Hitchcock Appearances In His Films Quiz

Answer: The Birds

The 1963 film "The Birds" starred Rod Taylor (Mitch) and Tippi Hedren (Melanie) as a pair of attractive people who meet in a pet shop where Mitch is looking to buy a pair of lovebirds. On being invited to his home to meet his family and friends, in an isolated spot of course, an increasing series of bizarre incidents involving birds begins to take place. Attacks on humans begin, at first spasmodically and then in increasing intensity.

It's a horrible movie and is probably responsible for many people developing ornithophobia. Yet you have to admire the sheer masterful buildup up to the terror by Hitchcock.

The film leaves us with the young couple managing to escape in a car, but speeding through a countryside where thousands of birds are sitting silently on every tree branch as they pass by, watching and, silently...waiting.

Answer: Dial M for Murder

"Dial M for Murder" was made in 1954. This excellent old movie, which crops up from time to time on late night television, starred Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings. Milland plays Tony, an ex-professional tennis champion, Kelly plays his well to do wife, Margot, while Cummings plays a writer with whom the naughty Margot is having an affair.

When Tony accidentally discovers this relationship, he decides to kill her. Tony is no loving and horribly wronged husband however. He's a thoroughly nasty piece of work and blackmails another man into killing Margot for him.

The plan backfires when Margot stabs her assailant while defending herself from his attempts to strangle her. Tony deceitfully assures her he will stand by her side when her story is revealed, but instead betrays her, and Margot is subsequently arrested and charged with murder.

It is only through the efforts of her lover, an alert police inspector, and a mistake Tony makes with a house key, that Margot is saved, at the very last minute, from her forthcoming execution.

The wicked Tony of course meets his just desserts.

Answer: Lifeboat

After a group of British and US civilians are left floating in the ocean in a small lifeboat, following a battle between their ship and a German U-boat, a surviving German officer from the enemy boat is pulled into the boat as well. He denies he is an officer and is allowed to stay on board.

The story line follows the group from that time as they attempt to find land, while surviving on a small handful of rations and water. A baby dies, its distraught mother throws herself in the ocean to drown, and a man's leg is amputated during the course of the film.

At the same time, the group begins to deteriorate from its initial civilised behaviour to desperate survivors simply trying to keep alive. One night, the German officer throws the injured man overboard when the injured man sees the officer stealing water.

The following morning, by a series of questioning, and noticing the German officer sweating profusely, the group discovers what he has done. He is subsequently and very brutally executed by them in a horrible and barbaric fashion.

This grim film continues on from here with a cyclic story line, and, in typical Hitchcock fashion, leaves viewers up in the air, or in this case, in the water, with no end in sight. "Lifeboat" stars Tallulah Bankhead, Walter Slezak, John Hodiak and other assorted actors.

Answer: Bowler

Hitchcock appears as the only man wearing a hat in a crowd of people gathering round the scene where one of the murder victims in the film has been washed ashore. It is a bowler hat he wears. A bowler hat is a felt man's hat with a decidedly round top and a narrow brim. As hats go, it wouldn't be a bit useful for protection against the sun. It developed into being more of a long term fashion item than anything else, but was originally created for the younger brother of 2nd Earl of Leicester in 1849, during the Victorian era in Britain. His name was Edward Coke and one of the original names of the hat was the Billy Coke. Its purpose, believe it or not, was for his servants to wear while they were accompanying him during horseriding excursions. Why? Because the previously worn top hats they normally wore kept getting knocked off by low branches.

With a story line involving a killer who rapes and strangles women with a necktie, "Frenzy" stars John Finch, Alec McCowen and Barry Foster. The real killer, Robert Rusk, is revealed to the audience early in the story line, but evidence begins to build up more and more around one of his friends, Richard Blaney, instead. During the course of one of Rusk's murders, his victim, Blaney's girlfriend, tears off his distinctive tie clip. Rusk suddenly realises this after he has disposed of her body in a large sack, which he has put in the back of a truck carrying bags of potatoes. This takes place in the middle of the night, and he just manages to scramble into the truck before it takes off. A gory scene follows where he searches through the bags for her body. On finding the hand clasping his tie clip, he has to break her finger to get it to release its grasp. In the meantime, Blaney has been arrested for murder. Realising Rusk is the real murderer, he escapes from jail and he makes his way to Rusk's flat, planning to kill him out of revenge. It is here that Hitchcock's masterful ability at plot twists and turns finally reaches a climax - but why spoil it for you?

Answer: Walking past a tennis court

Hitchcock, walking along and carrying a cane, is briefly seen walking past a tennis court in this movie. This takes places on the French Riviera where the rich and famous play and where the heroine of the movie meets her wealthy second husband.

"Easy Virtue" was made way back in 1928 and was based on the romantic play by the great British writer, Noel Coward. It stars Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall and Ian Hunter. This melodrama is one of those great old silent films with a story line built around a woman, Larita, married to a drunken beast of a man, who sues her for adultery on trumped up charges, the scoundrel. This now leaves her alone and unloved in the world, and now classed as a woman of easy virtue. Shock, gasp, horror! Larita flees to the continent (cue the fleeing music) where she soon meets a rich, young man who marries her. He subsequently takes her home to meet his disapproving mama who suspects Larita as being a lady of ill repute (cue snaring my boy music). This movie has a most unfair ending, one in keeping with the values of the time. After Larita's past - of which she is totally innocent - comes to light, she allows her nincompoop of a husband to divorce her so he can marry another.

Answer: A telephone booth

Starring Laurence Olivier, Judith Anderson, George Sanders, and Joan Fontaine, "Rebecca" tells the story of a young girl married to an aristocratic widower, Maximilian de Winter, within two weeks of the pair meeting. It is only after the wedding that trouble, in the shape of a ruthless and cruel housekeeper who was obsessed with the former Mrs Rebecca de Winter, rears its threatening head. Everywhere the new bride goes, she is reminded of the beauty and grace of her husband's former wife. And everything she does is met with obstacles and trickery placed in her way by the housekeeper, Mrs Danvers. This film is packed full with plot and counter plot, as more and more about the now less than perfect Rebecca is disclosed. This includes the fact that she had been having an ongoing affair with her cousin, Jack Favell (George Sandfers). "Rebecca" is an excellent psychological drama and builds to a great climax. The one disturbing feature about this film, and indeed about most of his Hitchcock's work, is that his own rather unhealthy views on women are often startlingly revealed.

Hitchcock appears towards the end of this movie. He is standing, back towards the audience, beside a phone booth where Rebecca's lover, the decadent Jack, is placing a telephone call.

Answer: Rope

The 1948 thriller "Rope" stars the great James Stewart. It is believed to be based on the real life murder of a fourteen year old boy by the killers Leopold and Loeb, but in giving this dreadful story a theatrical twist and a new setting with different characters, Hitchcock brings an absolutely engrossing thriller to the screen with real force. Backed up by the brilliant acting of James Stewart, this is also one of Hitchcock's best movies. Having the body of the murder victim placed in a chest that is used as a food buffet for a dinner party is incredibly effective, and Hitchcock, of course, constantly draws our eyes back to this with skill and his superb finesse.

This film, in spite of its gory subject, but with the addition of the lovely Mr Stewart, is pure class.

Answer: Train

Hitchcock shows up in this movie fifteen minutes into the action. He is seen travelling in a train bound for Santa Rosa, and is playing a game of bridge with his fellow passengers. Uncle Charlie, the star of the movie, is also in this scene where he is trying his best to go unnoticed. Made in 1943, "Shadow of a Doubt" stars Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey and Teresa Wright.

The story line is that of a bored teenage girl who lives in a small town in California. Only the thought of an upcoming visit from her uncle cheers her up a little.

In the meantime, two men have turned up pretending to be collecting data for the government. One of them admits to our teenager, however, that he is really a detective trying to trap her uncle. Uncle Charlie, after whom the girl is named, is believed to be a serial killer of rich widows.

As the story unfolds, the girl grows more and more suspicious of her uncle until he finally confesses that he is indeed the killer, but asks for her reluctant help not to betray him.

This she does, but then the other two men leave, and the girl is left with an uncle who realises that she is now the only person left who knows his secret. Accidents and near misses begin to happen to our intrepid heroine shortly afterwards. Will she escape her wicked uncle's nefarious schemes? Tune in next week for the next thrilling instalment, ladies and gentlemen.

Answer: Violin

Fascinatingly, the violin, often called a fiddle, made its first appearances in Mongolia of all places, where horsemen there played a form of its early ancestor. There was plenty of horsehair for the strings, one imagines. From there its use spread to China, India, the Middle East, Italy and the rest of the world. Hitchcock often appeared in his films carrying a musical instrument of some sort. In this film he appears, carrying a violin, as he emerges from an elevator in the Empire State Hotel in New York, a setting in which the disturbed star of the film has fled in panic.

The 1945 "Spellbound" stars Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. It tells the story of the director of a mental asylum who is forced into early retirement because of his own mental health problems. He is replaced by a new younger version, one Dr. Edwardes, played by Peck. Shortly after Edwardes taking up his duties, his emotionless and distant fellow psychoanalyst, Dr Constance Petersen (Bergman), begins to notice peculiar behaviour by Edwardes. He finally confesses to her that he is not Dr Edwardes at all, but that he is suffering from amnesia and thinks he may have killed the real doctor. What with one thing and another, he then takes off to take refuge in an hotel in New York. She, believing he is innocent, finds him, and, with the help of her mentor, they begin to unravel the secrets of the impostor's mind. Plot follows plot in this tale which perhaps tend to go from the sublime to the ridiculous at times, but, for once, one of Hitchcock's films has a more or less happy ending.

Answer: Walking a horse

Horses have been domesticated since 3,500 BC. Used initially as beasts of burder duing agriculture, transport, and in warfare, they would eventually be used for more relaxing pursuits many centuries later, in events such as gymkanas, show-jumping, races, or in simply riding for pleasure. Hitchcock appears with the horse early in this film. He is seen trying to get it to follow him during an equestrian event just before Cary Grant, the film's star, takes the floor again.

"Suspicion" stars Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant. Grant plays a ne'er-do-well playboy, Johnny Aysgarth, who sweeps the mousey Lana McLaidlaw (Fontaine) off her prim tootsies, and convinces her to elope with him. She of course comes from a very wealthy family. She soon learns he hasn't got a cent to his name and that he was hoping to live off her family. Rather indignantly, but still besotted, she talks him into getting a job instead. Johnny is a total loss though, continues to gamble, which was his downfall before, sells her possessions out from under her, lies to her constantly, and steals money from his place of employment. To his disappointment, when Lana's father eventually dies, all he leaves Lana is a portrait of himself.

Johnny's next move is to convince a good-natured but slightly dim-witted friend to lend him a lot of money for a hare-brained business venture. This friend is killed on a trip away with Johnny, and Lana grows more and more suspicious of her less than worthy spouse. She soon begins to wonder if Johnny is planning to kill her for her hefty life insurance policy. Does he kill her? Was it all a dreadful mistake on her part? Is Johnny innocent? Does it end happily? Well, dear reader, in true Alfred Hitchcock style, you'll just have to find out for yourself. But...just one thing...watch your step on the way out.