High Anxiety

1977 - Dir: Mel Brookes - 1 hour 34 minutes

Shown at the FeckenOdeon on 31st March, 2012

Mel Brookes isn’t subtle. Mel Brookes takes the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. Mel Brookes is an acquired taste (and, judging by one comment in our audience survey, at least one of our members has yet to acquire it!)…. BUT Mel Brookes loves movies. Most of his films are affectionate tributes to classic genres - westerns in Blazing Saddles, Horror in Young Frankenstein, silents in Silent Movie, etc. In High Anxiety he tackles Hitchcock - The Master’s technique involves grand set pieces, overplayed characters and spectacular visual effects - all grist to the Brookes mill but it could be said that the target is too obvious. The big Hitchcock moments all receive the treatment - let’s face it, they’d been asking for it! Perhaps the one major mistake Brookes makes is in casting himself as the straight man - he’s incapable of playing straight and we could wish for less mugging and more acting. To be fair, he took the role at short notice when Gene Wilder’s schedule on another film overran. The “supporting cast” is magnificent - Madeleine Kahn as a breathy (verging on the asthmatic) blonde, Harvey Korman as a mad doctor and, towering below them all, Cloris Leachman as the terrifying Nurse Diesel. It’s all great fun and doesn’t ask to be taken seriously so have another drink, relax and just allow yourself to be carried along by the silliness of it all… Howard Morris, who plays Professor Little Old Man (Lilomann!!!), is better known as the voice of thousands of cartoon characters. He rarely appeared in vision and died aged 85 in 2005 shortly after completing the voices of a Lion and a Zebra in “The Wild Thornberrys”. The bird droppings were actually mayonnaise and chopped spinach - you really wanted to know that!