Saturday, June 22, 2013

Movie review - "High Anxiety" (1977) **1/2

Based on memory I always thought this film couldn't have made a stage musical but on re-viewing it actually could because so much of it consists of block comedy sketches/scenes a la Your Show of Shows. There are some visual gags eg the orchestra bus passing by, spoofs from Psycho and The Birds but it's not hard to see it musicalised.

Mel Brooks is very winning in the lead, Madeline Khan is terrific as always as the blonde, ditto Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman. The guy who plays the old shrink isn't that great, or is the chauffeur. It's not a particularly stylish looking movie - like 70s Hitchcock there is too much brown and crappy 70s furniture and I longed for the lushness of 50s and 60s Hitch. But the central mystery isn't bad (although a final twist would've been good) and the film's willingness to entertain and get a laugh is very endearing.

No comments: