Happy?" She was asked to audition for a part in Candide at Lincoln Center while at a birthday party for Leonard Bernstein. Mel Brooks on Comedy Legends Madeline Kahn and Gene Wilder This is an excuse to get the whole Brooks' gang dealing with mental institutions and mental illness. Let's face it: lines like "I got it! The name Richard Thorndyke recalls Roger Thornhill of North by Northwest (1959), and a slaying staged in a crowded lobby resembles that thriller's amazing United Nations murder. 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. Extra footage added for network versions. Brooks: I loved it. Whether you share this opinion would depend on your familiarity with all things Hitchcockian. But Ive never been saluted as a film director. She agrees after an argument. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Madeline Kahn was a comic legend who could do anything with her voice. He arrives in Los Angeles to take his position and meets the eccentric staff: Dr. Montague (Harvey Korman), Dr. Wentworth (Dick Van Patten), and Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman). The references to all of Hitchcocks films are many and great, and Mel even sings a song in the movie. How does he light them? None of those parodies work. No, Carmen Montenegro. Acting on Thorndyke's behalf, Victoria contacts Brophy to have him enlarge the photograph. He is trapped in his car, and he dies from an ear hemorrhage. 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. High Anxiety on iTunes - Apple It is a parody of a number of Alfred Hitchcock movies, like Vertigo, Psycho, the Birds, and Spellbound. Mel Brooks (playing Dr. Richard Harpo Thorndyke) does a great job as the protagonist and Madeline Kahn (playing Victoria Brisbane) does well also. I mean, either in stand-up comedy, or acting, or whatever you want, you can't beat Madeline Kahn." Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1942, she studied classical music and drama at Hofstra. She knew what was really good, what was funny and what was unique and original. A little Madeline Kahn goes a long way. 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. If youre just doing things for laughs and not paying attention to human truths, its not gonna last. Kahn starred in ABC Comedy Factorys pilot episode of Chameleon in 1986, but ABC never aired the show. Here, Ive waited all my whole life for you and now you dont even want me. Mel riffs on Hitchcock, right down to Madeline Kahn's gray suit a la Kim Novak in Vertigo. Though often overlooked in favor of Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, I believe this to be the pick of Brooks' parodies. Igor, played by the wild-eyed Marty Feldman, humped merrily while Cloris Leachman scared the horses as Frau Blcher. Obscene phone call - Madeline Kahn - High Anxiety 1977 Kahn starred in ABC Comedy Factory's pilot episode of Chameleon in 1986, but ABC never aired the show. She was afraid of Barbra Streisand, of winding up on the cutting room floor and of palm trees. Brooks: If you make something that makes sense, that is basically truthful about the human condition, it works it stays alive. High Anxiety (R4 DVD 1977) Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn AS NEW FREE POST. How will Dr. Thorndyke handle this loony gang? CookiePolicy With really well done comedies like "Young Frankenstein" and "The Producers" we see his genius with good scripting and characters filling out the fabric of the film. But, unfortunately, there is much more good-naturedness that inspiration here. High Anxiety (1977) Starring: Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Upon his arrival, Thorndyke is greeted by the staff, Dr. Philip Wentworth, Dr. Charles Montague, and Nurse Charlotte Diesel. 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. When events take a murderous turn, he is accused of the crime and left with a full blown case of "High Anxiety." Danny Kaye tread water as Noah, but had an accident onstage three months into the run. It was a film by Gary Weis and also featured Larraine Newman, James Coco, Paul Sand, Jack Gilford, Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, David Lander and John Ritter. I got it! I thought Louise Fletcher was pretty intense as Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", but Diesel would have given her a run for the money. People Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn. Barry Levinson, one of the scriptwriters and the future director of movies like Rain Man (1988) and Wag the Dog (1997), plays the newspaper-wielding bellhop. Be the first one to, Movie High Anxiety (1977 Movie) 8x10 Advertising Still featuring Madeline Kahn, 1977-12-25-movie-high-anxiety-madeline-kahn, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). This film was directed by Mel Brooks.High. Gosh, wasn't she hideous as the nurse from hell? This story first appeared in the June 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. 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. It's not his best work, but you can tell the players are having fun. 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. 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. As others have noted, Mel Brooks himself might not have been the best choice for Thorndyke, and the parodies are mostly way over the top (The Bird droppings are particularly gross), but it's what you've come to expect from the comic director. 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The patients have nothing on the doctors when it comes to outrageous behavior. (Do watch for her reaction when she thinks she's getting an obscene phone call, however, as well as her airport scene.) Montague appears from the shadows and gives up before being accidentally knocked unconscious by a trapdoor being opened. The only really wacky character is Cloris Leachman as a nurse from heck. The worst possible outcome of a decent concept, Not as funny as other Mel Brooks films but still good, Brooks' Less-Than-Sincere Brand Engagement to Hitchcock. The next morning, Thorndyke is alerted by a light shining through his window, coming from the violent ward. (Martha Mitchell and Madeline Kahn both died at the age of 57). She also put in a cameo in The Muppet Movie in 1979 and she played First Lady Mrs. Link to Bob Newharts plain soup-dreaming U.S. President in 1980s First Family. [The AFI] is the first that said, Youre a movie director.. Charlie Callas must have been the MacGuffin in this picture, after we see him the first time he doesn't show up again. Copyright 2023 High Anxiety is a 1977 comedy film directed by (and starring) Mel Brooks. The paper's ink runs down the drain. A real treat for Hitchcock and Brooks fans, for it is by far one of the better spoofs out there. After a Harvard psychiatrist (Brooks) takes over the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, he realizes his predecessor died under suspicious circumstances. Montague takes Thorndyke to the light's source, the room of patient Arthur Brisbane, who thinks he is a Cocker Spaniel. There's a touch of Marnie (1964) in a flashback revealing the source of Thorndyke's high anxiety, and a hotel reservation is surreptitiously altered - changing his room from the third floor (low and safe) to the seventeenth floor (high and scary!) Her parents divorced when she was a kid and she moved with her mom to Queens. 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. I thought the Mr. MacGuffin reference was clever but didn't see any other fans pick up on it in their reviews here. "[6], On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 73% based on 30 reviews. What is the cutting? Sign Up now to stay up to date with all of the latest news from TCM. She won a Daytime Emmy in 1987 for playing in the ABC Afterschool Special, Wanted: The. Alfred Hitchcock gets the Mel Brooks treatment here with rapid fire parodies of films like "Psycho", "The Birds", "North by Northwest" and "Vertigo", so if you're a Hitchcock fan there's some amusing stuff here. She and a friend were picked to sing Cool Water on Horn and Hardarts TV show Childrens Hour. During their second performance, Madeline got upset watching a bunch of kids acting like little savages in the theater wings and started crying on camera. He was my favorite comedy talent. Thorndyke and Brophy travel to San Francisco, where Thorndyke is to speak at a psychiatric convention. Director Mel Brooks Writers Mel Brooks Ron Clark Rudy De Luca Stars Mel Brooks Madeline Kahn Cloris Leachman And did I mention that Thorndyke's middle name is Harpo? What are you wearing? This looks like a failed TV pilot. We loved even her most cloying portrayals, her most annoying attitudes. Mel Brooks has had his stinkers, some much worse than this (Dracula: Dead and Loving it being by far his lowest point), but this came at the end of an era of great comedic successes for him. 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. Rest of it is hit-and-miss, as Brooks trots out the toilet jokes, the gay jokes, the human anatomy jokes, etc etc, that have populated most of his lesser efforts. Dudleys Hershel hitches a ride on Aunt Yochabelles Aphrodisiacs and Potions wagon to New Sodom, the most wickedest city. I would highly recommend High Anxiety for any Mel Brooks fan, it's a funny movie to watch and a guaranteed laugh. 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. - by a Mr. MacGuffin, named after Hitchcock's word for a plot device that has no purpose except to keep the characters hopping through the story. I will admit I was hesitant of seeing this though. 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. To give you an idea of this place where the lunatics have definitely taken over - Cloris Leachman plays a nurse who's into S&M with Harvey Korman. Brooks takes on Alfred Hitchcock in "High Anxiety," which casts him as a. It goes on. Mel Brooks takes on Hitchcock movies like "Vertigo" and "Spellbound "with a dash of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" thrown in. Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, - I don't even know what Madelaine Kahn is doing here, although the phone booth/obscene phone call scene was one of the couple of scenes that made me laugh. 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. 5/10. These are fun, but some of the stuff isn't and draws attention outward. on April 28, 2020, 1977-12-25 Movie - High Anxiety - Madeline Kahn.jpg. She played Madeline Wayne who is married to a romance novelist who writes under the name Crystal Love. High Anxiety - Wikipedia 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. The producers wanted a contemporary approach for Agnes, but Ball wanted what Jane Connell did onstage, so they got Jane. After a Harvard psychiatrist (Brooks) takes over the. An homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock; contains many parodies of famous Hitchcock scenes from THE BIRDS, PSYCHO, and VERTIGO. They are all from late Hitchcock, and the only one I may be missing is the Jimmy Stewart version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, probably the only major Hitch film I haven't seen. Classics 1977 1 hr 34 . In an interview he said, "I watch the kind of film we're making with the [director of photography], so he knows not to be frivolous. Thorndyke pesters the bellboy with repeated requests for a newspaper, wanting to look in the obituaries for information about Wentworth's demise. She didnt need more than fifteen minutes of screen time to steal a movie. In the process it ends up being a bit formulaic as it seems certain movies were just used as a checklist for this movie to check off. With Broadway, vintage horror films, silents and westerns, the range is much broader. What does it look like? High Anxiety is Mel Brooks' renowned spoof of over ten Alfred Hitchcock classics, including Psycho, Vertigo, and The Birds. 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. It was love at first woof, as she streaked her hair to settles down with the man with the knobs to become Mrs. Zipperneck, freeing Dr. Frankenstein to marry Inga, the assistant with fabulous knockers, played by Teri Garr. As Elizabeth, Dr. Frankensteins financier, Kahn prissily and fussily frustrates Gene Wilder (who wrote the script) because taffeta is so delicate, but finds the sweet mystery of life in the schwanstuker of his reanimated creation, played monstrously by Peter Boyle. Dr Richard Thorndyke is a psychiatrist who, despite himself having a fear of heights, is on his way to become the new chief administrator for the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very Very Nervous. "[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. The Psycho shower scene parody uses the shrill cries of an angry bellhop in place of the strings: "Here! 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. They come along. Diesel is extremely domineering and is soon revealed to be in a BDSM relationship with the submissive Montague. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Support. In a Mama skit on Carol Burnetts variety show she plays Mavis Danton, an actor/director of the local playhouse theater whose claim to fame is her edited-out-of-the-TV-version role in Catwomen on Mars. She left us much too soon. There is a bench in Central Park dedicated to her. High Anxiety Madeline Kahn Mel Brooks (clip) - YouTube At the beginning of "High Anxiety", Mel Brooks arrives at Los Angeles Airport and is lead into the men's restroom by a man who turns out to be a lisping flasher (an excruciating moment). Mel Brooks said Madeline Kahn was maybe the single best comedian that ever lived. Like all of Brooks' best movies, the plot would work just fine as a straight thriller, and the spoofing is as affectionate as it is hilarious. VIDEO: Comedy Legend Mel Brooks Looks Back and Laughs. Despite its occasional bright ideas, the movie lacks a unifying bright idea about how to exploit the cast in a sustained, organically conceived parody of Hitchcock. Brooks: I had no idea the farting scene in Blazing Saddles would be that hysterical. 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.
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