Line #38 Film/HighAnxiety


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/High-Anxiety-poster-1-331x500_1017.jpg]]
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3	''High Anxiety'' is a 1977 comedy film directed by (and starring) Creator/MelBrooks. It is an AffectionateParody of the films of Creator/AlfredHitchcock. While there are [[ShoutOut numerous allusions]] to almost every Hitchcock film, the main plot and setting are taken from ''Film/{{Spellbound}}'' and ''Film/{{Vertigo}}''. There are also minor allusions to films not directed by Hitchcock, such as ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' and ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', with characters resembling Jacques Clouseau and Jaws.
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5	Brooks plays Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke (the H. stands for "[[Creator/MarxBrothers Harpo]]"), who is assigned as the new administrator of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. He arrives in Los Angeles to take his position and meets the eccentric staff: Dr. Montague (Creator/HarveyKorman), Dr. Wentworth (Dick Van Patten), and Nurse Diesel (Creator/ClorisLeachman). Diesel is extremely domineering and is soon revealed to be in a BDSM relationship with the submissive Montague. Thorndyke also meets Arthur Brisbane, a wealthy industrialist who had a nervous breakdown the year before. He currently thinks he is a cocker spaniel.
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7	Wentworth wants to leave the institute but Diesel refuses to let him. She agrees after an argument. When Wentworth is driving home that night, his radio blasts rock music loudly and will not shut off. He is trapped in his car, and he dies from an ear hemorrhage. The following day, Thorndyke books a room in the vertigo-inducing Hyatt Regency (hotel of) San Francisco. He is suffering from a sense of vertigo but finds his room located at the top floor.
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9	Thorndyke is contacted by Victoria Brisbane (Creator/MadelineKahn), "the Cocker's daughter". She wants him to take a closer look at her father's case. He does so and discovers that his patient may not be the actual Brisbane. The Institute apparently could use the money from the Brisbane family, and keeps the real Arthur prisoner. Diesel decides to get rid of her boss. She hires the assassin Braces (Rudy De Luca) to frame Thorndyke for murder. Richard has to [[ClearMyName clear his name]] before resolving the case.
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11	----
12	!!''High Anxiety'' provides examples of:
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14	* AbortedArc: Nurse Diesel and Montague are both heavily implied if not outright stated to have killed Thorndyke's predecessor, Dr. Ashley, but this aspect of the movie is all but forgotten as soon as Thorndyke meets Victoria and discovers her father's been replaced by an impostor.
15	* AccidentalInnuendo: InUniverse example: At one point Thorndyke calls Victoria from a phone booth, but gets attacked by Diesel's ProfessionalKiller before he can say a word, who starts strangling him. Victoria thinks it's an obscene phone call of some sort, and, while she's annoyed at first, eventually starts playing along. Thorndyke eventually manages to [[AssassinOutclassin kill the guy]] and tells Victoria it's him, at which point she responds with [[BlatantLies "Richard! Richard! I knew it was you!"]]
16	* AllPeriodsArePMS: Victoria's so wound up at one point she states "I'm sorry I am so close to my menstrual cycle I could scream." And then she does.
17	* AlterKocker: The "loud and annoying" characters Thorndyke and Victoria use to hide in plain sight at the airport.
18	* AxeCrazy: Braces. When he makes his first report to Nurse Diesel, something like four out of every five sentences includes a request for permission to kill someone.
19	* BattleaxeNurse: Nurse Diesel, a stern, strict woman who is also the dominant half of a kinky relationship.
20	* BedlamHouse: The Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous, which [[{{Greed}} is less interested in curing its rich clientele than in keeping them indefinitely and thus getting more of their money]].
21	* BirdPoopGag: As a parody of ''Film/TheBirds'', every pigeon in San Francisco decides to take a dump on Thorndyke all at once.
22	* TheBodyPartsThatMustNotBeNamed: Thorndyke is put in an awkward position when giving a speech on penis envy and other decidedly adult subjects, when one of the psychiatrists in the audience brings his kids along, and substitutes with [[{{Bowdlerize}} childish euphemisms]] that his audience also end up using. He ultimately gets an ovation for saying that "peepee envy" should be considered no more significant than a woman's "balloons" or "where the babies come out, the woo-woo."
23	* BrickJoke:
24	** Brophy's trouble with heavy objects ("I got it! I got it! ... I don't got it.") comes up again during the final chase up the stairs.
25	** The CameraAbuse during Thorndyke's first dinner scene at the institute is revisited at the very end.
26	* BrownNote: Dr. Wentworth gets trapped in his car and killed from an ear hemorrhage caused by the loud rock music blaring from the car radio.
27	* CameraAbuse: At the start of Thorndyke's first dinner scene at the institute, the camera zooms in and breaks through the window. While the characters notice, they don't comment on it. [[BrickJoke Then it happens again]] at the very end.
28	* CameraFiend: Brophy. [[ChekhovsGun It comes in handy later on.]]
29	* ChairReveal: Subverted. Professor Lilloman, Thorndyke's mentor, is found like this. He is slumped over horribly with his eyes and mouth hanging open, apparently long dead. When people start screaming, Lilloman wakes up. He was only sleeping, and says he likes to sleep that way because it scares people.
30	* ChekhovsSkill: Brophy's photography, [[spoiler:which proves useful in clearing Dr. Thorndyke's name]].
31	* ClimbingClimax: Parodying the one in ''Vertigo'', naturally. It was even filmed in the same tower.
32	* ConvenientPhotograph: Dr. Thorndyke is framed for murder by an assassin disguised as him. Thorndyke insists he was in the elevator when the murder occurred, and his assistant Brophy, who took a photo of the event, examines it for proof. In a parody of ''Film/BlowUp'', Brophy keeps enlarging the photograph until it's as big as the wall in his studio.
33	* CrushingHandshake: Dr. Charles Montague does this to the main character when they're formally introduced, and during the handshake he says "I was the one in charge ''before'' you came".
34	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Brophy tends to repeat phrases, repeat phrases.
35	* DiesWideOpen: Both parodied and subverted; just before the climax, Thorndyke returns to the institute to find Professor Lilloman seemingly dead, albeit with eyes wide open and staring into space. However, it turns out that Lilloman just SleepsWithBothEyesOpen.
36	* DisconnectedByDeath: Subverted, along with tons of suspense film tropes, when the protagonist, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, calls up Victoria Brisbane and "Braces" attempts to kill him in the phone booth. She mistakes Thorndyke's agonized gasping for an [[HarassingPhoneCall obscene phone call]], and when Braces gets impaled on a glass shard, his dying gasp is taken as a particularly passionate noise by Victoria.
37	* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Nurse Diesel, who thinks she is a witch and tries to fly a broomstick out the tower window, riding it to her death on the rocks far below, cackling maniacally all the while.]]
38	* DysfunctionJunction: Every single character is nutty as a fruitcake. Especially ironic considering most of them run an asylum.
39	* EmbarrassingMiddleName: For renowned psychologist Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, his middle name "Harpo" is embarrassing.
40	* EnhanceButton: Parodied. As a secondary character blows up a photograph, he pins up a series of even greater enlargements until he finally gets one roughly 20 feet across, which he examines with a magnifying glass before exclaiming, "Aha!" This would work in real life, assuming that one has photograph paper 20 feet across and the tools necessary to transfer a negative onto a paper that large.
41	* EpiphanyTherapy: Parodied. Lilloman talks Thorndyke through the causes of his "high anxiety" ''while he's hanging from a broken staircase'', and the epiphany cures him instantly, allowing him to pull himself up and run the rest of the way.
42	* FakeOutMakeOut: While Victoria is in Thorndyke's hotel room, someone else comes in. She immediately kisses Thorndyke in an absurd attempt to avoid attention. Later on, he does this to her in the park to avoid attention from some cops.
43	* FanDisservice: Mel Brooks is the last person in the world who needed a shower scene, especially compared to Janet Leigh in the scene from ''{{Film/Psycho}}'' that is being parodied. Of course, this is a deliberate factor of the comedy.
44	* FanserviceExtra: Just before Thorndyke begins his song in the bar, a waitress, wearing a very short skirt, passes by in the background, and actually bends forward a bit while speaking with some patrons.
45	* {{Gaslighting}}: Played for BlackComedy. Thorndyke wants to see a patient who should have been released a long time ago, concerned that he is still institutionalized when he's been healthy. As the patient describes the symptoms he came in for (sharp neck pains and dreams of werewolves), Dr. Montague slings paperclips into his neck and makes faces at him with plastic fangs all without Thorndyke noticing or the patient realizing he's being tricked. Thanks to Montague's efforts, the patient is a wreck and determined unfit for release.
46	* GoodHairEvilHair: The villainous Dr. Montague has a pencil mustache.
47	* HandingOverTheCrapSack: Thorndyke politely hands a used vomit bag to the flight attendant standing by the door of the plane as passengers disembark. She is stuck holding it as the other passengers leave.
48	* HerrDoktor: Professor Lilloman.
49	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Braces, thanks to Thornydke pulling him onto a broken shard of glass in the phone booth. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Braces broke that glass himself trying to kill Thorndyke]].
50	* {{Jerkass}}: Dennis, the hotel bellhop, is kind of rude and cranky even before Thorndyke bugs him about the paper.
51	* LargeHam:
52	** Mel Brooks and Madeline Kahn at the airport, trying to get past airport security by being loud and annoying {{Alter Kocker}}s.
53	** Howie Morris as Professor Lilloman.
54	** Harvey Korman as Doctor Montague. His masochistic screaming as Nurse Diesel spanks him caps it all.
55	** Cloris Leachman as Nurse Diesel plays out her nasty grimaces and drawls as far as she can, and also puts on an outlandish performance in the spanking scene.
56	* LatexPerfection: The killer wears a mask that makes him look exactly like Thorndyke.
57	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: The dramatic music that plays on the drive to the Institute, specifically when Brophy mentions that he suspects foul play in Dr. Ashley's death, is revealed to be coming from a passing Los Angeles Philarmonic tour bus.
58	* LoudOfWar: As BrownNote details, one of the deaths is caused by a loud car stereo.
59	* MacGuffin: Parodied. Thorndyke (who is terrified of heights) is checking into a hotel when the receptionist informs him that though the hotel had reserved him a lower-level floor, "a Mr. MacGuffin called and requested we change it to the 17th floor." Though MacGuffin is probably a reference to the villains stalking the main character, the name is never mentioned again.
60	* MatchCut: When Nurse Diesel declares her intentions to dispose of Dr. Wentworth, the camera zooms in on her eyes before fading them into the headlights of Wentworth's car, which kills him through a loud, tampered-with radio.
61	* MistakenForSpies: The man in a ConspicuousTrenchcoat who lures Thorndyke into the bathroom? He's actually a gay stripper.
62	* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: [[AffablyEvil Dr. Montague]] and [[BattleaxeNurse Nurse Diesel]]. [[TokenGoodTeammate Dr. Wentworth]] [[BeingEvilSucks wants out of the scam]], and ends up [[HeKnowsTooMuch getting killed for it]].
63	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Lampshaded. At the beginning of the film, Thorndyke walks through an airport accompanied by strident orchestral music. When he finally reaches the exit, he proclaims, "What a dramatic airport!"
64	* NoFourthWall: On multiple occasions, Hitchcock's cinematography is parodied by making the audience very aware of the camera's physical presence in the scene-- twice where the camera breaks through a building's wall or window rather than zooming in or out through it, and once where it films through the bottom of a glass table while Diesel and Montague cover it with tableware, forcing the camera to keep moving to get a view of them.
65	* NotInFrontOfTheKid: Dr. Thorndyke is giving a conference, and is about to discuss penis envy when a man comes in with his two kids, so he forces himself to talk about "peepee envy" and how it relates to the "woowoo".
66	* PeskyPigeons: Thorndyke is surrounded by pigeons in the park, in a reference to Film/TheBirds, who all follow him across the park. He desperately takes shelter in a shed...only to find out the shed has an open roof, on which all the pigeons are perching, butt-inward. [[BirdPoopGag And then they all defecate on him]].
67	* PrettyInMink: Victoria wears a fox wrap when on a date.
68	* PronouncingMyNameForYou: The protagonist of addresses his mentor as Professor Little Old Man (accent on Man), and is corrected: Lilloman (accent on ''o'').
69	* PsychoStrings: The ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' shower scene parody uses the shrill cries of an angry bellhop in place of the strings: "Here! Here's your paper! Here's your lousy, stinking paper! Happy now?" Thorndyke's reaction? "That boy gets no tip."
70	* RadioVoice: Parodied. Thorndyke asks his secretary to repeat her intercom message without holding her nose. She replies in a perfectly normal voice.
71	* RefugeInAudacity: To get past airport security, Victoria and Richard act like a bickering couple, knowing that the louder and more obnoxious they act, the more people will ignore them. When Thorndyke gets caught in the metal detector, he starts such an outrage that the TSA agents drop the matter to pacify him.
72	* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: As Thorndyke badgers the bellboy about getting a newspaper, the bellboy, increasingly irritated, asks what's so important about the newspaper, in an increasingly raised, increasingly higher-pitched voice ("GET THE NEWSPAPER! GET THE NEWSPAPER! GET THE STINKIN' NEWSPAPER!"). While shoving the newspaper in Thorndyke's face while he's in the shower, the bellboy hysterically screams at him, in a ridiculously high-pitched voice, "HERE! HERE! HERE!!! HERE'S YOUR PAPER!!! HERE'S YOUR PAPER!!! HERE'S YOUR PAPER!!!! HAPPY NOW?!? HAPPY?!?! HAPPY NOW?!?!?!"
73	* ScareChord: {{Lampshaded}} when the characters react to it on two occasions.
74	* ShuttingUpNow: After Brophy finds out Thorndyke isn't the real killer by enlarging the newspaper picture until he can be seen in the background, the bad guys show up and plan to kill him, but Diesel points out the same picture is on the front page of every local newspaper and they can enlarge it as well. Montague comes with a ridiculous plan to buy every newspaper in the city before anyone can see it. Diesel and Norton just glare at him, and he eventually realizes how stupid he sounds and trails off.
75	* SophisticatedAsHell: An entire discussion in a psychological conference is, due to one psychologist bringing his children, conducted using such technical terms as the peepee, balloons, cockie-doody, and woo-woo.
76	* ShoutOut: An extended one - Thorndyke pesters a bellboy with repeated requests about getting a newspaper, wanting to look in the obituary for information concerning Dr. Wentworth's demise. He then takes a shower, during which the bellboy comes and, in a frenzy, mimics stabbing Thorndyke with the paper while screaming "Here's your paper! Happy now?! Happy?" The paper's ink runs down the drain instead of blood, completing the reference to ''Film/{{Psycho}}''. Bonus points for [[GeniusBonus the bellboy's shrieks emulating]] [[StealthPun the violin shrieks from the original]].
77	-->'''Thorndyke:''' That kid gets no tip.
78	** There's also a scatological take on ''Film/TheBirds''.
79	** Most of the names are borrowed from other Hitchcock films. Thorndyke, for instance, is similar to names used in both ''Film/RearWindow'' and ''Film/NorthByNorthwest''.
80	*** And Thorndyke meets up with someone at the "Film/NorthByNorthwest corner" of Golden-Gate Park.
81	*** Also borrowed from ''North by Northwest'' is the scene of the lead getting photographed at a murder scene while holding the weapon, ending up a fugitive whose photo is in the papers.
82	** Braces is a takeoff on Jaws from then-recent ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe''. Rather a departure from the Hitchcock theme, but RuleOfFunny is in effect.
83	** Another non-Hitchcock reference is when Brophy enlarges one of his photographs to find proof of Thorndyke's innocence, taken straight from ''Film/BlowUp'' (which was at least influenced by Hitchcock).
84	** Nurse Diesel riding her broomstick out the window to her death while cackling is another non-Hitchcock reference, to ''Film/DrStrangelove'' and ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.
85	*** Diesel herself is a parody of [[Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest Nurse Ratched]].
86	* SleepsWithBothEyesOpen: Professor Lilloman turns out to sleep in this manner. According to him, it freaks people out.
87	* StabTheSalad: That wild, screaming old woman who pushes through the crowd and runs towards Dr. Thorndyke? She's actually overjoyed to see her husband returning home.
88	* StairwellChase: The bell tower scene of ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' is both replicated and parodied. In the very same tower, no less.
89	* TheStinger: A scene of Thorndyke running across the San Francisco Bay, right underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, is superimposed underneath the credits.
90	* SymbolicBlood: In a parodic sense. Newspaper ink runs down the plughole of Thorndyke's shower after the enraged bellhop beats him up with a newspaper.
91	* ThoseWackyNazis: Played with, as Nurse Diesel dresses up in an outfit that makes her look like the prison guard of a Nazi concentration camp as she tortures Dr. Montague in her bedroom.
92	* WickedWitch: Nurse Diesel re-creates the nun startle at the end of ''Vertigo'' by instead being dressed as a witch with a broomstick. She barrels out of the tower window and falls to her death due to not, in fact, being a witch.
93	* WindowPain: Parodied. Thorndyke, the new head of a mental asylum, receives a (''very'' big) rock to the window with a message-- a friendly welcome note from the violent ward.
94	* YouSayTomato: When describing the hotel, Brophy pronounces modern as "modren".

Context Film / HighAnxiety