Amazing Stories (1985) 1.06

The Amazing Falsworth

starring Gregory Hines, Richard Masur

written by Mick Garris, Steven Spielberg

directed by Peter Hyams

The Amazing Falsworth (Gregory Hines) a stage magician and psychic discovers (using his psychic abilities) that one of the members of the audience is a serial killer known as the Keyboard Killer. Falsworth tries calling the police but they don't believe him. A police detective shows up later that night to interview him .

Falsworth leads the detective to an apartment which he believes belongs to the Keyboard Killer. There's a piano there. Falsworth sits down at the piano to see what her can learn from using his paranormal ability from the piano. He sees the face of the killer. It's the face of the detective.

Thoughts

The further I got into this episode the easier it was to see the twist that was coming.

The fact that the word Amazing in the title of the episode led me to doubt that the episode would be any good. It was much better than I feared it would be. It's on a par with some of the better episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). It is partly the way the episode was shot and partly the performances by Hines and Masur that impressed me.

Notes

This is the only episode of this show in which Gregory Hines appeared. I've seen him in a few movies but the only one of which I've watched recently is History of the World, Part I (1981). 

This is the only episode of this show in which Richard Masur appeared. He was in five episodes of Orange Is the New Black but I don't recall anything about his appearances in that show.

This is the second of nine episodes for which Mick Garris wrote the teleplay. The first one was 1.02 The Main Attraction.

This is the only episode of this show that Peter Hyams directed. I've seen at least three movies he directed but none in recent years.