Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favourite directors, and has been ever since seeing 'Rear Window' in my teens. While it did have misfires, his series 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' is very interesting and most of the episodes are good and more. He directed seventeen of them himself, and some were wonderful. Standouts being "Breakdown", "One More Mile to Go" and "Lamb to the Slaughter". A few missed, with "Wet Saturday" being one of my least favourite episodes.
While quite liking the premise, which is not an innovative one but anything centering around a serious, relevant issue always peaks interest, "Dip in the Pool" didn't really do it for me. As far as Hitchcock's episodes go, it is a lesser effort and didn't really feel like Hitchcock. It is though nowhere near as much of a misfire as "Wet Saturday", at least this episode didn't have any performance on the same level as "one of the worst of the series" in the way that did.
It is not a mess by all means. Keenan Wynn does do a good job, didn't like his character but really appreciated how he gave the part his all without looking as if he was trying too hard. The production values are slick and atmospheric, with some very effective shots in the final act particularly. Didn't like the ending on the whole, but the photography did effectively give some unease.
Hitchcock's bookending is amusing in a droll way, in a way that is distinctively Hitchcock. The theme music is a classic, "Funeral March of a Marionette" being one of my favourite uses of pre-existing classical music in television (or at least pre-existing classical music used for theme music). It does start off very well, intriguing and fun.
Shame however that "Dip in the Pool" loses its way too early and never recovers. It is severely lacking in suspense, which is disappointing considering that Hitchcock was nicknamed the master of suspense and nowhere does the episode live up to that nickname. Actually had a hard time believing that this was directed by Hitchcock when it could easily have passed for lesser Robert Stevens. It also got really silly and far fetched to an excessive degree in the second half, to the point where it was difficult to take it at face value the dumber his plan got.
Despite Wynn being good, to me the character was just too over the top obnoxious and it badly unbalanced the episode. As well as silly and far fetched, the second half also felt too stretched out and running out of ideas like. The episode does tend to be too talk heavy, and count me in as one of the people underwhelmed by the ending outside of the photography. Some have liked it, but for me although very surprising it was one of the clumsiest ones of Season 3 as well as one of the dumbest.
Rather disappointing on the whole though watchable. 5/10.