High Anxiety (1977) review

An affectionate tribute to a certain Mr. Hitchcock: jittery psychiatrist Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Brooks) takes on a new job as the head of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous (the former director died mysteriously) and suspects Dr. Montague (Harvey Korman) and Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) are up to no good; while at a convention in San Francisco, he's approached by Victoria Brisbane (Madeline Kahn), who believes her father is being mistreated at the Institute ... and then Thorndyke is framed for murder.  Although several of the gags are slapdash and too goofy to work (Barry Levinson's bellhop helps him reenact the shower scene from Psycho, pigeons out of The Birds use him as a toilet), there are chuckles to be had, and for me those include the fake cop in the bathroom and the phone booth attack (Kahn plays it wonderfully on the other end of the line).  It's clear Mel has a great deal of respect for the Master of Suspense, but I'm curious what he'd have done with a filmmaker he holds in contempt.  On second thought ... nah, it's just not his style.