edward@ukecc.UUCP (Edward C. Bennett) (11/06/85)
Ok, Ok, I'll admit it. The Amazing Falsworth" was a bit predictable. All along I suspected that the Richard Masur character was the killer, but that important phone call threw me off. Over all it was an interesting variation on the ol' catch-the-killer idea. Which brings me to another idea. While watching "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" last night I got to thinking about the 'whodunit' aspect of these shows. In case you missed it, AHP was about this girl who was being harrassed on the phone. Through the window of her apartment she can she the apartment a new neighbor watching her. She makes the incorrect assumption that the caller is the same man who she can see. She winds up killing the man she can see, only to find out after she has murdered him that the caller is someone else. About a third of the into the show, it occured to me that we never saw the man she could see actually make the phone calls. Which made me wonder, "does the director want us to figure things out?". Think about it, if we are allowed to determine the conclusion I think it builds the suspense because we can watch the main character walk right into danger. If we don't know the outcome yet, our sense of impending doom can't work on us. Alot of people having been complaining that they 'figured out' the plots of these shows. I think that's what we're supposed to do. Remember "Ellery Queen"? you couldn't figure things out until he started explaing the crime. And it usually a hinged on one tiny detail that was easy to miss. The point here was to make you feel the confusion the investigator felt. The director was challenging you to determine the outcome. With "AHP", Hitchcock wanted you to know the key detail so he could use it against you to create suspense. In Sunday's AS, we couldn't foresee the (albeit wierd) ending. We knew that Johnathan would be saved but we didn't know how. Fine, one kind of suspense. In Tuesday's AS, we knew (or at least suspected) that the star was in the hands of the killer all the time. We could see the danger but he couldn't. Again, fine, another kind of suspense. To wrap this up. Don't complian when you can see the end coming. You're SUPPOSED to see it! -- Edward C. Bennett UUCP: ihnp4!cbosgd!ukma!ukecc!edward /* A charter member of the Scooter bunch */ "Goodnight M.A."