Doing a Hitchcock

[icetorch]

We all know how Hitchcock often liked to sneak into one of the scenes of the films he was directing. What the psychology behind this was, I'm not sure. I've only ever noticed one other director copy his trick - that was Truffaut in Fahrenheit 451.

Can anybody think of any others who've done it?

[GRAEME]

I believe that Eastwood does a quicky in Breezy - but I guess he doesn't count as he is an actor first and foremost.

John Huston comes to mind - but he was an actor in other people's films too - and much more substantial appearances than just walk-ons.

John Cassavetes does one in A Child Is Waiting.

[icetorch]

I believe that Eastwood does a quicky in Breezy - but I guess he doesn't count as he is an actor first and foremost.
John Huston comes to mind - but he was an actor in other people's films too - and much more substantial appearances than just walk-ons.

Yes, I guess you could break this one down into categories: director, actor/director, etc.

John Cassavetes does one in A Child Is Waiting.

Hmm - not seen that one.

I must admit, you were very quick off the mark, Graeme! Is mine an original topic, I wonder, or has someone already addressed it on the forum?

[batman]

IIRC Don Siegel did it a couple of times.

[HUGHJAMPTON]

Scorsese in Taxi Driver, MaliK in Badlands, both instances I think were due to actors not turning up.

David Lean appears as Fagin in Oliver Twist briefly seen from the back when he decided to shoot a scene when Guinness wasn't on set.

M.Night Shyamalan pops up everywhere in his films.

[icetorch]

Scorsese in Taxi Driver, MaliK in Badlands, both instances I think were due to actors not turning up.

David Lean appears as Fagin in Oliver Twist briefly seen from the back when he decided to shoot a scene when Guinness wasn't on set.

M.Night Shyamalan pops up evrywhere in his films.

So there we have another category: directors doing it out of necessity. It's a wonder they didn't get into trouble with Equity back in those days!

[HUGHJAMPTON]

So there we have another category: directors doing it out of necessity. It's a wonder they didn't get into trouble with Equity back in those days!

Well, IIRC ,Hitchcock started out of necessity when an actor didn't turn up.

[icetorch]

Well, IIRC ,Hitchcock started out of necessity when an actor didn't turn up.

I never knew that. Just like when Sir Hugh Jampton died, and you took over and nobody noticed?

[Moor Larkin]

Doesn't this all come under the heading of in-jokes? Patrick McGoohan hung pictures of himself and his wife on the walls in Columbo.


Hide and Seek - 1975 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Plwmsan]

Apparently Peter Jackson appears in most of his films as well. I suppose Dario Argento's "hands of the killer" count as appearances as well.

[icetorch]

Apparently Peter Jackson appears in most of his films as well. I suppose Dario Argento's "hands of the killer" count as appearances as well.

Well, Jackson is too big to be a hobbit. Argento - hmm, he has no British connections though, however slim? Not a fan of Argento's films - ridiculously poor scripting and acting and directing and full of noise ("music"). However he got his cult status, I don't know.

[zettel45]

Scorsese in Taxi Driver, MaliK in Badlands, both instances I think were due to actors not turning up.

Scorsese turns up twice in Taxi Driver: he's the truly scary fare Bickle picks up who talks about how he's going to shoot his wife. That's not so much a cameo as a full-on speaking part and, yes, he did it because the scheduled actor dropped out. But he's also seen sat at the doorway to Palantine headquarters when Betsy makes her first appearance.

Scorsese also plays the gunman who shoots Johnny-Boy at the end of Mean Streets and is the theatre worker who pops in to tell Jake la Motta that it's nearly time to go on at the end of Raging Bull (you hear his voice, but only glimpse part of his torso in the dressing room mirror).

Peter Jackson plays the captain of a pirate ship in Return of the King.

In The Passion of the Christ, the hands seen nailing Jesus to the cross are those of Mel Gibson.

[icetorch]

In The Passion of the Christ, the hands seen nailing Jesus to the cross are those of Mel Gibson.

I'll bet the old anti-semite enjoyed that.

[pelam123]

Not quite the same thing, but in Duel you can very clearly see a young Steven Spielberg reflected in the glass of a phone booth when Dennis Weaver is making a call. As well of course as his turn as the sandwich eating Cook County clerk in The Blues Brothers.

Into The Night, another John Landis film has a roster of directors making brief cameos.

[AdrianTurner]

There are in fact dozens of examples - one of my favourites is John Schlesinger's very Hitchcockian appearance in Pacific Heights.

[icetorch]

Not quite the same thing, but in Duel you can very clearly see a young Steven Spielberg reflected in the glass of a phone booth when Dennis Weaver is making a call.

So that's cameo by blooper - yet another category.

[zettel45]

Oh yes, Scorsese also plays a TV studio technician in King of Comedy. I can't remember him ever doing a cameo outside of his De Niro movies - unless someone knows different!

[Plwmsan]

Argento - hmm, he has no British connections though, however slim?

IIRC he grew up on the same estate in Newport Pagnell as his friends John Cassavetes, Clint Eastwood,Terence Malik, and M.Night Shyamalan.

[icetorch]

IIRC he grew up on the same estate in Newport Pagnell as his friends John Cassavetes, Clint Eastwood,Terence Malik, and M.Night Shyamalan.

April Fool's Day was 6 days ago, Plwmsan. Didn't you wind your cuckoo clock up?

[Plwmsan]

The arsey comments just keep on coming don't they!