Time Enough at Last

Episode aired Nov 20, 1959
TV-PGTV-PG
25m

8.9/10

S1.E8

A henpecked book lover finds himself blissfully alone with his books after a nuclear war.A henpecked book lover finds himself blissfully alone with his books after a nuclear war.A henpecked book lover finds himself blissfully alone with his books after a nuclear war.

8.9/10

6.4K

Director
- John Brahm
Writers
- Rod Serling(teleplay by)
- Lynn Venable(based on a short story by)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Photos22

Jacqueline deWit in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Jacqueline deWit and Burgess Meredith in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Burgess Meredith and Vaughn Taylor in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Director
- John Brahm
Writers
- Rod Serling(teleplay by)
- Lynn Venable(based on a short story by)
All cast & crew
See more cast details at IMDbPro

Henry Bemis loves to read. The only problem is that he can find neither the time nor the place to enjoy his pastime. At work, his boss has let him know in no uncertain terms that he is not to read during working hours. At home, his shrewish wife won't even let him read a newspaper, let alone a book. One day, he sneaks down to the vault in the bank's basement to read a bit and suddenly, there is a huge explosion above. He emerges to find the world destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. He does find books from the library and he sees a great deal of reading time ahead of him. Except for one small unintended event. —garykmcd

bank vault sole survivor post apocalypse eyeglasses bookworm 70 more

Trivia
Out of the 92 episodes of The Twilight Zone written by Rod Serling, this was his personal favorite.

Goofs
"The Daily Chronicle", the newspaper being read by Henry Bemis in the bank vault, despite its being "published daily" (according to its front page) contains no date.

Quotes
Rod Serling - Narrator: [Closing Narration] The best-laid plans of mice and men - and Henry Bemis, the small man in the glasses who wanted nothing but time. Henry Bemis, now just a part of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself. Mr. Henry Bemis - in the Twilight Zone.

Connections
Edited into The Clock (2010)

Soundtracks
Twilight Zone Theme
(theme song)
Composed by Bernard Herrmann
(season 1)

Top review

Now wherever did I put that gun?

Bespectacled bank clerk Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith), henpecked by his wife and harassed by his boss, simply yearns for enough time to indulge in his favourite pastime: reading. He eventually gets his wish when a nuclear war wipes out everyone but him—but this being The Twilight Zone, things don't go quite as well as they might for poor Mr. Bemis...

'Time Enough At Last' is one of the best loved Twilight Zone episodes, a solid gold classic with a corker of a twist that brilliantly illustrates creator Rod Serling's warped sense of humour. The bitter irony of Mr. Bemis's final plight deftly combines both comedy and tragedy, and as the credits roll, one can easily imagine the poor fellow, so ecstatic a few minutes before, scrabbling around blindly in the ruins desperately trying to relocate the gun he had earlier.

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