Alfred Hitchcock

Kermit as Hitchcock on Disney Xtreme Digital.

Chicken Liver as Hitchcock on Sam and Friends.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) was an English-American director famous for mastering the suspense thriller genre of films from the 1930s through the 1960s. Trademarks within the film's narratives and types included his use of the "macguffin," an object which is the catalyst for a chain of events but unimportant of itself, atmospheric music (often supplied by former Orson Welles composer Bernard Herrmann), and cynical humor.

Hitchcock also became a familiar personality through cameo appearances in his films and later as the droll, silhouetted host of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Through such films as Dial M for Murder, Psycho, The Birds, and Rear Window, Hitchcock became nearly synonymous with crime and suspense, and lent his name and likeness to such print ventures as Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and the juvenile book series The Three Investigators (in which Hitchcock was a regular "character," discussing cases with the title characters).

References

Alfred Hitchcock

• Chicken Liver stands in for Hitchcock in the Sam and Friends episode "Poison to Poison."

• In a Disney Xtreme Digital video, Kermit the Frog does an impression of Alfred Hitchcock, hunching down and delivering a breathy "Good evening."

• In an Entertainment Tonight interview, Jim Henson jokingly referred to his appearances at the end of A Muppet Family Christmas and The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years as his Alfred Hitchcock, alluding to the director's penchant for cameos.

• Hitchcock appeared in archive footage used in Apple Computer's "Think Different" campaign alongside Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog.

North by Northwest

• The sequence in Follow That Bird in which Ernie and Bert try to get Big Bird's attention by flying their plane over him in a cornfield, was inspired by North By Northwest.

• In the Play-Along Video, Neat Stuff To Know & To Do, a lost carrier pigeon thinks one way of getting back home is going "north by northwest".

The Birds

• In episode 113 of The Muppet Show, Bruce Forsyth is overwhelmed with birds, and shouts "Mr. Hitchcock!" (in a reference to the director's 1963 film The Birds).

• In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, when the Scarecrow asks an attacking crow if he's seen The Passion, the feathered fiend replies that he prefers The Birds.

• In episode 3870 of Sesame Street, an animal comments that Big Bird's alphabet film is "the best bird film since Hitchcock."

• In Elmopalooza, when Bert is appointed the director, he is inspired by his favorite director, Alfred Sweatsock, who directed The Pigeons.

The 39 Steps

• The "Monsterpiece Theatre" sketch "39 Stairs" spoofs the Hitchcock film The 39 Steps. Alistair Cookie explains that it was made by "some guy named Alfred."

Dial M for Murder

• An episode of "Mysterious Theater" spoofs Hitchcock's film with the Sherlock Hemlock sketch "Dial M for Mother".

Connections

Several actors have worked with both Hitchcock and the Muppets/Henson.

• Julie Andrews played Dr. Sarah Louise Sherman in The Torn Curtain (1966)
• Roscoe Lee Browne played Philippe Dubois in Topaz (1969)
• Raymond Burr played Lars Thorwald in Rear Window (1954)
• John Forsythe played Sam Marlowe in The Trouble with Harry (1955) and Michael Nordstron in Topaz (1969)
• Henry Fonda played Manny Balestrero in The Wrong Man (1956)
• Wolfgang Kieling played Gromek in Torn Curtain (1966)
• Martin Landau played Leonard in North by Northwest (1959)
• Will Lee played Rogers, an injured plant worker, in Saboteur (1942)
• Jean Marsh played Monica Barling in Frenzy (1972)
• Anthony Perkins played Norman Bates in Psycho (1960)
• James Mason played Phillip Vandamm in North by Northwest (1959)
• Olan Soule played the assistant auctioneer in North by Northwest (1959)
• John Stephenson played a State Department interrogator in Topaz (1969)
• John Vernon played Rico Parra in Topaz (1969)
• Billie Whitelaw played Hetty Porter in Frenzy (1972)