MOVIE · 1977
High Anxiety
ComedyCrimeMysteryThriller94 min
Psychiatrist Richard Thorndyke arrives at a mental institution with a severe fear of heights and quickly realizes the doctors running the place may be more dangerous than the patients. Mel Brooks is Thorndyke, a new administrator dropped into a maze of hidden motives, murder, and rising panic. Madeline Kahn enters the chaos as a possible lifeline, while Harvey Korman is among the polished faces making the institute feel less like a hospital than a trap. Brooks also directs, turning the story into a Hitchcock-minded mystery full of visual gags, psychoanalysis jokes, and suspense that keeps tilting into slapstick.
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