Courtesy of Evanier, here’s a fun little item for fans of classic cinema: someone has edited all of Alfred Hitchcock’s cameo appearances in his own movies into a four-minute video clip…
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 (Alfred Hitchcock Presents…) and become a well-known face to the audiences of the day. Contrast his “hey, look, it’s Hitch!” appearance in To Catch a Thief (1955) with the so-subtle-most-people-never-saw-it glimpse of him in Lifeboat (1944).
I know some people dislike the whole cameo gimmick; they find it distracting, intrusive, or self-indulgent on Hitch’s part. Evanier compares it to a cinematic Where’s Waldo? 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’re all sitting around a campfire and the storyteller is smiling at us before beginning to tell his tale. But that’s just how I see it…
I see your point about the cameos becoming more blatant. But it’s fun anyway. Peter Jackson is in all three LOTR films . . . do you know where?
I remember that he’s the drunken guy who belches into the camera in the human village where the hobbits meet Strider in FOTR (I’m blanking on the town’s name right now), and I believe he’s one of the defenders of Helm’s Deep during the sequence when the orcs are breaking through the gate in TTT, but I can’t recall seeing him in ROTK. I know he’s in there somewhere, but I don’t know if I failed to notice him or if my memory is too fuzzy at this hour to bring it up…
Have you seen the remake of King Kong? Did you spot him in that one?
The town is Bree (notice that he’s inexplicably eating a carrot).
In ROTK Jackson, along with the producers and department heads, lead the Umbar fleet that’s sailing up the mouth of Anduin to attack Minas Tirith from the south. You catch a single shot of them in the theatrical release when Elrond gives Aragorn the reforged sword Anduril. In the extended version you get a comical scene in which Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli confront the pirates with the Army of the Dead. Legolas shoots Peter Jackson, who tumbles over dead.
I have seen King Kong (which didn’t bowl me over), but I didn’t catch any cameo. Did you?
Ah, yes, I know the scene you mention (in ROTK). I don’t think I caught that the arrow-fodder was Jackson before. I’ll have to go rewatch that now (no, no, don’t make me!).
Interestingly, that’s one of the few scenes in the extended cuts that I actively dislike. I feel that it ruins the surprise when the ships arrive in the midst of battle looking like reinforcements for the bad guys, only to be revealed as the Cavalry of the Undead.
I didn’t catch Jackson in King Kong either, but I suspect he’s there somewhere. I was ambivalent about the film myself… loved the recreation of the period (the opening sequence in NY was amazing), wasn’t bothered by the length (I actually liked the first hour when we’re building character and such), but the rubbery CG physics really bothered me. Kong’s girlfriend would’ve been pulverized from the way he was throwing her around; the 1933 Kong was actually more realistic in this regard.
I love the Internet. A quick check of the wikipedia reveals the following:
According to this source, he was also a rider during the charge across the Pelennor Fields in ROTK — a double cameo!
Now I’ll have to go watch it again!
Sorry… 🙂
That’s okay. During Ruthie’s absense this fall (book tour stuff) a friend and I are planning to spend a day watching all three extended versions consecutively! 12+ hours of viewing pleasure!
Oh my… the last such movie marathon I undertook was an all-night screening of the original SW trilogy about ten years ago. I don’t know that I’d be up for 12+ hours of consecutive viewing anymore…
Actually, we are thinking of doing Star Wars too . . . in narrative order from Episode I through Episode VI.
Bah… I stand by my conviction that the prequels only work if you know what’s coming. Which, of course, you do. So have fun, I guess. 🙂
Jas…
Not up to +12 hours of movies at a time (audible half gasp/half grunt with half of a valley girl smirk). Sorry man but this one falls in the getting older column.
I hear you, Keith… half the time I can’t manage to find enough time to make it through an ordinary two-hour movie anymore… I hate it!