‘What Could Have Been’ is a continuing look into the reels of film history, analysing movies that could have been something special, but due to problems with script, production, budgetary, or any other type of issue, did not reach its full potential.
I will be the first to say that I absolutely love the great Mel Brooks. Secondly, I will also say that I absolutely love Alfred Hitchcock. So, to have a movie in which Mel Brooks satirizes the motion pictures of Alfred Hitchcock just seems like it would be pure twenty-four karat gold. Saying that, I probably went into 1977’s High Anxiety with expectations that were just a bit too high. . . which caused me a touch of anxiety.
Bringing together many of his usual comedy friends from his other 70s pictures, the plot follows the famed Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Mel Brooks) as he flies out to California for his new job – running the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous (a fenced complex that holds a sign that reads “Keep In”).
After the mysterious death of its former head, Thorndyke, a man who suffers from the dreaded high anxiety (a “Vertigo”-like phobia), is suspicious of nearly every person he meets, from fellow doctor, Charles Montague (Harvey Korman), and head nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman), to mysterious Hithcockian blonde Victoria Brisbane (Madeline Kahn) – a woman who suddenly appears and inquires about her father (who has been institutionalized).
Trying a bit too hard to fit in numerous nods to a number of Hitchcock films, interestingly enough, this is both High Anxiety’s strength and weakness. Though these running gags often aren’t as funny as they should be, for diehard fans of the Master of Suspense, it is also the most rewarding aspect – spotting spoofs from Spellbound, Notorious, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, and others. Brooks, along with scribes Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca, and Barry Levinson, craft a credible, entertaining enough story, it is just that some of the comedy set pieces fall flat. The ones that don’t include a clever scene in which Montague finds ingenious ways to make a patient look insane right under Thorndyke’s nose; a spontaneous boxing match resembling a sequence from the great Charlie Chaplin; Thorndyke crooning the song “High Anxiety” to a group of people in a hotel bar; and the murderous phone struggle that combines the classic sequence from Dial M with a location from Vertigo.
Though High Anxiety is by no means a great movie, it still has its moments. . . and can be a lot of fun (because, after all, you really can’t beat its cast). And though it never reaches the highs of a Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, there are some clever moments, and any Hitchcock fanatic will revel in the numerous references from his extensive catalogue. So, don’t cause any anxiety in your life by struggling to make a decision about whether or not to see this film, it should be quite evident whether you will like this one or not.