As for the police, they misunderstood the whole thing and arrested Hugo for murder.Īlthough the episode as filmed displayed no gore and left the details of the climax to viewers' imaginations, one of the series' sponsors nonetheless found the concept of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" to be too horrifying and protested against the episode's airing: Hugo was terribly upset and Irene was beside herself. The saw worked excellently, but the wand didn't. I don't know quite how to put this however. If the denouement of the episode wasn't obvious to some viewers, it was made clear in host Alfred Hitchcock's wry closing narration: Irene awoke to find herself strapped into the sawing-in-half trick's prop box as the buzzsaw cut into it, while a gleefully triumphant Hugo - convinced that his possession of Sadini's wand endowed him with a magical ability to pull off the trick successfully - pled with the terrified woman to "Smile! Smile!" But when Irene spurned Hugo's advances, they struggled and Hugo knocked her out. Taking advantage of Hugo's simple-mindedness, Irene sought to resolve the situation by convincing Hugo that Sadini was mistreating her, and that if he (Hugo) could gain possession of Sadini's magic wand, he would then have the same magical powers as her husband.Īn enraged Hugo solved the problem as expected, killing Sadini and then paying Irene a visit proudly garbed in the dead magician's costume. Unfortunately, Hugo's arrival complicated an already messy love triangle: Hugo developed a protective crush on Irene, who was herself carrying on an affair with George, another carnival performer. Hugo quickly became enchanted with Sadini's magic act, which culminated with Sadini's sawing his wife Irene in half with a buzzsaw and then restoring her to wholeness. The plot involved a transient, mentally underdeveloped young man named Hugo who was found and taken in by Victor Sadini, a magician performing with a traveling carnival. The episode that caused the controversy was entitled "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," adapted for television by Psycho author Robert Bloch from his 1949 short story of the same name. ( TV.Several television series aired episodes that were broadcast as part of the shows' regular network runs but for one reason or another were omitted from the syndication packages subsequently sold to local stations, thereby creating "lost" episodes that were not seen again by the general public for many years.Īn episode filmed for the seventh season of the suspense series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1961-62) reversed that phenomenon: Deemed unsuitable by a sponsor of the show, one installment of the program was never given a network airing and was not seen by television viewers until the series was sold into syndication. He picks up the cup and drinks it after committing his crime. She gives him a poisoned cup of coffee, and is killed shortly after by him. When her buying spree goes out of control, however, he realizes there is not enough to share. She gives him a choice: either let her spend some of the money at an expensive store or she'll call the police. When she sees the ad again, she realizes he kept the cash for himself. His wife tells him to give the wallet back, but John lies to her and tells her that he did so. He sees an ad in the paper asking for its return. He finds a wallet containing a lot of money. John Gaminsky loves the coffee his wife makes. "Reward to Finder" was originally broadcast on 10/Nov/1957 as part of the third season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
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