They are intentionally ambiguous in order to maintain deniability if questioned, especially by the censors. If he wanted to refer to homosexuality, as he did in at least 10 of his movies, Hitchcock would use what are now called “gay codes.” These are subtle references that gay people and their allies would recognize but could pass by most of the audience unnoticed. He meticulously planned each film and knew exactly the effect each detail would have on his audiences. The famed, late English film director Alfred Hitchcock was a complicated, twisted and mischievous man - characteristics that show up in all his great movies. Editor’s note: The following article, like many of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, includes references to sex and violence.ĭid Martin Landau play a homosexual in North by Northwest? Did Alfred Hitchcock really show gay sex on-screen in Rope, albeit in an unusual way? Was the whole plot of Rebecca driven by the twisted jealousy of an evil lesbian? And, most surprisingly, did Hitchcock depict a gay marriage way back in 1938’s The Lady Vanishes?