the part where he tries to hide in the shed, but the birds find him.
In the finale, the professor's line "now climb, you son of a bitch, climb!" is bowdlerized to just "now climb!"
Dr. Richard Thorndyke arrives as new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous to discover some suspicious goings-on.
I feel like there was a shortage of jokes at times, but that is Brooks' style. He is more about the scene and less about the jokes. A constant atmosphere of humor, of fun.
Picking Hitchcock to lampoon was a great choice, too. I was able to catch a handful of references but probably missed many, too. That would only add to the film's humor, I suppose. I recommend the film for any Brooks fan, though I would say it is neither his best or worst.
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Dr. Richard Thorndyke arrives as new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous to discover some suspicious goings-on.
I feel like there was a shortage of jokes at times, but that is Brooks' style. He is more about the scene and less about the jokes. A constant atmosphere of humor, of fun.
Picking Hitchcock to lampoon was a great choice, too. I was able to catch a handful of references but probably missed many, too. That would only add to the film's humor, I suppose. I recommend the film for any Brooks fan, though I would say it is neither his best or worst.