History Main / CurtainCamouflage

* In ''Discworld/NightWatch'', Vetinari steps out from behind a curtain in his aunt's house, where some conspirators are meeting.

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* "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" The movie version of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', an example so famous [[TheManBehindTheCurtain it named a trope]].
* ''Film/UndercoverBrother''. The title character comes home and thinks there's someone hiding behind a curtain because he sees their shoes under it. He pulls the curtain aside to expose them but finds the shoes are empty. Then Sistah Girl shows up from offscreen and puts a gun to his head (she used her shoes as bait to distract him).

* At some point in the beginning of the first ''Film/ScaryMovie'', the killer hides behind a curtain. Or he would, if not for his [[HooksAndCrooks hook]] poking out.
* The killer in ''Film/{{Pieces}}'' hides behind the curtain when the cops arrive at his place.
* The Spielberg film ''Film/BatteriesNotIncluded'' [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduces one of its characters this way]]-- the big, burly former boxer is hiding from thugs, who easily find him.
* A cliffhanger ending of one of the episodes of the serial film ''Zorro's Black Whip'' shows the boots of the Black Whip behind a curtain, upon which the bad guys empty their pistols into it. Subverted as only the boots were behind the curtain, leaving the Black Whip free to deal with the bad guys (who now have unloaded pistols) at the start of the next episode.
* In the 1981 film ''Film/{{Looker}}'', the serial killer with the L.O.O.K.E.R. gun hides behind translucent curtains while stalking his prey, who cannot see him because the gun has rendered him invisible to her, and eventually wraps her up inside a curtain before she falls to her death.
* In ''Film/AmericanDreamer'', "Rebecca" (actually a housewife with EasyAmnesia, who believes she's the private detective in her favorite stories) sees shoes under a curtain and thinks someone is hiding like this. But it turns out a guy just placed his shoes under the curtain.

* In ''Film/ThePalmBeachStory'', Gerry hides from an intruder behind the shower curtain of her apartment.
* ''[[Film/{{Cleopatra 1934}} Cleopatra]]'': Pothinos hides behind a curtain in order to kill Cleopatra, or maybe Caesar. Cleopatra sees his shoes, however, and plunges a javelin into his stomach.

* ''Film/CatsEye'': In "Quitters,Inc.", Dick sees a pair of boots behind a row of coats in his closet. He delivers an impassioned plea about how he wasn't smoking. The next morning, the boots are gone and there are muddy footprints leading away from the closet.

* In ''Film/Madhouse1974'', the killer lurks behind the curtains in Ellen's bedroom, before lunging out to kill her.

* In a documentary, this played a part in how one Holocaust survivor manage to evade the Gastopo in a ghetto, however, she didn't use a curtain, she used her mother's long coat. After hiding her brother in a suitcase, she'd hide behind her mother's coat. It hid her pretty well.

* In ''Film/AmericanDreamer'' a housewife has EasyAmnesia and thinks she's the private detective in her favorite stories. In one scene she sees shoes under a curtain and thinks someone is hiding under them. It turned out a guy just left his shoes on the floor.

* In ''Film/AmericanDreamer'', "Rebecca" (actually a housewife with amnesia) thinks someone is hiding like this, but it's just shoes placed under the curtain.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' has the sisters being pursued by various B horror movie villains due to a spell gone wrong. One of them, being chased by an axe murderer, no less, hides in the shower.

* In the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "Charles Augustus Milverton," Holmes and Watson break into a blackmailer's house; when they hear noises coming toward the office, they quickly duck behind a curtain in time for some ExactEavesdropping [[spoiler:and a little murder]].
** In ''The Valley of Fear'', the assassin hides behind the curtain to catch the victim off guard. [[spoiler: ProperlyParanoid victim spots the shoe behind the curtain and attacks the murderer, who ends up being accidentally and [[BoomHeadshot rather gruesomely]] killed in the ensuing GunStruggle.]]
** In ''The Mazarin Stone'' Holmes hides behind one to spy on two men to learn where they hid the eponymous diamond. It works because they think the shape they see is actually a wax bust of Holmes that he made a point of showing them earlier that evening.

* In ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}},'' the title character stabs someone he thinks is Claudius through the arras he's hiding behind. It turns out to be Polonius. Though technically an arras is a heavy tapestry, it's still this trope in essence, [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples meaning...]]

Bonus points if you see the shoes peeking out under the bottom. Triple bonus if [[OutfitDecoy the shoes]] [[InvokedTrope were specifically put there]] to [[SubvertedTrope throw the searcher off the scent]].

There are only so many places a person can hide, but one that's available in most indoor locations is the common curtain. When someone's coming and you've got to get out of sight quick, just duck behind one of these and you're golden. Oh, drapery-- where would ExactEavesdropping and [[HilarityEnsues Wacky Hijinx]] be without you?

Bonus points if you see the shoes peeking out under the bottom. Triple bonus if the shoes were [[InvokedTrope specifically put there]] to [[SubvertedTrope throw the searcher off the scent]].

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[[folder: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" ]]
The movie version of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', an example so famous [[TheManBehindTheCurtain it named a trope]].

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* [[AC:"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"]] The movie version of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', an example so famous [[TheManBehindTheCurtain it named a trope]].

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* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' movie ''The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything''. The villains have captured the prince and are now looking for his little sister, and one of them flings a curtain aside when he thinks she's hiding behind it. She's not. He gives up in frustration, [[GaveUpTooSoon unaware that she's actually hiding under the floorboards.]]

There are only so many places a person can hide, but one that's available in most indoor locations is the common curtain. When someone's coming and you've got to get out of sight quick, just duck behind ones of these and you're golden. Oh, drapery-- where would ExactEavesdropping and [[HilarityEnsues Wacky Hijinx]] be without you?

* In the second ''LauraBow'' game, Laura can hide behind a tapestry in one area of the museum in order to eavesdrop on an important conversation.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Curtains2_7285.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Preach it, Supergirl!]]

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'': Jessica in Banquet, to hide from [[spoiler:EVA-Beatrice while she's busy playing with Nanjo's corpse.]]

* At some point in the beginning of the first ''ScaryMovie'', the killer hides behind a curtain. Or he would, if not for his [[HooksAndCrooks hook]] poking out.