High Anxiety - 1977 - 6/10
Dr. Thorndyke arrives in Los Angeles to take over the Institute for the Very Nervous.
His predecessor had died under mysterious circumstances.
Throndyke suffers from acrophobia, which the Institute’s cliff location exacerbates.
Satire / parody of Hitchcock films is well done.
References include Vertigo, The Birds, Psycho, even Citizen Kane.
Jokes and sight gags land most of the time. When they don’t, that’s OK because you are recalling other films, as well as the locations used.
As with much of Mel Brooks, some of his humor is tasteless or puerile, forever 12 years old.
Hitchcock was actually involved with this one, so there.