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penpusherIsolation is a constant theme throughout the series and we have another example of that, in this episode.
***SPOILERS ABOUT THIS EPISODE MAY BE REVEALED***
Even if you had never seen any of "The Twilight Zone," you likely know the plot of this story, which has both been celebrated and parodied in popular culture, almost since it first aired on November 20th, 1959.
And it's yet another eventual Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee - Burgess Meredith plays a guy named Henry Bemis, a man with poor eyesight and who wore what were often referred to as "Coke Bottle" glasses, lenses so thick they magnified his eyes. Despite the vision issues, Henry loved to read and was looking for every opportunity to do so, even reading while performing his job as a bank teller. He tried to engage his customer with the plot of David Copperfield, but she was more annoyed that the clerk didn't count her money correctly.
Mr. Bemis' boss also was upset by this reading on the job, and Bemis' pension for going into the vault downstairs with books and newspapers during his lunch hour. Bemis tells him his wife won't let him read at home. She has a very social lifestyle and wanted her husband to participate, not have his nose stuck in a book.
Rod Serling throws in a tribute to "The Aldrich Family," (a long time radio and early television show that always opened with the family's matriarch calling for her son: "Hennnn-REEEEEE! Henry Aldrich!") as Henry's wife (Jacqueline deWit) sounds an identical alarm that she's coming through.
After chiding him for not talking to her and stealing his evening paper, he must get ready to visit the neighbors for an evening of cards. As wifey exits, Henry retrieves his secret treat from under his seat cushion: A small volume of poetry which he surreptitiously slips into his jacket pocket. But when the spouse finds it and asks Henry to read her something from it, he sees she has crossed through every line on every page. "Why do you do this, Helen?" He asks. "Because I'm married to a fool."
Next day, at work, Henry does his usual routine of taking his brown bag and some reading material down to the vault for lunch. The newspaper headline says: H-BOMB CAPABLE OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION. Then a massive explosion occurs, rattling the room and seemingly knocking Henry out.
As Henry awakens and pushes the vault door open, he sees nothing but carnage. The bank and everyone in it was destroyed, as was the case for his town, including his home.
But the grocery store had plenty of food, so he won't starve, and he had a makeshift bed from someone's sofa in the street (though, seriously, smoking in bed and dropping the unfinished butt isn't a good image, even after the apocalypse!)
Poor Henry, alone in the world, grew despondent, wandering around, seeking fellow survivors that weren't there. He came across a sporting goods store and found a gun, intending to end his misery when, he sees it: the remains of the Public Library.
Henry can't believe his eyes, shelves of the world's best books!
Bemis Book Club - Meredith revels in reading, for one brief moment.
He goes about stacking the novels, plays, short stories and biographies in the order he will read them, and he has time to do it. That's when he looks down at the marble steps where he laid a book down, his glasses slip off his face and shatter.
"That's not fair," Henry laments as he picks up the empty frames of the glasses that used to let him see. "There was time, now. There was all the time I needed."
The poignant performance of Meredith, as the suffering worker and husband, then as the lone survivor of this disaster is what makes it such a classic. You can't help but feel for him. But also, you hope he can somehow find his way to an optometrist's office rather than locating that revolver in the remains of that sporting goods store.
I give"Time Enough At Last" a 9 out of 10.
***SPOILERS ABOUT THIS EPISODE MAY BE REVEALED***
Even if you had never seen any of "The Twilight Zone," you likely know the plot of this story, which has both been celebrated and parodied in popular culture, almost since it first aired on November 20th, 1959.
And it's yet another eventual Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee - Burgess Meredith plays a guy named Henry Bemis, a man with poor eyesight and who wore what were often referred to as "Coke Bottle" glasses, lenses so thick they magnified his eyes. Despite the vision issues, Henry loved to read and was looking for every opportunity to do so, even reading while performing his job as a bank teller. He tried to engage his customer with the plot of David Copperfield, but she was more annoyed that the clerk didn't count her money correctly.
Mr. Bemis' boss also was upset by this reading on the job, and Bemis' pension for going into the vault downstairs with books and newspapers during his lunch hour. Bemis tells him his wife won't let him read at home. She has a very social lifestyle and wanted her husband to participate, not have his nose stuck in a book.
Rod Serling throws in a tribute to "The Aldrich Family," (a long time radio and early television show that always opened with the family's matriarch calling for her son: "Hennnn-REEEEEE! Henry Aldrich!") as Henry's wife (Jacqueline deWit) sounds an identical alarm that she's coming through.
After chiding him for not talking to her and stealing his evening paper, he must get ready to visit the neighbors for an evening of cards. As wifey exits, Henry retrieves his secret treat from under his seat cushion: A small volume of poetry which he surreptitiously slips into his jacket pocket. But when the spouse finds it and asks Henry to read her something from it, he sees she has crossed through every line on every page. "Why do you do this, Helen?" He asks. "Because I'm married to a fool."
Next day, at work, Henry does his usual routine of taking his brown bag and some reading material down to the vault for lunch. The newspaper headline says: H-BOMB CAPABLE OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION. Then a massive explosion occurs, rattling the room and seemingly knocking Henry out.
As Henry awakens and pushes the vault door open, he sees nothing but carnage. The bank and everyone in it was destroyed, as was the case for his town, including his home.
But the grocery store had plenty of food, so he won't starve, and he had a makeshift bed from someone's sofa in the street (though, seriously, smoking in bed and dropping the unfinished butt isn't a good image, even after the apocalypse!)
Poor Henry, alone in the world, grew despondent, wandering around, seeking fellow survivors that weren't there. He came across a sporting goods store and found a gun, intending to end his misery when, he sees it: the remains of the Public Library.
Henry can't believe his eyes, shelves of the world's best books!
Bemis Book Club - Meredith revels in reading, for one brief moment.
He goes about stacking the novels, plays, short stories and biographies in the order he will read them, and he has time to do it. That's when he looks down at the marble steps where he laid a book down, his glasses slip off his face and shatter.
"That's not fair," Henry laments as he picks up the empty frames of the glasses that used to let him see. "There was time, now. There was all the time I needed."
The poignant performance of Meredith, as the suffering worker and husband, then as the lone survivor of this disaster is what makes it such a classic. You can't help but feel for him. But also, you hope he can somehow find his way to an optometrist's office rather than locating that revolver in the remains of that sporting goods store.
I give"Time Enough At Last" a 9 out of 10.