The Hitchcock Players: Alfred Hitchcock's cameos | reviews, news & interviews
The Hitchcock Players: Alfred Hitchcock's cameos
The Hitchcock Players: Alfred Hitchcock's cameos
They seek him here, they seek him there...
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/mast_image_landscape/public/mastimages/rear-window-stewart-kelly-hitchcock.jpeg?itok=2BGgv53V)
Alfred Hitchcock isn't the only director who appeared in his own movies - François Truffaut, Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese and M Night Shyamalan are among many others who have done the same - but he is by far the one who has done it most frequently. He appeared, to the best of film historians' knowledge, in 39 of his 53 films.
It's not definitively recorded why he did it - ego, necessity, habit, superstition, a private joke, perhaps all of those - and biographers differ in their views. What we do know is that he appeared in full shot, profile, blink-and-you-miss-it walk-by, or even, in Lifeboat (1944), in a newspaper advertisement. Whatever the reason, Hitchcock fans have had huge pleasure over the years trying to spot his distinctive presence, which is why, when the joke was established, he started making his appearances early in the first reel - to make sure that once viewers spotted him, they could get down to the business of watching the actual film.
He had a few cameos in his British films but from Rebecca (1940) onwards appeared in all his Hollywood movies. The earliest recorded ones were in the same film, The Lodger (1927), where he appeared in two scenes, in a newsroom and in a crowd watching an arrest. He also appeared twice in Suspicion (1941), Rope (1948), Under Capricorn (1949) and Frenzy (1972), but the rest of his cameos were one-offs.
Most of the cameos were, for obvious reasons of ease and disguise, in crowd scenes. But he made an effort to mix it up - the newspaper ad, for example – and other devices he used included having his back to camera sitting in a hotel lobby in Torn Curtain (1966) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1966); posting a letter in Suspicion; and leaving a pet shop with his (real-life) two terriers in The Birds (1963). And in three films he had musical instruments: he was seen coming out of a lift with a violin case in Spellbound (1945), carried a cello off a train in The Paradine Case (1947) and boarded another with a double bass in Strangers on a Train (1951).
Occasionally he did more than waft through the background, and almost took part in the narrative. In Notorious (1946) he drank Champagne at Claude Rains' party, and in doing so helped to reveal the film's maguffin (some wine bottles are filled with uranium); in Stage Fright (1950) he turned to look at Jane Wyman, whose character is in disguise, after he has walked past her; and in Rear Window (1954) his character turned to camera, as if to say something.
Perhaps his most iconic appearance was merely as a silhouette in Rope, later reprised in a slightly different way in Family Plot (1976). It became his trademark, and formed part of the title sequence of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the television show of mysteries and melodrama he fronted for seven series between 1955 and 1962.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Film
![Sister act: Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, and Safira Mossberg in 'Paradise Is Burning'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Main%20pic%20PisBurning.jpeg?itok=M-QpAFJr)
![Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin in 'Sing Sing'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Sing%201.jpeg?itok=FzGLffp-)
![Caught on the woof: Eddie Peng and best friend in Guan Hu’s tale of provincial struggle](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Black%20Dog%20pic.jpeg?itok=4flF1pOd)
![David Morrissey: 'When I discovered my drama group at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, that saved my life'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Morrissey%20MAIN.jpg?itok=tsYiugwk)
![Gael force: Kneecap's Liam Óg, JJ Ó Dochartaigh, and Naoise Ó Caireállain](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/three%20shot%20Kneecap.jpeg?itok=wbu8VQio)
![The night they invented champagne: Barbe (Haley Bennett) concocts her latest vintage](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Barb%20MAIN.jpg?itok=7HfioYC9)
![This is reception: Hunter Schafer in 'Cuckoo'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/CUCKOO-Still-1-Credit-Felix-Dickinson-Courtesy-of-NEON.jpg?itok=9T-JMH2b)
![Losing his way. Zhu Yilong in 'Only the River Flows'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Only-The-River-Flows1.jpg?itok=Xe75y-DM)
![Alienated youth: Rain (Cailee Spaeny) takes on the mantle of Ripley, with David Jonsson as 'synthetic' Andy](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Spaeyny%20and%20Jonsson.jpeg?itok=At6et-4p)
![A glimpse of the director, with Mawlawi Mansour at right](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Hollywoodgate%203.jpg?itok=sUZKpWKk)
![Richard Chamberlain and Glenda Jackson tie the knot in 'The Music Lovers'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/5009250_THE%20MUSIC%20LOVERS_A%20BFI%20BLU-RAY%20RELEASE%20Image%20courtesy%20MGM%20%26%20Park%20Circus.jpg?itok=hV9gAlOE)
![Father knows worst: Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donaghue in 'Trap'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/TRAP.jpg.jpg?itok=_wrN_N8v)
Add comment