V oltaire
(Continued from Page 4B)
Should the production move on to
Washington, D.C., it will be the first time
since 1974, when UT's Our Town won na
tional recognition for excellence.
r>
wounding out this year’s perfor
mances, the UT will join with the University
dance department March 3-4 and 8-11 for
its annual concert of original dance. Stories
to be Told, three short plays from South
American playwright Osvaldo Dragon,
will be presented April 14-15 and 19-22.
The three productions will be The Abces
sed Tooth," ‘The Story of Panchito Gon
zalez” and “The Story of the Man Who
Turned into a Dog.”
A Moliere classic, the title not yet chosen,
will be presented April 28-29 and May 3-6.
Finally, Tom Stoppard's Tragedies, is
scheduled for May 26, 27, and 31 and June
1-3.
All productions start at 8 p.m. Tickets are
$3 and $4 for Robinson Theatre produc
tions, and $2.50 for plays in the Arena and
Pocket theaters. University students and
senior citizens can purchase tickets to all
productions for half price.
The Box Office is open from noon to 5
p.m. — noon to 9 p.m. on production nights
— and can be called at 686-4191.
By Eric Maloney
Photos by Erich Boekelheide
1 ,lr ——— ,J
Candide features a thrust stage, in which the audience sits on bleachers on three sides of
the stage. The innovation gives the production a three-dimensional effect.
High Anxiety
Too much Brooks,
not enough spoof
It may still be safe to say that
Mel Brooks is a genius. His com
edy has delighted millions of
moviegoers. He has added new
dimensions to comedy on the
silver screen. Most of all, he has
created — if not by accident, then
by deviant design — a genre of
parody movies that will be copied
for years to come.
All empty flattery aside, Mel
Brooks' High Anxiety is less than a
I
to a frazzle during a session with
his analyst and have a man who
thinks he's a cocker spaniel hump
his leg.
It’s a simple enough plot.
Brooks, playing Dr. Richard H.
Thomdyke, arrives to take over
the head position of the prestigi
ous California Psycho-Neurotic
Institute for the Very, Very
Nervous. Amidst the confusion of
which scene was Hitchcock’s orig
By DAVID COURSEN
classic. At its best Anxiety is
mediocre. At its worst it is disap
pointing.
That isn't to say a movie billed
as a spoof of Alfred Hitchcock thril
lers, that is filled with quaint
dialogue, cut jokes and boorish
buffoonery, cannot be fun. High
Anxiety is funny. It just isn’t the
type of “funny" that Mel Brooks
fans have come to expect and
enjoy.
From the first scene Brooks’
socko and spaghetti comedy ac
tion wraps the moviegoer in a thick
gooey mess of psuedo-intrigue.
It's almost too thick to be com
pared to wet pasta. But what the
heck, everyone knows what’s
going to happen, it’s a Mel Brooks
movie, right?
That may be the main problem
with High Anxiety: it’s too much of
a Mel Brooks movie. There’s too
much Brooks and not enough
Hitchcock spoof. Only Mel Brooks
could be accosted by a flasher
while leaving an airport, get beat
inal and which is Brooks’ spoof,
the moviegoer realizes that some
thing is not right at the institute.
The whole mess is revealed by
a dippy but lovable chauffeur (Ron
Carey, of TV’s Barney Miller) who
comes right out and tells the doc
tor several times that it's not safe
for man or cocker spaniel at the
institute by the sea.
But Brooks, like every main
character Hitchcock has ever
painted, doesn't listen to the mut
tered warnings and wanders
through a maze of craziness into
the dutches of two of the most
sniveling and convincing villains
that ever graced the screen:
Nurse Diesel and Dr. Montague.
Nurse Diesel is a kind of cross
between a Nazi version of the
wicked witch of the West and Dolly
Parton’s bra. Played brilliantly by
television regular Cloris Leach
man, Diesel talks as if her jaw
was perpetually wired shut and
seems to have a reasonable de
sire to put Dr. Thorndyke six feet
Mel Brooks is attacked by birds in “High AnxietyBrooks' tribute to Alfred Hitchcock.
under.
Dr. Montague, on the other
hand, is sniveled into existence by
Harvey Kerman, another televi
sion regular who probably learned
his trade as Carol Burnett’s hilari
ous side-kick.
All the action revolves around
Diesel and Montague’s plot to kill
Thorndyke and his naive evasions
through standard bumbling. If that
seems a bit much, try weaving
scenes from Hitchcock’s master
pieces Vertigo, Psycho and The
Birds into the plot, mix them with
two or three sub-plots and shake
well. At first you get it got it got it
got it. And then, kerplunk, you ain’t
got it.
But, through all the comedy and
klutziness, there is still that dis
turbing twinge that something is
out of place. It's Brooks.
High Anxiety is his sixth film. In
five previous ventures Brooks
managed to delight and intrigue
his audiences with jabs at bigotry
in Blazing Saddles, slices at hor
ror in Young Frankenstein and just
plain slap stick in Silent Movie.
But somewhere along the plot line
Brooks overpowered his support
ing actors and took Anxiety's
buffoonery hostage. From that
moment on he calls the shots and
pours his image over the movie
like molasses.
That may be the only fault of
High Anxiety. If Mel Brooks had
stayed behind the camera and let
Leachman, Kerman,Madeline
Kahn and the rest of the cast carry
the plot, it might have been fun
nier.
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