In this perceptive sidesplitting homage to Hichcock films director star and writer Mel Brooks plays the average American guy psychiatrist Richard Thorndyke (as in Roger Thorndike Cary Grant's character in North By Northwest) who's terrified of heights. He becomes the new chief of the Institute for the Very Very Nervous where things are not what they seem and it's not long before Richard finds himself embroiled in murder deception and other hilarious situations