Product Details

• Actors: Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, Ron Carey
• Directors: Mel Brooks
• Writers: Mel Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca, Barry Levinson
• Producers: Mel Brooks
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: July 1, 1997
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301797973
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,065 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

An affectionate homage more than a spoof of Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, Mel Brooks's hilarious movie is one of the funniest modern comedies around. Brooks plays a psychiatrist with a severe fear of heights who moves to the Bay Area to take over a psychiatric hospital after its former head mysteriously disappears. He must contend with the resident psychiatrist (Harvey Korman) and the twisted resident nurse (Cloris Leachman) as they plot against him, eventually framing him for murder. While on the run, Brooks teams up with the alluring daughter (Madeline Kahn) of the missing doctor to solve the mystery and confront his own fears. Containing some classic sequences and cowritten by Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Wag the Dog), who appears briefly as a too-touchy bellhop in a Psycho-shower-scene takeoff, High Anxiety is a thoroughly enjoyable romp from one of the masters of comedy today. --Robert Lane

Product Description

Mel Brooks' renowned spoof of the most famous Hitchcockian classics-"Vertigo," "The Birds," "Psycho" and "Spellbound"-is one of his most outrageous comedy classics. After a Harvard psychiatrist (Brooks) takes over the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, he realizes his predecessor died under suspicious circumstances. When events take a murderous turn, he is accused of the crime and left with a full blown case of High Anxiety. Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman co-star in this hilarious parody.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Waiting for the DVD in San Diego, July 25, 2004

By 

Pappy (San Diego) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: High Anxiety [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is the funniest movie, and the world awaits the DVD. When, oh when, will it finally arrive????? There are so many of my all time favorite movie moments in this classic comedy. Who could forget Dr. Charles Montague and Nurse Diesel's cagey response after being interrupted during an intimate moment: 'Sorry for the dissssturbance.' (I probably know the dialogue for this entire movie by heart!) Nurse Diesel arrived on the scene long before Madonna and her tectonic bras. What about Dr. Wentworth's trouble with the car radio? Or Brophey's ineptitude? Every scene is memorable, but if I had the DVD, I would repeatedly jump to Dr. Thorndyke's dramatic lounge act where he wooed Victoria Brisbane by singing the very romantic song 'High Anxiety,' all the while slapping the microphone chord on the ground for dramatic effect. Which is to say nothing of Hitchcock--whose movie plots provide endless fodder for this Mel Brooks masterpiece. The cast is superb, and the movie divine. Granted, this is one review that is not written with those who've never seen the movie in mind. My intent is to take a stroll down memory lane, because this movie deserves to be on DVD.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest underrated comedies of all time., November 12, 2005

By 

Harold V. Merkinbush "merkinbush" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Anxiety (DVD)

Allow me to begin by stating that "High Anxiety" is by far, one the all-time BEST Mel Brooks films. Being a huge Hitchcock fan, I immediately became attached to this one. Thank you to 20th Century Fox for finally making this available in Region 1 DVD format for the US.

If you're even just a bit curious, check this title out. You won't be dissatisfied.

Enjoy,
Jeff

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful parody, hysterical film, May 19, 2004

By 

Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: High Anxiety [VHS] (VHS Tape)

For my money, the best Mel Brooks' movies are the ones that he doesn't appear or barely appears in, like THE TWELVE CHAIRS, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, and THE PRODUCERS. This film is one of the exceptions. Also, for my money, the best Mel Brooks' movies are those that are flat out parodies of film genres--like BLAZING SADDLES and SPACEBALLS. This film is the highest achievement of his parodic form.

HIGH ANXIETY is Alfred Hitchcock on goofballs. The references are wide-ranging: "Psycho", "The Birds", "Vertigo" (the main parody plot), "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Notorious", etc. The result is out and out Brooks' mania, and, of course, a certain reverence to Hitchcock. My only negative comment isn't specific to this film but it does apply: most parodies run out of gas during the course of a feature length film. Once the novelty wears off, the film kind of lags. That's why the best film parodies are usually skits on variety or comedy television shows. Probably the only exception to my theory would be 1980's "Airplane". (See my review of that for a further explanation.) Still, HIGH ANXIETY has enough manic energy to sustain it for the most part. It's a clever film and extremely entertaining.