There are far more implausible episodes in the series, including some of Henreid's other episodes (i.e. Not just in the saggy pacing but also when the story seemed to get thinner rather than more eventful, which made the episode feel very bland and routine. The story is lacking in suspense in a story that was crying out for it and had a running out of ideas feel later on. Unfortunately, "Death Sentence" was an example of a good idea that felt under-cooked in the execution. The theme music for the series is delightfully macabre as expected. It looks quite good visually, with some nice moody photography. Hitchcock's bookending has some nice amusing drollness. Both leads are very good, particularly James Best in a performance that really unnerves. There are good things about "Death Sentence". Certainly had no issues with the acting, which is the main compensation, the episode just felt rather ordinary and bland. It is not an awful episode by all means, although as said Henreid's 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' output was very hit and miss even his weakest entries were better than most of the other prolific directors at their worst (Stevens and Herschel Daugherty for examples). "Death Sentence" unfortunately is closer to being one of the disappointments, though Henreid did do worse, including the aforementioned two. As far as his previous episodes go, there were winners like "Last Request" and "A Little Sleep" but also disappointments like "Silent Witness" and "Enough Rope for Two". As well as the second most prolific director, Henreid was also one of the more variable in terms of episode quality. 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. Paul Henreid was the second most prolific director for 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', the most being Robert Stevens.
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