{"id":693,"date":"2006-10-04T12:23:34","date_gmt":"2006-10-04T12:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=693"},"modified":"2006-10-04T12:23:34","modified_gmt":"2006-10-04T12:23:34","slug":"hitchcock_cameos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2006\/10\/04\/hitchcock_cameos\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitchcock Cameos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsfromme.com\/archives\/2006_10_03.html#012189\">Evanier<\/a>, here&#8217;s a fun little item for fans of classic cinema: someone has edited all of Alfred Hitchcock&#8217;s cameo appearances in his own movies into a four-minute video clip&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<object width=\"425\" height=\"350\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/B0tZnquxW_U\" \/><embed width=\"425\" height=\"350\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/B0tZnquxW_U\" wmode=\"transparent\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>I find it interesting how the Master of Suspense grew more blatant with his cameos over time; his really obvious ones all appear in his later films, presumably after he had hosted his TV series (<i>Alfred Hitchcock Presents&#8230;<\/i>) and become a well-known face to the audiences of the day. Contrast his &#8220;hey, look, it&#8217;s Hitch!&#8221; appearance in <i>To Catch a Thief<\/i> (1955) with the so-subtle-most-people-never-saw-it glimpse of him in <i>Lifeboat<\/i> (1944).<\/p>\n<p>I know some people dislike the whole cameo gimmick; they find it distracting, intrusive, or self-indulgent on Hitch&#8217;s part. Evanier compares it to a cinematic <i>Where&#8217;s Waldo?<\/i> game. Personally, I find it amusing, a winking nod to the audience from one of the few truly recognizable behind-the-scenes people that the movie is a construct made by a lot of talented people you never see. It lends the interaction between us, the viewers, and Hitchcock, the filmmaker, a homey, friendly feeling, as if we&#8217;re all sitting around a campfire and the storyteller is smiling at us before beginning to tell his tale. But that&#8217;s just how I see it&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy of Evanier, here&#8217;s a fun little item for fans of classic cinema: someone has edited all of Alfred Hitchcock&#8217;s cameo appearances in his own movies into a four-minute video clip&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}