If magazine. It told in a clipped, bland manner the story of a harassed little bookworm who survives a nuclear war and is faced with a blissful future of solitude in which to read … only to break his glasses. The story was cute, clever and forgettable.
What Serling did with this piece was to expand it, flesh out its characters (the short story has almost no dialogue) and transform it into a show that is unforgettable in its humor, its humanity, and its tragedy. Central to this transformation was Serlings delineation of Mr. Bemis. In the short story, he is just a chess piece moved from square to square. But in the show, Serling takes the time to acquaint us with this mild, introspective and funny man, to get to know and like him, so that when disaster befalls him, we feel an overwhelming sympathy. Take, for example, this piece of dialogue, original with Serling, that does nothing to advance the plot, but much to reveal the character. The scene is the bank in which Bemis works. He is counting money out to a customer:
bemis: Mrs. Chester, have you ever read David Copperfield?
mrs. Chester: Hows that?
bemis: Its a wonderful book. Theres this poor
little fella, and his father has passed away and his mother has married this miserable man called Murdstone. Isnt that a villainous name? Murdslonz.
Well, this Murdstone has a sister called Jane
mrs. Chester: Mr. Bemis, you shortchanged me again!
You owe me one more dollar! See?
Theres only twenty-four here and there should be twenty-five!
bemis: Oh! Im terribly sorry, Mrs. Murder,
uh, Mrs., uh, Chester …
Playing Bemis is Burgess Meredith, star of the film adaptation of Of Mice and Men, and two-time Oscar nominee (for Day of the Locust and Rocky). It is the first of four episodes he will do for The Twilight Zone, and his performance shines. John Brahm, director of Time Enough at Last, says of working with Meredith, It is so easy. He understands immediately. You respect him. Actually, one can say that everything moves right, from the beginning, without much talk. Burgess Meredith is in a class by himself. Mention should also be made of the wonderfully obnoxious performances turned in by Vaughn Taylor and Jacqueline deWit as Bemiss monstrous, anti-literate boss and wife, respectively.
A great deal of ingenuity went into the making of Time Enough at Last. To give Meredith a properly bookwormish appearance, he was given a fake moustache and tremendously thick glasses (two pairs were actually used; one with thick, distorting lenses for the closeups, and another with window glass so that Meredith could see on the long shots). To get across the idea of a nuclear attack, all cliches were avoided. There are no stock shots of mushroom clouds nor of real destroyed cities. Instead, the focus is moved in close. Bemis is in the bank vault, eating his lunch. He glances down casually at a book lying on the floor next to his pocket watch. Suddenly, the book flips open. The glass in the watch shatters. Then the concussion hits. To accomplish this last effect, George Clemens had the entire set built on springs, so that both the camera and the set could shake at the same time.
The after-the-Bomb sets were also particularly striking. Two different sets were used. One was a seemingly huge Bomb-wrecked landscape, complete with stormcloud-filled skies. In reality, this set was built on a soundstage, with a sky originally painted for a motion picture. In order to bring out the clouds even more, Clemens decided to use a blue filter, which was quite unorthodox so unorthodox, in fact, that when he had to take off half a day to go to court and had to explain the procedure to a replacement, Clemens remembers, He was scared to death!
The other set was an enormous flight of steps, representing the sole remains of a massive library. In reality, these impressive steps were a standing set on the MGM backlot. Generally, actors would be filmed standing on or walking up the steps, and then a painting of a
What Serling did with this piece was to expand it, flesh out its characters (the short story has almost no dialogue) and transform it into a show that is unforgettable in its humor, its humanity, and its tragedy. Central to this transformation was Serlings delineation of Mr. Bemis. In the short story, he is just a chess piece moved from square to square. But in the show, Serling takes the time to acquaint us with this mild, introspective and funny man, to get to know and like him, so that when disaster befalls him, we feel an overwhelming sympathy. Take, for example, this piece of dialogue, original with Serling, that does nothing to advance the plot, but much to reveal the character. The scene is the bank in which Bemis works. He is counting money out to a customer:
bemis: Mrs. Chester, have you ever read David Copperfield?
mrs. Chester: Hows that?
bemis: Its a wonderful book. Theres this poor
little fella, and his father has passed away and his mother has married this miserable man called Murdstone. Isnt that a villainous name? Murdslonz.
Well, this Murdstone has a sister called Jane
mrs. Chester: Mr. Bemis, you shortchanged me again!
You owe me one more dollar! See?
Theres only twenty-four here and there should be twenty-five!
bemis: Oh! Im terribly sorry, Mrs. Murder,
uh, Mrs., uh, Chester …
Playing Bemis is Burgess Meredith, star of the film adaptation of Of Mice and Men, and two-time Oscar nominee (for Day of the Locust and Rocky). It is the first of four episodes he will do for The Twilight Zone, and his performance shines. John Brahm, director of Time Enough at Last, says of working with Meredith, It is so easy. He understands immediately. You respect him. Actually, one can say that everything moves right, from the beginning, without much talk. Burgess Meredith is in a class by himself. Mention should also be made of the wonderfully obnoxious performances turned in by Vaughn Taylor and Jacqueline deWit as Bemiss monstrous, anti-literate boss and wife, respectively.
A great deal of ingenuity went into the making of Time Enough at Last. To give Meredith a properly bookwormish appearance, he was given a fake moustache and tremendously thick glasses (two pairs were actually used; one with thick, distorting lenses for the closeups, and another with window glass so that Meredith could see on the long shots). To get across the idea of a nuclear attack, all cliches were avoided. There are no stock shots of mushroom clouds nor of real destroyed cities. Instead, the focus is moved in close. Bemis is in the bank vault, eating his lunch. He glances down casually at a book lying on the floor next to his pocket watch. Suddenly, the book flips open. The glass in the watch shatters. Then the concussion hits. To accomplish this last effect, George Clemens had the entire set built on springs, so that both the camera and the set could shake at the same time.
The after-the-Bomb sets were also particularly striking. Two different sets were used. One was a seemingly huge Bomb-wrecked landscape, complete with stormcloud-filled skies. In reality, this set was built on a soundstage, with a sky originally painted for a motion picture. In order to bring out the clouds even more, Clemens decided to use a blue filter, which was quite unorthodox so unorthodox, in fact, that when he had to take off half a day to go to court and had to explain the procedure to a replacement, Clemens remembers, He was scared to death!
The other set was an enormous flight of steps, representing the sole remains of a massive library. In reality, these impressive steps were a standing set on the MGM backlot. Generally, actors would be filmed standing on or walking up the steps, and then a painting of a
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