The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Series 2, Episode 13    Robert Stevens    John Collier (teleplay); H.G. Wells (story); James Parish (script)    Leslie Nielsen, Peggy McCay, John Megna    12 November 1964    48:06 (total) • 45:10 (film) • 1:32 (Hitchcock)    6/10

The Magic Shop

It's Tony Grainger's birthday and as he excitedly runs downstairs to open his presents with his father the doorbell rings. It's Mr. Adams, who has brought a gift for Tony (a piggy bank with lots of coins in it) - and some roses for Mrs. Grainger. The goofy-looking kid gets a fish tank, a camera, some money and a leather jacket and says that he wants to visit the magic shop. His father tells him there is no such place but Tony insists that there is. Later when Tony rushes across a street, almost causing an accident he is given a grilling by a policeman. Tony and his father find the magic shop and go inside where Tony pretty much messes about with everything on show! Tony looks into an image-bending mirror but when Mr. Grainger stands in front of it he sees no reflection of himself. After a while the owner, Mr. Dulong welcomes them to the store and is soon demonstrating some magic tricks for Tony, with lighbulbs, coins and rabbits. Tony wants more. He wants to see real magic. Another young boy and his mother arrive at the shop but cannot get in and soon leave. Dulong offers Tony a voodoo doll dressed as a policeman and tells him to use a pin to push into it but Mr. Grainger stops him and declares it all to be nonsense. Mr. Grainger is shown to a glass tank with toy snakes whilst Tony is encouraged to stick the pin into the police doll. Tony is told to hurry up and choose something because his father wants to get to the pet shop to buy stuff for his fish tank but Tony is adamant he wants to stay at the magic shop. Dulong entices Tony into a spinning crate for a magic trick and of course when Mr. Grainger, who is now growing more agitated, opens the box Tony is gone. Mr. Grainger examines the box and when he gets up he finds Dulong has vanished as well. He flies into a rage and later finds himself lying in the road and is picked up by an elderly motorist (Rolfe Sedan). When he looks up he discovers the magic shop is gone and is actually a travel agents. An ambulance passing by picks up Grainger when the medic sees him in distress and loads him into the back of the wagon. There, he finds the policeman from earlier who gave Tony a grilling for jaywalking, holding his chest and groaning in pain. Grainger recognises him and pleads with the officer to recollect him and his son. The cop initially ignores Grainger but does confirm he remembers them... heading for the travel agents. Mr. & Mrs. Grainger file a missing persons report at the police station but it doesn't seem to make much difference. That night they try to make some sense of what has happened to their son and the mystery surrounding the magic shop. The next morning Tony suddenly emerges from his bedroom as if nothing had happened and asks for breakfast. His parents naturally ask him the expected questions over his disappearance the day before but Tony declares that his birthday wasn't yesterday, but rather, some time ago. Tony is promptly taken to see a child psychologist but he doesn't give too much away. The doctor suggests that Tony be allowed to buy a pet dog, something he has so desperately wanted for some time. The first thing the dog does is bite Mr. Adams! Tony names his dog.... wait for it..... "Dulong" and vows to get it to do everything he tells it to do - and to do everything the dog tells HIM to do. Yep, that kid is odd. Oh, and goofy too. Tony gets into trouble with Susan, his neighbour when he seemingly uses magic to pop some balloons which some kids are playing with. After she threatens him, he sets off a sprinkler system on her. Tony's mother gives him a telling off but Tony dares anyone to interfere in his life. Later, the dog attacks Mr. Adams for a second time but this time he defends himself and kills the dog. When Tony finds out he tells Mr. Adams he won't get away with it and uses his magic to burn his house to the ground. It seems Tony doesn't like being told what to do and when his parents confront him, he has a surprise in store for them too! TRIVIA •Tony receives six presents for his birthday; seven if you include the one from Mr. Adams. •The magic shop is on Arkwright Street. •Inside the magic shop when Tony releases the guillotine, you can see a string pull the head off camera. •When Tony blows on the lightbulb I'm surprised his goofy teeth didn't fall out. Okay, I admit that was really unnecessary! •Tony's birthday is on the 28th of the month (the month is never revealed). •Tony calls his dog "Dulong". •When the kids are playing with the balloons in the back yard one of them says about their balloon going to the moon. Another child responds with, "only rocketships get to the moon". At the time this episode was filmed NO rocketships had ever made it to the moon. •The girl who tells Tony off for setting off the sprinklers complains that he has ruined her dress. Why, because it got WET? Seriously?? How did she ever expect to wash it then? •The Grainger's live at number 1600. •When Tony sets fire to the model... sorry, the HOUSE he stands and watches with a smile on his face. That is one sick puppy. •For gods sake, why doesn't somebody take the knife off Tony when both the parents realise what he is doing to the photograph? Why stand there and let him continue? •At the end, Mr Grainger says that the events of the story took place "a few years ago" - yet they all still look exactly the same... especially that goofy-looking kid. •Tony's full name is Anthony Richard Grainer.

HITCH'S PROLOGUE (46 secs + 21 secs): [Hitch is standing with a kite which is the same size as himself] "Greetings fellow astronauts. I believe the search for inexpensive space exploration is at an end. Our progamme thus far has achieved untold of heights in a budgetary sense. Now I am confident that we shall be able to reduce the important cost-for-mile factor to an unprecedented low. Simplicity is the key note. I believe a child could operate this ship, thus freeing men for more important tasks. We shall stage a demonstration this evening but first we wish to bring you a story. It is called 'The Magic Shop'. For that is where Steven Grainger has a frightening and eerie experience. It begins in a few moments." [Hitch is standing next to a boy who appears to be holding the kite] "Sorry you missed the blast off. Except for a moment when the tail was momentarily caught in the tree, it progressed without incident. Notice the ground-to-spacecraft communication. We shall continue our experimentation under cover of this station break and the second half of our show." HITCH'S EPILOGUE (25 secs): [Hitch is with the boy holding the kite, before the kid flies off screen] "Our daring astronaut sustained a skinned knee but that only made the sight more colourful. As for the criticism that our launching lacks dramatic sounds. I believe his screams will soon put an end to that loose talk. They say what goes up must come down. So while we wait for that truth to be verified we shall see some scenes from next week's story." SPOILERS Tony's powers are established whereby his parents witness him cutting up a photo of his father, leading to his father's face being cut for real. At this point the parents know that they must never upset Tony again otherwise he will have the power to practically do whatever he wants. This renders Mr & Mrs Grainger his prisoners for life.

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION... Don't you just love that brat kid?! The first half of the episode is pretty good, and the scenes in the magic shop are intriguing, albeit a little overplayed. The story takes a massive nose dive about halfway through and the kid goes from being annoying to being absolutely horrible. A few loose ends too. Some stuff which isn't explained, such as what ACTUALLY happened to the magic shop and its owner. I initially rated this a 7 but dropped to a 6 on account of the kid just being completely irritating. The story was a bit messy and as much as it was interesting to see Leslie Nielsen in a serious dramatic role, I'm afraid he is only a curiosity. Slightly above average, but that's about it. The early scenes just about do enough to save it.

THE CAST (click any image to enlarge)

Mr. Grainger... LESLIE NIELSEN Mrs. Grainger... PEGGY McCAY Tony Grainger... JOHN MEGNA Mr. Dulong... DAVID OPATOSHU Mr. Adams... PAUL HARTMAN Dr. James Stone, M.D... WILLIAM SARGENT Herlie... TED DE CORSIA First cop... HUGH SANDERS The old man... ROLFE SEDAN Eric's mother... AUDREY SWANSON Intern... ROBERT REINER Eric... BRIAN CORCORAN Onlooker #1... RON RICH Onlooker #2... LEODA RICHARDS

GALLERY (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394060/ [IMDb] This page was last updated on: 09 August 2020