10 Bizarre Filmmaker Rules You Never Knew

Though it's no secret at all that Alfred Hitchcock made sneaky cameo appearances in most of his movies, it was ultimately far more than a playful directorial signature for attentive viewers to look out for.

Hitchcock himself stated that his cameos were initially "strictly utilitarian" in order to ensure the screen was filled during a given scene, but after audiences began to catch on, it became something of a compulsive "superstition" for the director. He said in a period interview:

"Later on it became a superstition and eventually a gag. By now it's a rather troublesome gag, and I'm very careful to show up in the first five minutes so as to let the people look at the rest of the movie with no further distraction."

While he never outright declared his cameos to be good luck charms, the fact that he included them in 40 of his 52 produced movies - no matter how familiar audiences became with them - near enough confirms he felt compelled to make a cameo no matter what.