During the first part of this episode of "The Hitchcock Hour", I almost thought this might be one of the VERY best of the series - a somewhat strange little boy insists on visiting the 'Magic Shop' with his father for buying something with the money he got for his birthday; and the strange owner of the shop tells him that he's 'just the right kind', he shows him some rather queer and eerie magical tricks, and then puts him into a magic cabinet - from where he disappears into nowhere. His parents are desperately searching for him; but the next morning, he reappears from his bedroom as if nothing had happened - and yet something DID happen: he's completely changed, and his behavior soon starts alarming his parents VERY much...
Well, as I said, that was the first part - a very good adaptation of H.G. Wells' story, with a magnificent performance by John Magna as little Tony (friends of classic movies will surely recognize him as the boy who had to undergo that 'test of courage' in the great thriller "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte"), and some pretty chilling moments. But afterwards, the screenplay obviously moves away from Wells' story by depicting the typical atmosphere of a petty bourgeois 60s' US small town; and the 'horror' starts going into the reactionary direction of Stephen King and others, who a few years later would present us with 'possessed children' in the most disgusting way - it's only the really VERY unusual and unexpected ending that brings the story back onto the paths of H.G. Wells; and of Alfred Hitchcock, of course...
So, if you're able to endure the pedantic atmosphere that prevails throughout half of the episode, it IS worthwhile watching; for the really creepy beginning - and the most SURPRISING ending!