“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is a seventh-season episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and was scheduled to be episode 39 of season 7. However, the network was worried about it. Robert Bloch, who wrote the screenplay and the short story that it was based on — it was in the January 1949 issue of Weird Tales — said,  “When the network censors viewed the teleplay, there was thunder from on high. This show was simply too gruesome to be aired. Nobody called me on the carpet because of this capricious decision. As a matter of fact, when the series went into syndication, my show was duly televised without a word from the powers that be.” 

Sadini the Great (David J. Stewart) rescues a young boy, Hugo (Brandon deWilde), sleeping in the cold. The magician’s wife, Irene (Diana Dors), thinks it’s a waste of time; he tells her to get the boy something to eat. The kid goes all over the big top and soon learns that Irene has been sleeping with another performer, George Morris (Larry Kert). In truth, Irene is using Hugo, setting him up to kill her husband by telling him that he can gain magic powers by killing Sadini.

As you can expect, it doesn’t work out well for anyone. This won’t be the first time Diane Dors is sawn in half. Just watch Berserk! 

Director Józef Lejtes started his career in Poland and went on to work on numerous episodic TV shows.

You can watch this on YouTube.