Reverse Pop Culture Primer: Alfred Hitchcock vs. ‘High Anxiety’

Welcome to Reverse Pop Culture Primer! Every week I take a famous catchphrase, punchline, or spoiler that I learned from another part of pop culture without ever seeing the movie it references. How does knowing the joke backwards affect my experience of the movie once I finally watch it?

As much as I loved watching my satirical cartoons like ReBoot and South Park, the man who gave me truly nuanced parody was Mel Brooks. He introduced me to cultural icons and well-known stories through Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Robin Hood: Men In Tights and Spaceballs. But his movie High Anxiety has always stuck in my head, because I used to think it was a purely original thriller.

The first time I watched High Anxiety, I was probably 10 years old. Little did I realize that this story about a shrink with severe vertigo was an homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Watching the trailer, however, it’s pretty obvious:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsJE8sYoe0E&version=3&hl=en_US]

Maybe it was because Brooks, who usually pops in only in cameos in his films, was front-and-center as High Anxiety‘s star. Although we have to consider that up until he made this film in 1977, playing bit characters in his own movies was probably Brooks’ best tribute to the Master of Suspense.

Then, of course, there were moments like this:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUUKrHO3wZU&version=3&hl=en_US]

Dr. Richard Thorndyke is called in to The Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous to investigate some suspicious behavior among the patients and staff alike. It soon becomes clear that his fellow doctors and nurses are in on some big cover-up, but it’s not until Thorndyke is framed for murder that he must fight for his life and to restore his good name.

Along the way, he gets attacked by pigeons (see above), stabbed with a newspaper in the shower by an irate bellboy, attacked in a phone booth, and must confront his crippling “high anxiety” in a Vertigo-esque sequence. The references to movies like Psycho and North by Northwest confused me, because it seemed like all of these film styles were mashed up in one film, but I didn’t have the Internet to actually investigate each one piece-by-piece.

However, a few years later I wound up watching The Birds:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplpQt424Ls&version=3&hl=en_US]

Then Psycho, then Rear Window, and suddenly it all slotted into place.

I’ve never really interrogated my reaction to High Anxiety, but now that I think about it in hindsight, it was my least favorite Brooks film. With the others, I knew exactly what he was parodying, and those takes were so wacky that they vastly improved on the films he used as inspiration (Dracula, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, etc.). Each one was its own unique package, endlessly quotable.

But High Anxiety always felt jumbled and uneven. Perhaps it was because it was mocking the thriller genre but never sustained the same scares and suspense. In fact, seeing several of Hitchcock’s tropes through the comedy lens diluted their impact within the bounds of this movie.

My sister and I recently rented High Anxiety to watch with our parents, thinking we’d find it a hoot. Instead, we relived the awkward BDSM subplot and only laughed at a few portions. To be clear, I still think it’s a great homage to Hitchcock, but it’s not Brooks’ best film. It’s great for a couple of key moments, like the Psycho newspaper bit — which I can’t seem to find on YouTube — and Mel Brooks crooning a tune named after the title. But if you’re looking for the ultimate parody, go rent Spaceballs.

And those Hitchcockian elements of suspense? I’m glad to report that they hold up just fine, as Psycho was still one of the scariest films I saw despite knowing the ending.

Speaking of horror, tune in next week when I analyze Boy Meets World‘s Scream homage!