A full listing of Hitchcock's cameo appearances in his films will be found in the filmography. Despite the familiarity of the cameos as a phenomenon, there have been relatively few attempts to look at them analytically. Two contrasting discussions date from 1977. In ‘Hitchcock, The Enunciator’, Raymond Bellour considers some of the cameos from a psychoanalytical point of view, suggesting that the ‘appearances occur, more and more frequently, at that point in the chain of events where what could be called the film-wish is condensed’ (Bellour 1977/ 2000: 224). Bellour's argument is that, through his cameos, ‘Hitchcock inscribe [s] himself in the chain of the fantasy’ (228). Although, insofar as I understand him, I feel that Bellour is forcing his argument in many of his examples, it re mains suggestive for some, and I will return to it. A more comprehensive discussion is by Maurice Yacowar in Hitchcock's British Films (Yacowar 1977: 270-78). Yacowar's approach seems to me rather quirky: there is a lot of speculation about the symbolism of details. But the general thrust of his argument – that Hitchcock's cameos tend to cast him in the same sort of role as the painting of the jester in BLACKMAIL, ironically commenting on the ‘fictions and follies’ of his characters (278) – is, again, suggestive.

In Find the Director and Other Hitchcock Games, Thomas Leitch discusses the epistemological status of the cameos, suggesting that they are a prime illustration of Hitchcock's ‘ludic approach to storytelling’, a feature of his films’ ‘selfadvertising style’ (Leitch 1991: 10), ‘reminding the audience of the … film's status as an artifact, an artful discourse rather than a transparent story’ (6). Equally, however, he argues that the cameos do not, as one might expect, ‘disturb (the) sense of the film's coherence’ but ‘intensify the audience's pleasure’ (21). We enjoy the artifice and the game of ‘find the director’ (8) that Hitchcock is playing with us through his cameo appearances. I have no quarrel with Leitch's argument, but feel, nevertheless, that there is more to be said.