High Anxiety

Play trailer

High Anxiety

PG

Released Dec 25, 1977

1h 34m

Comedy

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

74%

Tomatometer

31 Reviews

67%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Just after becoming the director of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke (Mel Brooks) is greeted by a series of mysterious events. When his colleagues -- including the militaristic and mustachioed Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) -- become leery of his questions, they accuse him of murder. Thorndyke's own mental health comes into question as he struggles to clear his name in the midst of a crippling bout of a condition known as high anxiety.

Watch on Fandango at Home

Stream Now

Critics Consensus

Uneven but hilarious when it hits, this spoof of Hitchcock movies is a minor classic in the Mel Brooks canon.

Read Critics Reviews

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

One of the problems with Mel Brooks's High Anxiety is that it picks a tricky target: It's a spoof of the work of Alfred Hitchcock, but Hitchcock's films are often funny themselves.

Rated: 2.5/4

Oct 23, 2004

Full Review

Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

This is the film that is parasitic for excellence, because it feeds on almost every scene of something that Hitchcock previously previewed. [Full review in Spanish]

Jan 25, 2024

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

The film isn’t continuously funny, nor is it consistently suspenseful, but it does do a spectacular job of sending up Hitchcock’s classics.

Rated: 6/10

Aug 9, 2023

Full Review

Jason Shawhan

Nashville Scene

Mel Brooks, during his peak years, never met a genre he couldn't wrestle to the ground. And High Anxiety, his 1977 tribute to the films of Alfred Hitchcock, is a masterpiece of characterization, design and execution.

Sep 10, 2021

Full Review

Fernando Trueba

El Pais (Spain)

More than an homage to Alfred Hitchcock, High Anxiety is a copycat. [Full Review in Spanish]

Aug 1, 2019

Full Review

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

[VIDEO ESSAY] Mel Brooks's flair for comic riffing against a stylized background of plot devices draws on a long tradition of spoof movies that date back to the first days of sound cinema.

Rated: A

Jun 12, 2012

Full Review

Read all reviews

Stephen C

Funny in 1 hour and 34 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Starring actor and director Mel Brooks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/30/25

Full Review

tim s

Another comedic jewel from Mel Brooks. High Anxiety is an excellent spoof of Alfred Hitchcock's films. Cloris Leachman's Nurse Diesel, a Nurse Ratched-like character, is sublimely crotchety and shifty in the funniest way.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/05/25

Full Review

Andrew L

Mel Brooks's humorous homage to the Hitchcock films doesn't have much of a story but does deliver some quick laughs like his take on the famous shower scene from PSYCHO and the part where the birds are all dropping their droppings.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/23/25

Full Review

thiago s

Filme bacana, o roteiro é bacaninha, esse filmes tem cenas engraçadas e ainda algumas paródias como vertigo 1958, rocky 1976, psicose 1960, essa paródia do psicose foi a melhor do filme, o filme também quebra um pouco a 4 parede, fizeram paródia até de os passaros 1963, no final ela casa com sua mulher e a câmera vai embora quebra um parte da sua casa, quebrando de novo a 4 parede e acaba o filme, E as paródias salvaram esse filme, por isso que eu recomendo. bacana, o roteiro é bacaninha, esse filmes tem cenas engraçadas e ainda algumas paródias como vertigo 1958, rocky 1976, psicose 1960, essa paródia do psicose foi a melhor do filme, o filme também quebra um pouco a 4 parede, fizeram paródia até de os passaros 1963

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/13/25

Full Review

Rami A

This was one of Mel Brooks' weaker films.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Right up there at the top with Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and HOTW Part I

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Mel Brooks

Director

Mel Brooks

Richard H. Thorndyke

Madeline Kahn

Victoria Brisbane

Cloris Leachman

Nurse Diesel

Harvey Korman

Dr. Charles Montague

Ron Carey

Brophy

Young Frankenstein

95%

92%

Young Frankenstein

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Young Frankenstein

Royal Flash

50%

63%

Royal Flash

Watchlist

The Man With One Red Shoe

47%

39%

The Man With One Red Shoe

Watchlist

9 to 5

70%

74%

9 to 5

Watchlist

Max Dugan Returns

71%

68%

Max Dugan Returns

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

Just after becoming the director of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke (Mel Brooks) is greeted by a series of mysterious events. When his colleagues -- including the militaristic and mustachioed Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) -- become leery of his questions, they accuse him of murder. Thorndyke's own mental health comes into question as he struggles to clear his name in the midst of a crippling bout of a condition known as high anxiety.

Director: Mel Brooks
Producer: Mel Brooks
Screenwriter: Mel Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca, Barry Levinson
Distributor: 21st Century Film Corporation [us]
Production Co: Crossbow Productions, Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 25, 1977, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 1, 2013
Runtime: 1h 34m
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

Most Popular at Home Now