Stylized angles, hyper-dramatic music (some diegetic, some non-diegetic), and various psychoses feature prominently in Mel Brooks' take on Hitchcock. Brooks fits in dozens of references to the Master of Suspense's movies, but High Anxiety doesn't reach the brilliance of Brooks' earlier parodies.
The blame for this relative failure rests with the screenplay written by the team of Mel Brooks, Ron Clark (Silent Movie, Revenge of the Pink Panther, The Smother Brothers Comedy Hour), Barry Levinson (Silent Movie, Diner, and director of a few relatively-unknown films) and Rudy De Luca (Silent Movie, Dracula: Dead and Loving It). Brooks' strongest work - Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles - comes from hanging the tropes of a genre on a novel idea (The Frankenstein family legacy, a hero fighting injustice in a less-rosy version of the Old West), immersing us in the look and feel of earlier films while mining the genre's cliches for laughs. Here, the writers basically remake Spellbound and sprinkle in a variety of Hitchcock's "wrong man" films, hoping that will suffice. Despite the opening credits' dedication to Hitchcock and countless winks to his filmography, High Anxiety fails to capture any of the nerve-crushing suspense or sense of guilt that made the source films great. Losing the tone means that Brooks' Hitchcock parody must rely on exaggerated signifiers (see: stylized angles and hyper-dramatic music) and throwbacks to famous scenes.
Comparing this to Mel Brooks' classics is unfair, but I think that juxtaposing the two helps illustrate why exactly - while both are parodies of genre films - one succeeds while another fails.
I like to think that Brooks' repeated use of actors was both utilitarian (why would you not want to bring back people like Kahn, Korman, and Wilder for more laughs?) as well as a homage to other directors' return to certain actors and character actors.
Best lines of the film probably go to:
1. When Brooks discovers the root of his vertigo, he exclaims "I understand now! It's not heights I'm afraid of, it's parents!" and continues along as if that solves all of his problems.
2. After a few minutes of Herrmannesque music soundtracking Brooks' walk through an airport, he exclaims "What a dramatic airport!"
I suppose the suggestion that every Hitchcock character is suffering from some form of psychological malfunction is a novel idea, but - even if High Anxiety were aiming for that - Brooks doesn't take full advantage of it.
The fact that this same writing team is responsible for Brooks' Silent Movie detracts from my desire to watch it.
Crew & Cast
Directed by Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Robin Hood: Men in Tights)
Written by Mel Brooks, Ron Clark, Barry Levinson, and Rudy De Luca
Starring
Mel Brooks - Richard H. Thorndyke
Cloris Leachman - Nurse Diesel
Harvey Korman - Dr. Charles Montague
Madeline Kahn - Victoria Brisbane
Ron Carey - Brophy