Here’s a bit of fun while you run through the Hitchcock marathon. More than any other director, Hitchcock was famous for his cameos, starting in The Lodger for necessity, then he just did them for a laugh. 37 of them in fact. Here are the ones relating to the marathon so see how many you can spot! No cheating… :P
Pictures from hitchcock.tv and descriptions from filmsite.org
Two appearances: (a) At a desk in a newsroom (with back to camera); (b) As a bystander/spectator in the crowd behind an upper railing, wearing a flat gray cap, watching an arrest taking place below, as an angry crowd tries to beat up the unpopular lodger. 3 and 92 minutes
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/lodgercam.jpeg)
During a tennis court sequence, he leaves through a side gate where Larita Filton (Isabel Jeans) is seated, carrying a walking stick or cane. 15 minutes
If you can find it, good luck to you! Rumoured, but no evidence :tease:
As a passerby, tossing some litter away in front of a bus at a bus stop, while Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) and Miss Smith/Annabella (Lucie Mannheim) escape from the music theater commotion.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/39stepscameo.jpg)6 minutes
(Speculative) Coming down a ship's gangplank (wearing a bowler hat, with a mustache), appearing just before British novelist and war hero Captain Edgar Brodie/aka spy Richard Ashenden (John Gielgud).
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/secretagentcameo.jpg)8 minutes
Outside the courthouse just after Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) has managed to make an escape from incompetent police, posing as a photographer (director!) and holding a camera at waist-level.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/youngcam.jpeg) 15 minutes
Walking on the platform of London's Victoria Station (as Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave) and Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) return to the city), wearing a black coat and puffing on a cigarette.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/vanishescam.jpeg)90 minutes
Walking past a phone booth occupied by Jack Favell (George Sanders) who made a call to Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson).
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/rebeccacam.jpeg)123 minutes
After Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) leaves his hotel in London, Hitchcock - almost directly in front of him, is walking down the street wearing a coat and hat and looking down while reading a newspaper.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/corcap.jpeg)11 minutes
Mailing a letter at a village mailbox, in a long-shot, as Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) meets a friend in town.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/suspicam.jpeg)45 minutes
At a news-stand, standing just behind the saboteur's car (carrying Barry Kane (Robert Cummings)) that pulls up in front of the Cut Rate Drugs store window in New York. Not easily identifiable.60 minutes
On the train to Santa Rosa carrying Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten), playing a card game (and having a potentially-winning hand - a full house of spades) with a husband-doctor and wife couple, with his back to the camera on the left side of the frame.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/shadow.jpg)17 minutes
In "before" and "after" pictures displayed in a newspaper ad for Reduco Obesity Slayer, a slimming 'fat reduction' product - a men's corset, on the back side of a newspaper being read by Gus Smith (William Bendix) on the lifeboat.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/lifeboatcam.jpeg)25 minutes
As Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) enters the Empire State Hotel lobby, Hitchcock is coming out of a crowded elevator, carrying a small violin case and daintily smoking a cigarette.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/spellboundcam.jpg)36 minutes
As a guest at a grand party in Alex Sebastian's (Claude Rains) mansion, lifting a glass of champagne to sip at the champagne table, and then quickly leaving.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/notoriouscam.jpeg)64 minutes
Disembarking from the train at England's Cumberland Station, carrying a cello case.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/paradinecameo.jpeg)36 minutes
Two appearances: (a) in the opening credits, as a man crossing the street; (b) Hitchcock's trademark silhouette/caricatured profile can be seen briefly but blurrily on a flashing neon sign seen through the apartment window.0-ish and 52 minutes
Walking by, and then turning back to give a prolonged side-look and stare at Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) on the sidewalk, unconvinced and puzzled by her disguise to pose as Doris Tinsdale - the replacement maid of Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich).
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/stagefrightcam.jpeg)38 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/traincam.jpeg)10 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/confesscam.jpeg)1 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/dialcam.jpeg)13 minutes
Winding/repairing a clock in the songwriter's/musician's (real-life composer and vocalist Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.) apartment.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/rearcam.jpeg)25 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/troublecam.jpeg)21 minutes
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).
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/thiefcam.jpeg)10 minutes
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).
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/much2cam.jpeg)25 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/vertigocam.jpeg)10 minutes
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).
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/nbnwcam.jpeg)2 minutes
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).
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/psychocam.jpeg)7 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/birdscam.jpg)2 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/marnie.jpg)5 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/curtaincam.jpeg)8 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/topazcam.jpeg)28 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/frenzycam.jpeg)3 minutes
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.
(http://www.jonmeakin.co.uk/images/hitch/plotcam.jpeg)40 minutes