This parody of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest hits rather sums up the strengths and weaknesses of Mel Brooks's films. By opting for the best known scenes in Spellbound, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho, he settles for easy laughs and thus misses the chance to kid around with the real aficionados. Moreover, not enough thought has gone into the non-spoof scenes, many of which run out of steam, like the Freudian lecture delivered in euphemisms owing to the presence of a young child. The Sinatra pastiche is a gem and there are many funny moments, but perhaps Hitch was just too self-mocking to be spoofable.

A psychiatrist with intense acrophobia (fear of heights) goes to work for a mental institution run by doctors who appear to be crazier than their patients, and have secrets that they are willing to commit murder to keep.