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Beginning with The Lodger in 1927, Hitchcock made a habit of
appearing for a moment in his own pictures: a portly gentleman crossing the
street, boarding a train, glancing at his watch. Audiences came to watch for
him so eagerly that in his later films he made a point of getting it over
with in the first few minutes, so that people would stop hunting for him and
pay attention to the story.
Spotting him is a fine game for a rainy afternoon with a VCR and a pause
button. Below are the cameos I am certain of, because I have seen
every one of them with my own eyes, most of them more than once. There are
many more. I have left out the ones I have only read about, or that I have
looked for and failed to find, and the British silents I have never seen. A
librarian does not cite what she hasn't checked.
| Film |
Where to look |
The Lady Vanishes
(1938) |
Near the very end, at Victoria Station in London, in a dark coat, with a cigarette. |
Shadow of a Doubt
(1943) |
On the train to Santa Rosa, playing cards, with his back half to us. |
Lifeboat
(1944) |
There is nowhere to walk on a lifeboat, so he turns up in a newspaper, in the "before" and "after" pictures of an advertisement for a reducing plan. My favorite of them all. |
Notorious
(1946) |
At the big party in the house in Rio, gulping down a glass of champagne. |
Strangers on a Train
(1951) |
Climbing aboard a train, wrestling a double bass up the steps. |
Dial M for Murder
(1954) |
In the old class reunion photograph. He couldn't very well walk through a flat that small, so he had himself framed. |
Rear Window
(1954) |
In the songwriter's apartment across the courtyard, winding the clock. |
To Catch a Thief
(1955) |
On a bus on the Riviera, sitting right beside Cary Grant, looking straight ahead as if nothing were the matter. |
Vertigo
(1958) |
Early on, in a gray suit, carrying a horn case past the shipyard. I was born in this city, and I still think he looks like he's lost. |
North by Northwest
(1959) |
Right after the opening titles, hurrying for a bus, which shuts its doors in his face and leaves without him. |
Psycho
(1960) |
On the sidewalk outside the office window in Phoenix, wearing a cowboy hat, when Janet Leigh comes back from lunch. |
The Birds
(1963) |
Coming out of the pet shop in San Francisco with two little white terriers on leashes, just as Tippi Hedren goes in. The dogs were his own. |
Marnie
(1964) |
Stepping out of a hotel room into the corridor, and glancing right at the camera. |
Torn Curtain
(1966) |
Sitting in a hotel lobby with a baby on his knee, looking as if he would rather be anywhere else. |
Frenzy
(1972) |
In the crowd on the bank of the Thames at the start, in a bowler hat. |
Family Plot
(1976) |
His last: only a silhouette, through the frosted glass door of the Registrar of Births and Deaths. A fitting place to take a final bow. |
A suggestion for a party
Pick four or five of these, cue them up, and give your guests a
pencil and a card. The first one to call out "There!" gets the last piece of
cake. My bridge group did this for his birthday in August, and I have never
heard eight retired women shout at a television so loudly. Juanita won, which
I mention only because she made me promise to.
If you are certain of one I've left out, write and tell me which film and
where, and I'll go and look for myself before I add it:
[email protected]
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My twelve favorites
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