THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE (HITCHCOCK'S)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a once lost episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I don't usually review tv shows in this group but I reckon this one deserves a nod. It's a 30 minute episode based on a short story by Robert Bloch (Psycho author) about a deranged teenager who goes on a small killing spree inside a carnival side show. Made in 1960 it was banned from broadcast. The subject matter and its depiction was far too macabre and gruesome for audiences at the time and the episode disappeared for years. It was eventually found and issued as a bonus feature on many Hitchcock dvds. I watched it as part of the whole Alfred Hitchcock presents collection and its restoration is fantastic. This 30 minute film feels inspired and was no doubt influential. It came about the same year as Hitch & Bloch's Psycho and given the similarities between this killer and Norman Bates, it makes me wonder if this was a sort of test-run. The shocking end scene is the stuff of classics and I have seen it imitated countless times since. I would love to have been alive back then to witness this kind of controversial and audacious stuff for the first time. I can imagine the reaction in lounge rooms IF this was actually broadcast. People would have fainted... people would have been traumatised.... and Hitch would have had a great chuckle at their expense! ♥

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