This week we check ourselves into  HIGH ANXIETY!  Mel Brooks’ spoof of over 10 Alfred Hitchcock
classics, including Psycho, Vertigo, and The Birds. It tells the tale of Dr. Richard
H. Thorndyke, a renowned Harvard psychiatrist with a concealed fear of heights,
(or High Anxiety) who takes over as the newest director of the Psycho Neurotic
Institute for the Very, Very Nervous – where the previous head has died under
VERY odd circumstances. As Thorndyke heads to a psychiatry conference, he finds
himself to be in the company of some very strange colleagues and is soon faced
with saving the Institute, his reputation, and his own sanity! The film features
a plethora of longtime Brooks collaborators – including Cloris Leachman as
Charlotte Diesel, a nurse with a dark sneer and tendency towards domination.
Harvey Korman  as Dr. Charles Montague, a psychiatrist with a closeted habit of
his own, Madeline Kahn as Victoria Brisbane, the eccentric daughter of a
patient at the institute, and Thorndyke’s love interest. Although the film
was not well-received by critics, it picked up a 1978 Golden Globe nomination
for best picture (musical or comedy) and landed Brooks a nomination for best
actor. The movie has a number of cameos, from a young Barry Levinson’s spot as
an unstable bellboy to a small part by Hitchcock’s right-hand special effects
man, Albert J. Whitlock, who plays Kahn’s father. All of this as well as our Top 3 Movie “Phobias!â€