Paul Henreid was the second most prolific director for 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', the most being Robert Stevens. None of the regular directors for the series were consistent, with pretty much all of them having a mix of very good and more and not particularly good episodes. As well as the second most prolific director, Henreid was also one of the more variable in terms of episode quality. This is obvious in his previous two entries, both in Season 2, with the disappointing "Vicious Circle" and the very good "A Little Sleep".
"Silent Witness" unfortunately returns to the disappointing standard and is closer to the quality of "Vicious Circle" (except with a far sillier premise) than to "A Little Sleep". It is the first disappointment of Season 3, which was actually very good up to this point with me really liking to loving all the previous episodes, and one of the weaker episodes of the first quarter of the season. It does nothing to make a not particularly plausible premise any more probable and is even less interesting than it sounds. The acting is on the whole fine but the story execution just wasn't there.
The best aspect is the acting. Dolores Hart allures and Patricia Hitchcock is a strong presence too. Don Taylor's role can be preposterous and not as sinister as it ought to have been, but he does do his conscientious best and is suitably intense. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably ironic and he delivers it drolly.
It is moodily and slickly filmed and the audio has the right amount of atmosphere. The theme music is great. It starts off quite well.
For all those good things, "Silent Witness" could have been so much better than it turned out. The script is too talky and the pace could have been a lot tighter. Henreid's direction is undistinguished and fails to generate any tension.
Worst of all is the story, it is not an appealing or easy to swallow premise to begin with but the storytelling is beyond far fetched and silly for reasons already given and lacks any kind of tension and suspense. There are a lot of vague and what the heck-inducing character decisions, and the way Taylor's character behaves is dumb and borderline improbable. Which really trivialises any menace the character could have had. The ending is a real let down, such a shame that the season went from the previous episode's knockout twist to one of the series' most far fetched copouts.
Overall, didn't really do it for me. 5/10.
"Silent Witness" unfortunately returns to the disappointing standard and is closer to the quality of "Vicious Circle" (except with a far sillier premise) than to "A Little Sleep". It is the first disappointment of Season 3, which was actually very good up to this point with me really liking to loving all the previous episodes, and one of the weaker episodes of the first quarter of the season. It does nothing to make a not particularly plausible premise any more probable and is even less interesting than it sounds. The acting is on the whole fine but the story execution just wasn't there.
The best aspect is the acting. Dolores Hart allures and Patricia Hitchcock is a strong presence too. Don Taylor's role can be preposterous and not as sinister as it ought to have been, but he does do his conscientious best and is suitably intense. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably ironic and he delivers it drolly.
It is moodily and slickly filmed and the audio has the right amount of atmosphere. The theme music is great. It starts off quite well.
For all those good things, "Silent Witness" could have been so much better than it turned out. The script is too talky and the pace could have been a lot tighter. Henreid's direction is undistinguished and fails to generate any tension.
Worst of all is the story, it is not an appealing or easy to swallow premise to begin with but the storytelling is beyond far fetched and silly for reasons already given and lacks any kind of tension and suspense. There are a lot of vague and what the heck-inducing character decisions, and the way Taylor's character behaves is dumb and borderline improbable. Which really trivialises any menace the character could have had. The ending is a real let down, such a shame that the season went from the previous episode's knockout twist to one of the series' most far fetched copouts.
Overall, didn't really do it for me. 5/10.