Norman Lloyd directed nineteen 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' episodes, was a producer for most of the series' run and even acted in five episodes (his biggest role being in "Design for Loving"). His output was very up and down, but not unwatchable. His third episode "Six People, No Music" had an intriguing premise, that is very Hitchcockian-sounding, and an intriguing title. 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' did quite a lot of light hearted, played for laughs episodes and a number of them are done very well.
"Six People, No Music" is not a great episode, or a particularly good one. It is definitely watchable, particularly for the lead performance, but it is a case of the lead performance being better than the film itself and did feel very average. It is not one of Lloyd's worst episodes and it is much better than the very weak previous Lloyd-directed episode "Safety of the Witness", but there were certainly far better episodes in Season 4 (which did have a high number of very good and more episodes).
There are definitely good things. John McGiver is very good and has amusing comic timing and priceless reactions and facial expressions, that didn't come over as mugging, making the most of his larger than life character. Peggy Cass does a lot with her role. Hitchcock's bookending is suitably dry humoured. The theme tune is a classic and fits the macabre tone of the series really well.
It is well made visually, simple but slick and not too stagy. There is some nice irony here and there.
However, "Six People, No Music" is deeply flawed, mostly story related. It is very bland, apart from moments of amusing irony, with a severe lack of suspense. The assistant felt like padding and everything with the dead man eventually became too silly to take seriously, even for a played for laughs kind of episode. Pace-wise, the episode never really comes to life and feels very pedestrian.
With too much padding and a script that is too heavy on the talk, not all of it interesting or tight enough. Lloyd's direction is very undistinguished and the ending is not much of one and has an anti-climactic feel, will admit to actually completely forgetting what it was very soon after watching.
Bottom line, watchable as a one time watch but only just achieves average level thanks to McGiver. 5/10.