The “Master of Suspense” was also the Master of the Cameo. In more than 30 of his 50-plus films, Alfred Hitchcock made a short cameo appearance.
His last film “Family Plot” — which included the mastermind’s iconic silhouette — came out in April 1976, just a little over four years before his death on April 29, 1980.
Here’s a look at some of the director’s interesting and unexpected cameos:
“The Lodger”
“The Lodger” featured Hitchcock’s first cameo. Because it’s silent, “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” is not one of Hitchcock’s better-known works.
The 1927 film is worth the slightly over an hour screening time, though, and with its reliance on earlier German expressionist film it’s a visually interesting drama. It’s about a Jack the Ripper-like character and based on an earlier novel, according to the British Film Institute.
It’s also the first Hitchcock film that featured a directorial cameo. Just about three minutes in, the camera shows Hitchcock from behind, seated at a desk in a newspaper office. He’s the editor — which seems a fitting role for the film’s director.
“Young and Innocent”
Based on a Scottish mystery novel, 1937’s “Young and Innocent” is not one of Hitchcock’s better films.
It’s a weirdly comedic farce, though it does feature some of what would become the director’s regular themes, such as the wrongly accused man on the run.
The director makes his cameo early in the film, when he’s standing outside the courthouse with a camera, ready to take a picture of the emerging defendant — who sneaks out in disguise.
It seems a very pointed symbolic reminder of Hitchcock’s actual role in the making of the movie.
“Notorious”
Sometimes underappreciated, “Notorious” is arguably one of the director’s best works, a black-and-white 1946 noir film featuring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains.
His cameo, at a party late in the film, is noteworthy in that it pushes the action along. The film’s troubled heroine, Alicia Huberman (Bergman), has stolen a key to the wine cellar which both holds more champagne for the party and the key to her husband’s evil deeds.
If the champagne runs out before Grant’s character finishes investigating what’s hidden downstairs, Alicia will be found out by her Nazi husband.
Thus, when Hitchcock makes a brief appearance at the party, only to pick up a glass of champagne and exit, he’s endangering his heroine and pushing the plot forward.
“Strangers on a Train”
Another of Hitch’s great noir films, 1951’s carnival-centric drama is based on a Patricia Highsmith novel.
The movie stars Robert Walker — who died just after the film’s release — and Farley Granger, strangers who meet on a train and agree to swap murders.
The director’s cameo comes early in the film and, as in some of his other cameos, he’s carrying a musical instrument — in this case a double bass, with a large and bulky shape humorously similar to his own shape at the time.
He’s getting on a train as Granger’s character is getting off. In that moment, he becomes another stranger on the train.
“Rear Window”
Unequivocally one of the director’s most exquisite works, 1954’s “Rear Window” stars Jimmy Stewart as a daring photographer who’s laid up in his apartment with a broken leg.
In the meantime, he has nothing to do but spy on his many neighbors out the rear window and accept the loving ministrations of Grace Kelly’s character.
In one of the apartments Stewart’s character can spy on, Hitchcock makes his cameo when he comes in to wind the clock. In a movie that’s very much about seeing and being seen, he’s an interesting position to be seen by his main characters.
It also seems metaphorically apt, as if he’s winding up the suspense for the film.
“North by Northwest”
The sweeping 1959 thriller starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint is about missed connections and mistaken identities.
When Hitch appears — at the end of one of his most acclaimed opening credit sequences — he narrowly misses a bus in a shot that foreshadows a later scene with Cary Grant.
“The Birds”
In the film about wildlife run amok in Bodega Bay, the director’s cameo comes near the start of the film.
The film opens in San Francisco, where the heroine is visiting a pet store.
As she’s walking in, the director appears coming out of a pet store walking two dogs, which seems a fitting role for the director — the only person in control in a film about animals out of control.
“Marnie”
A psychological thriller starring Tippi Hedren — who’d made it big in the previous year’s smash hit “The Birds” — and Sean Connery, “Marnie” was released in 1964.
It was the first in the string of somewhat forgotten films that Hitchcock finished his career with and, though objectionable in places, it was by no means a bad movie.
The director’s cameo comes right at the beginning of the film when he crosses a hallway just after the titular character passes by. He looks both ways after closing the door behind him and, in the process, looks straight at the camera, breaking the fourth wall. He almost seems to see the audience, as if he’s the only person in the movie who knows it’s a movie.
“Topaz”
Based on a Cold War novel by Leon Uris, “Topaz” was released in 1969. It didn’t feature big American stars as had most of his previous U.S. films, but it did offer some big names in foreign cinema.
Hitch’s appearance is a funny one. During a scene at LaGuardia Airport about half an hour into the movie, the director is being pushed in a wheelchair by a nurse — and then he suddenly gets up, shakes a man’s hand and walks off.
It’s a fitting ruse for a director who continually returns to the theme of things not being what they seem.
“Family Plot”
Hitchcock’s last film, “Family Plot” — starring Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris and and Karen Black — is about a pair of professional kidnappers who botch their best shot at a ticket to easy street.
The director’s cameo in the 1976 movie comes about 40 minutes in, when he appears in silhouette through the glass in a closed office door.
Hitch’s silhouette was easily recognizable and well-known from the 1960s show, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” His most iconic image seems a fitting pick for what ended up being his last cameo.
