In which film was the first Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearance?

English film director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 39 of his 52 surviving major films (his second film, The Mountain Eagle, is lost). For the films in which he appeared, he would be seen for a brief moment in a non-speaking part as an extra, such as boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or even appearing in a newspaper photograph (as seen in the film Lifeboat, which otherwise provided no other opportunity for him to appear).

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is a 1927 British silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June Tripp, Malcolm Keen, and Ivor Novello. Hitchcock's third feature film, it was released on 14 February 1927 in London and on 10 June 1928 in New York City. Based on the novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes and the play Who Is He? co-written by Belloc Lowndes, the film is about the hunt for a "Jack the Ripper"-like serial killer in London.

In the film Alfred Hitchcock appears sitting at a desk in the newsroom with his back to the camera and while operating a telephone (5:33 minutes into the film). This is Alfred Hitchcock's first recognizable film cameo and was to become a standard practice for the remainder of his films. Hitchcock's cameo happened because the actor who was supposed to play the part of the telephone operator failed to show up, and Hitchcock filled the breach.