THE SORCERER"S APPRENTICE - Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962)

Good Evening, and get ready to "Hold Your Breath," because tonight I've got another great installment of  "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" for you! This tale was written by one of the master's of the short story, the great Robert Bloch, so you know it's going to be a little bit more than twisted!

It's the year 1962, and Season 7, Episode 39 was titled........

............"The Sorcerer's Apprentice!" The only thing it has in common with the Mickey Mouse version in Disney's "Fantasia," is the name, and.......failure!

David J. (Carnival Rock) Stewart is "Sadini the Great", a cheap two bit magician!

A dim-witted young man is found passed out near the great Sadini's trailer! In real life, this young man had quite a story to tell! His name was Brandon De Wilde, and he was nominated for an Oscar in his second film appearance at the age of 11, for the movie "Shane!" He had his own TV series that ran for a year in the 50's called "Jamie!" He was in "Hud" and "The Trip," and he died at the age of thirty in 1972 while on the way to the hospital to see his wife, he ran his camper into a parked truck!

Sadini is a good hearted chap, and he brings the kid into his trailer to see if he can revive him!

The "Siren of Swindon" Diana Dors is Sadini's wife Irene! The decor in the Sadini's home is fairly bizarre to say the least! Diana Mary Fluck, aka Diana Dors was often called the Marilyn Monroe of England! Strangely enough, this show was released the same year Marilyn Monroe died!

The kid's name is Hugo, and when he comes to, he is a bit startled by what he think he sees!

Hugo is completely convinced that the faces that are staring down at him are the face of an Angel and the face of The Devil!

Sadini lets Hugo hang around and help him out with odds and ends, and in the meantime, Irene is busy messing around with George as played by Larry Kert. Larry was really more of a singer and a dancer, and didn't work much in film or TV but, it should be noted that he had the original role as Tony in the Broadway version of "West Side Story!"

The finale to Sadini's act includes the cutting in half of his wife with a huge saw blade, a great trick that's been around for years!

I love this shot of the crowd of mesmerized audience members!

I told you Hugo is a little slow, and he starts to freak out watching this, but George explains to him that it's just a trick!

"Tah - Dah!!"

This shot cracks me up, the camera angle makes George look like he's the "Amazing Colossal Man!"

George figures out how they can use the kid to get rid of Sadini for good, but of course it ends up backfiring on him!

With the might of the magic wand comes great power!

After he stabs Sadini, Hugo decides to do the 'cut the woman in half' trick, but there's one slight problem!

He doesn't know how the trick works, so it's Good Night Irene!!!

No doubt the world would be a much less sane place without the likes of people like Alfred Hitchcock! His first film was made in 1922, but was never finished, and was called what else but? "Number 13," and his last production was made in 1976, some 54 years later! Another thing I dig about Alfred Hitchcock is all the cool one word titles he had in many of his films, like PSYCHO (another classic Robert Bloch novel), and the rest is going to come on like cool Beat Poetry: BLACKMAIL, MURDER!, SUSPICION, SABOTEUR, SPELLBOUND, NOTORIOUS, ROPE, VERTIGO, TOPAZ, and FRENZY!!!