 |
Alfred Hitchcock's
Famed Cameo Film Appearances (Part 1) |
|
|
Alfred Hitchcock's
Famed Cameo Film Appearances (Part 1) |
|
 are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100
Greatest Films.
|
||
|
Hitchcock's Cameo Appearances -
pt. 1 (in reverse chronological order) |
||
|
Film Title |
Description of Cameo |
Minutes Into Film (approx.) |
| The Simpsons: "A Streetcar Named Marge" (1992) |  One of Hitchcock's most famous "cameos" (animated!) was in this 4th Season episode of The Simpsons (airing in October, 1992) - a parody of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Hitchcock's own The Birds (1963) - in which Homer Simpson re-enacted the crow scene with babies in place of the birds. After Homer carefully retrieved daughter Maggie from the Ayn Rand School for Tots packed with ominous pacifier-sucking toddlers, he shuddered: "Babies!", while Hitchcock strolled by walking his two terriers, similar to his cameo in the original film. |
15 minutes |
| Family Plot (1976) |  With
his widely-familiar but stern silhouette viewed through the frosted-glass
door of the "Registrar of Births and Deaths". Hitchcock appears
to be arguing with an elderly woman and accusedly pointing his finger.
|
40 minutes |
| Frenzy (1972) |  In
the center of a crowd, wearing a black bowler hat; he is the only one
not applauding the political speech-maker (delivering a speech about pollution
and cleaning up the Thames River); a moment later, he is among bystanders
watching as another necktie murder corpse floats ashore. |
3 minutes |
| Topaz (1969) |  In
a crowded LaGuardia Airport scene, seated in a wheelchair as he is being
pushed by a nurse under a sign reading "United Air Lines"; he
miraculously stands up from the wheelchair, greets and shakes hands with
a man, and walks off to the right. |
28 minutes |
| Torn Curtain (1966) |  In
Copenhagen, sitting in the large Hotel d'Angleterre's lobby entrance with
a blonde-haired baby in his lap (who possibly wets itself), with his back
to the camera; during the brief cameo, the music changes to resemble the
famous "Hitchcock theme," also known as the Funeral March
of the Marionettte. |
8 minutes |
| Marnie (1964) |  Entering
from the left of the hotel corridor from a hotel room after Marnie Edgar
(Tippi Hedren) has passed by with a bellman carrying her things; the director
looks guiltily at the camera. |
5 minutes |
| The Birds (1963) |  Leaving
downtown San Francisco's Davidson's Pet Shop with two white terriers (Hitchcock's
own Sealyham terriers Geoffrey and Stanley on leashes) as elegantly-dressed
blonde Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) enters. |
2 minutes |
|
Psycho (1960) |
 Wearing
a large cowboy hat and viewed through Marion Crane's (Janet Leigh) office
store-front window, standing on the sidewalk, as she returns to her Phoenix
realty company after a lunchtime quickie in a cheap hotel with lover Sam
Loomis (John Gavin). |
7 minutes |
|
North By Northwest (1959) |
 At
the end of the opening credits in a bustling NYC, missing a bus that slams
its door in his face, anticipating a similar scene in the countryside
near a cornfield when a bus door shuts on Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant).
|
2 minutes |
|
Vertigo (1958) |
 In
a gray suit walking across the street past Gavin Elster's (Tom Helmore)
Mission District shipyard and office in San Francisco, in front of columns
and a newspaper rack, carrying a horn case. |
10 minutes |
| The Wrong Man (1956) |  On-screen
narrating the film's prologue and introducing the film's true story before
the credits appear. Not a traditional cameo, but this was the sole time
Hitchcock actually spoke in any of his feature films. |
Beginning of film |
| The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) |  Watching
acrobats in the crowded outdoor French Moroccan (Marrakesh) marketplace
(on the left side of the frame with his back to the camera) just before
the murder of Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin). |
25 minutes |
| The Trouble With Harry (1955) |  Walking
past a parked-by-the-side-of-the-road limousine of an old man who is looking
at Sam Marlowe's (John Forsythe) outdoor stand/exhibition of artwork and
paintings. Not easily identifiable. |
21 minutes |
| To Catch A Thief (1955) |  Staring
straight ahead and sitting motionless to the left of John Robie (Cary
Grant) in the rear-seat of a bus; to Robie's right is a woman with a bird
cage (containing two birds). |
10 minutes |
|
Rear Window (1954) |
 Winding/repairing
a clock in the songwriter's/musician's (real-life composer and vocalist
Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.) apartment. |
25 minutes |
| Dial M for Murder (1954) |  On
the left side of Tom's class-reunion dinner photograph hung on the wall,
turning back and looking up to his right, seated at a white table-clothed
table; taken off the wall and shown to Captain Swan Lesgate (Anthony Dawson)
by Tom Wendice (Ray Milland), who is across the table from Hitchcock in
the photo. |
13 minutes |
| I Confess (1953) |  Strolling
across or along the top of a long flight of stair-steps in Quebec, in
a long-shot silhouette filmed at a distance, during/after the opening
credits. |
1 minute |
| Strangers on A Train (1951) |  Struggling
to board a train with a very large and awkward double bass fiddle (similar
in shape to Hitchcock's own rotund body), as Guy Haines (Farley Granger)
gets off in his hometown of Metcalf. |
10 minutes |
Alfred Hitchcock
made a total of 37 self-referential cameos in his films over a 50 year
period (from 1926-1976), if one counts his narration at the start of
The Wrong Man (1956). Hitchcock's first appearance was in his
third film, The Lodger (1926), and then in just six more of his
British films. Two war-time shorts after 1940, Bon Voyage (1944)
and Aventure Malgache (1944), did not contain cameos either.
The most ingenious cameo appearances were in films with limited sets,
as in Lifeboat (1944), Rope (1948), and Dial M for
Murder (1954). One recurring theme was that Hitchcock carried a
stringed instrument in some of the cameos. Note: Only once did he appear
in an installment of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1966)
TV show - besides his personal introductions - in the 1958 episode of the third season titled
A Dip in the Pool, he showed up on the cover of a magazine. 