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!!!

SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE / ZIV TV - Hour Of Nightmare - 1955

It's Flying Saucer Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's an episode from this early science based TV series, ZIV TV produced 2,153 programs during it's inception in the early fifties to 1965 and includes THE CISCO KID, BOSTON BLACKIE, THE UNEXPECTED, I LED 3 LIVES, HIGHWAY PATROL, A MAN CALLED X, SEA HUNT, DIAL 999, MEN INTO SPACE, THE AQUANAUTS, RIPCORD and more!

This episode of SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE holds a special place in my brain because I saw it in 1955 at age 7 and it scared the Hell out of me! Although the first two seasons (of three) were filmed in color, we only had a lowly black and white TV set. I recently bought the complete series on DVD, looking mainly for this standout episode. I totally enjoyed watching all 78 episodes with stars like Warren Stevens, Marshall Thompson, Arthur Franz and Kenneth Toby!

Eegah!! sent over a sound clip from this episode for our approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our lil' atomic UFO, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a little taste of... HOUR OF NIGHTMARE!

Here's our host Truman Bradley setting up the story for us, as heard in the sound clip.

The story's about a married couple who are photographers working for a magazine, the boss wants them to go to Mexico to investigate sightings of flying saucers! It's also rumored that some of the natives may have disappeared. William (DEVIL SHIP) Bishop and Lynn (THE AMAZING MISTER X) Bari play Mel and Verda Wingate.

Bronson Canyon got a lot of action from ZIV during the filming of this series. I showed this photo of Mel and Verda in their classic 1955 Dodge convertible traversing the terrain, supposedly in Mexico.

They seek out Ramon to guide them through the mountains. After a little coaxing, he agrees.

It's not long before they catch a glimpse of a real UFO! Unfortunately, they didn't have their cameras ready and were unable to get a shot of it...

That evening, the dang flying disc shows up again! It buzzes them and they snap a few shots.

Ramon finds the damaged rifle of his brother and wants to go back, but...

Mel talks him into continuing on as they also take photos of the wildlife for their magazine.

Later, the UFO returns and shines a bright light on them in the dark!

Then, Mel finds this glowing clocklike object, another thing I vividly remember from the show!

In trying to protect Mel and Verda from harm, Ramon takes the object at gunpoint and goes over to his horse, then, BOOM!!! The light from the UFO causes the object to explode!

Back at their hotel, Mel tells his boss that if he ever sees a spaceship, don't try to photograph it because the radiation will ruin the film!

Eegah!! is back tomorrow with more from The Dungeon, be there!

MAN FROM THE SOUTH - Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960)

 

This is just one of the many Alfred Hitchcock paperbacks I've had in my library since High School, so I guess it's about time we paid a little tribute to the man!

I watched a movie on Netflix not long ago from 1995 called "Four Rooms" that was a series of four vignettes in a hotel, and the trials and tribulations of the bellhop dealing with all the outrageous scenarios, and the last one was directed by Quentin Tarantino. They kept referencing an Alfred Hitchcock movie that starred Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre, and I was like, I've never heard of this movie! I did some searching and found out it wasn't a movie, but an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" from the year 1960!

There are only five guys in history named Alfred worthy of mentioning in this abbreviated format! Alfred Hitchcock, Alfred Nobel, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Weird Alfred Yankovic, and Alfred E. Neuman!

I can't remember exactly where I found this right now, but I think it was on Youtube!  This was season 5, episode 15! Netflix only streams the first three seasons for some reasons!

Las Vegas, vintage 1960 style, when Bingo still ruled, and the strip was just a pipe dream!

Hit it Mac!!

This is a bizarre little tale indeed! Imagine Steve McQueen as the same kid that was in "The Blob," two years later, after recovering from that bad scene, and now just another hard luck Charlie down on his luck in Vegas!

Neile Adams is his down and out counterpart! They both need some luck in their life!

If it appears that Steve and Neile's characters get along perfectly, it's because in real life they were man and wife at this point in their careers! Cute couple!

These two hit it off, and seem to be getting along famously when......................

.........Suddenly Peter Lorre shows up and makes Steve McQueen an offer, a challenge, a bet as it were!! Two of my favorite actors together! What a great surprise for me!

Peter will give Steve the keys to his brand new car if he can flip and light his Zippo lighter 10 times in a row! It's just that simple!

"And what's the catch?" Well, if he tries and fails, then Peter gets to chop off his little finger! Even back then, 'what ever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!'

So they all go up to Peter's room with Tyler (Attack Of The Giant Leeches) McVey, a guy they also met in the bar, trailing along as the witness to this whole sordid affair! Peter gets his meat cleaver ready!

The way Peter has got Steve's hand all tied down, you get the feeling he's done this before!!

ONE......................!

..............NINE!!!!!

Just in the nick of..., Katherine (The Rocket, The Veil, Mike Hammer, Johnny Midnight) Squire as Peter's wife bursts onto the scene, and completely interrupts Peter's little fun game!

She explains to the rest of the group that he's played this stupid game before, and that the car is not ever his, it's hers, so if you win the bet, you still lose, because he has nothing! It appears that Peter is totally whipped!

But the closing shot shows that despite her authoritarian presence, she has also played the game before and came out on the losing end! I'm figuring there must be a lot of solo digits laying around Vegas somewhere! It would make for a good scavenger hunt!!

Unless my luck changes, I'll be back on Saturday with more from the ultimate Master of the Macabre! Until then, "I'll be lurking for you......"