Dip in the Pool

Keenan Wynn plays an obnoxious jerk who very reluctantly has joined his wife on a once in a lifetime vacation. While they are not rich, she's saved so they can live it up and take a cruise to Italy...and this jerk of a husband complains and complains about having to go! Who wouldn't love a trip to Italy other than a jerk...or perhaps an Italian! But this guy doesn't want to be here. But what he does like it to try to impress his fellow passengers into thinking he's hot stuff...and he's a boorish guy who actually is disliked by some of these passengers. And, to try to impress one of them, he plays a bet which threatens to bankrupt them and ruin the trip. But after losing a small fortune, the guy comes up with a plan....a really dumb and ill-conceived one....one that is so dumb and full of holes it leads to disaster. In fact, as you watch you can't help[ but think this twist at the end is really clumsily written and doesn't quite work.

I still don't really understand the contest. Keenan Wynn plays big shot as he and his wife luxuriate aboard the Alfred Hitchcock, an ocean liner. She is really excited about all the historical places they will visit, the beauty spots of Europe. He is interested in gambling, drinking, showing off, and indulging himself. He wears an ugly, checkered sport coat and unknowingly embarrassed himself in front of the other more wealthy passengers. The couple has a really limited budget which he is already dissipating by overtipping waiters and buying expensive drinks. One night he finds out about a pool, where the heavy hitters bet on the distance the ship travels on a single day. He makes a huge bet, even by the standards of the more wealthy, and uses up just about every cent they have. He must then figure out a way to fix things. His solution couldn't get much stupider and there's the rub. By the way, Faye Wray appears in this episode without King Kong.

The story line includes video of the Queen Mary. The ending will surprise you.

I think because of the unbelievable ending, Hitch decided to direct this particular episode. It certainly fit his macabre sense of humor.

Portrait of a gambler and a fool. Keenan Wynn pulls this off beautifully, playing a gent who likes to take chances. He's a drinker and a show-off and spends his wife's (Louise Platt) money, all this during a cruise to Italy.

Bottom line; in between all the wild talk, Wynn places a risky bet on how far the ship could travel in a single day. Ridiculous fun for viewers, but not for this guy. The tangled Hitch web Wynn weaves for himself. And again, wait for the ending.

It will either make you laugh out loud at this kook or gasp.

Fay Wray (KING KONG) guest stars as Mrs. Renshaw. She made two appearances on the show, quite popular on tv at the time, following a ten year hiatus from acting in the 40s, later to take care of her ill husband.

A slightly different story from Robert C. Dennis, and you have to love Keenan Wynn's character's name. Is it Botobol or Butterball or Bottom of the barrel? Hitch and Dennis had to have a chuckle over that.

Guaranteed.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 35 remastered dvd box set. 5 dvds. 16 hrs running time. All these box sets make super gifts.

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.