Generally, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" were very good shows. But like any anthology series, there were some great episodes as well as quite a few stinkers. However, by season three of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", the show was having more and more stinkers....episodes that I can only assume were rejected for earlier seasons and were used only when they'd run out of ideas. By the time "The Second Wife" debuted, there had been too many poor episodes...and this particular episode isn't very good either.
When the story begins, Martha (June Lockhart) has arrived in town to marry Luke (John Anderson)...a man she's never met. It seems her marriage was arranged by some matchmaking agency and instead of getting to know each other a bit, they head straight to the preacher to get married. Soon after, when Martha sees Luke's home and behaviors, she starts to have doubts about this marriage...especially when she begins to wonder what happened to Luke's first wife.
The episode has a strong sense of foreboding....without much discernable reason for this. Considering it's an hour-long show, I wish the writer had built up the suspense more logically instead of just relying on music and pained looks on Lockhart's face. And, since it was an hour, there were LOTS of pained looks and foreboding music!
So is it any good or is it yet another season three dud? Well, it's no dud...but it also isn't all that logical. I think that the ending COULD have worked much better had Martha seen more reasons to fear her new husband.