MovieChat Forums > High Anxiety (1977) Discussion > Not my Favorite Brooks Movie

Not my Favorite Brooks Movie

posted 11 years ago by film_junkey18
7 replies | jump to latest

I really wanted to love this film. I love Hitchcock films and I love Brooks films, so I thought that I would really enjoy the marriage of the two. Unfortunately, this was not the case. There are plenty of good jokes, and there were some scenes that had me on the floor, and some absolutely brilliant scenes (i.e. the glass coffee table scene) but these standalone scenes never added up to a full coherent plot. Not to mention the movie was more than halfway over before there was any story introduced. At about the hour mark, we finally learn that Arthur Brisbane is being held in the sanitarium against his will. I think that Mel Should put story first, and then hang jokes around that. Unlike his earlier films, this film feels less like a story driven narrative and more like a collection of sketches. I mean I like a joke as much as the next person, but if the joke doesn't advance the plot, it should probably be left out.

[–] Col_Hessler 9 years ago

I agree. This seems like scenes strung together instead of a coherent story.

Not Brooks' best work. Young Frankenstein was much better.

http://booklocker.com/books/7449.html

[–] steller217 9 years ago

This is my favorite Brooks movie. From the beginning you know something is going on there at The Institute and it is up to the new director to find out what that is and then straighten it out. It is a mystery. A suspenseful mystery. In this type of story details unfold gradually. There was a lot going on in this movie...he was spoofing many movies all in one movie so he had a lot of details to get to that he had to weave together. There are leaps that he asks the viewer to make...a little more than the average suspended disbelief. For me, it was easy. I ask people to make those same leaps in conversations with me. I can understand why you would not call this your favorite, but understand there are those who's brain's work differently that filled in the blanks leaping from one joke to another, thinking sideways or diagonally. Finally a movie for the mentally confused.

[–] Chiscully 9 years ago

It's not my favorite either for reasons you mention but others too. A commenter on another thread mentioned the lighting seemed wrong resulting in a grainy look, not crisp, which I tend to agree with. There were certainly funny moments (loved Madeline Kahn, especially when she thinks she's gotten a prank sex phone call, and Cloris Leachman always great), but some smaller scenes could have been better. Maybe Mel took too much on to recognize these scenes needed a better take. When you are IN the scene it's not the same as watching it for timing, etc.

[–] movieghoul 9 years ago

Would have been much better with Gene Wilder in the lead, but he and Brooks had parted ways.

[–] Stickman38 9 years ago

Yeah, this movie didn't do much for me but I've only seen Psycho, the jokes might make more sense after watching all of the Hitchcock films. As is, I could only give this about a 4 out of 10.

[–] Ace_Spade 9 years ago

I would agree and I'd like to add that sketches strung together work as long as they're strung together like bullets on a machine gun's feed. This movie is paced like a Hitchcock thriller, but that's thriller pacing, not comedy pacing. Brooks either needed more story or more top-rate gags to make this thing work.

There are a bunch of great jokes (the coffee table scene is a great example) but they come slowly and there's too much room around them. Pacing is great, but this movie isn't fast enough for a hysterical comedy or deep enough for a thoughtful thriller with goofy elements. Some of the jokes take so long to set up I've already figured out all the punchlines before they hit: "Oh! There's a pigeon! It's 'The Birds' but with pigeons! Hysteri-wait...they're going to crap on him, aren't they? Aren't they? ... ... ... Yup...there they go..."

[–] stevenackerman69 9 years ago

Yeah, maybe the problem is that Hitchcock itself is so spoof proof that you really can't spoof it. Still, it isn't a bad film, just not one of his masterpieces.