[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[
"All the Time in the World" was an episode of the Twilight Zone that dramatized despondency to hopefulness to the ironic agony of bank teller Henry Beemis [played by Burgess Meredith, most famous for his role as The Penguin in the Batman TV series] when he realizes he can transcend the isolation and guilt of being the sole survivor of a nuclear blast - after having his lunch inside the closed vault of the bank he works at where he'd gone with a book and a sandwich - slowly sensing the situation’s stark solipsism while stumbling around what's left of his post-apocalyptic town to find the public library intact, ecstatic that he'll have all the time in the world to read anything he'd like, “I never had much solitude. I’m really very fortunate,” stacking a yearsworth of reading on each step … before he breaks his coke-bottle eyeglasses to a discordant soundtrack and the weighty words of Rod Serling [a sleepless workaholic whose manic energy was fueled by amphetamines and coffee] who reminds us that we're in the Twilight Zone….
Opening narration:
Witness Mr. Henry Bemis, a charter member in the fraternity of dreamers. A bookish little man whose passion is the printed page but who is conspired against by a bank president and a wife and a world full of tongue-cluckers and the unrelenting hands of a clock. But in just a moment, Mr. Bemis will enter a world without bank presidents or wives or clocks … or anything else. He'll have a world all to himself - without anyone.
Mr. Carsville, Bank Manager: You, Mr. Bemis, are a reader!
Henry Bemis: A reader?
Mr. Carsville: A reader! A reader of books, magazines, periodicals, newspapers! I see you constantly going downstairs into the vault during your lunch hour.
[Bemis tries to sit down, but Carsville slams his hands on the desk]
Mr. Carsville: An ultimatum, Mr. Bemis! You will henceforth devote time to your job and forget reading or you'll find yourself outdoors on a park bench reading from morning to night for want of having a job! Do I make myself perfectly clear?
Henry Bemis: Oh, that's perfectly clear, sir, it's just that...
Mr. Carsville [interrupting]: "Just that" what, Bemis? Make it quick and get back to your cage!
Henry Bemis [sitting down]: It's just that my wife won't let me read at home. See, when I get home at night and try to pick up a newspaper, she yanks it out of my hand! And then after dinner, if I try to find a magazine, she hides them. Well, I got so desperate, I found myself trying to read the labels on the condiment bottles on the table. Now, she won't even let me use the ketchup.
Mr. Carsville [smiling]: Unasked, I give my reaction to this: your wife is an amazingly bright woman.
Closing narration:
The best-laid plans of mice and men - and Henry Bemis, the small man with 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.
]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]