Editorial Review:Amazon.com:Rod Serling was definitely in the
Zone when he penned these two
Twilight Zone classics. Attention shoppers! Available for the first time on video,
The After Hours stars Anne Francis as a department store shopper who is shocked to be informed that the floor on which she bought a defective item that she wishes to return does not exist. And why does that mannequin bear an eerie resemblance to her missing saleswoman? This video also contains another must-own first-season episode,
Time Enough at Last, starring Burgess Meredith in a signature series role as a bespectacled, henpecked bookworm who survives a nuclear blast and finds himself alone at last with his precious books. The ending seems unduly cruel, but it's one that all
Zone aficionados rave about when they compare notes (see Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks in
Twilight Zone: The Movie). This is the first of three
Twilight Zone collectibles: tape 2 contains
Living Doll, one of the series' scariest episodes, and the thoughtful Serling-penned gem
The Eye of the Beholder. Tape 3 features the alien-in-a-diner puzzler
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up and
To Serve Man, which
TV Guide rightfully ranked as one of TV's top 100 episodes of all time.
--Donald Liebenson
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Average Rating:
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"Somebody!...Somebody!"
"Where Is Everybody?" is the title of the first TWILIGHT ZONE episode ever made; but the question is also asked by the protagonists of "Time Enough At Last" and "The After Hours." "Time Enough at Last" stars Burgess Meredith as a bookish bank teller named Henry Bemis. Scolded by his boss and his wife for being "a reader," Bemis retires to the bank's vault each day during his lunch hour to indulge his passion. One day while he is reading in the vault, a nuclear explosion occurs and the earth is turned into a wasteland. Stumbling upon the remains of a public library, Bemis declares that now he has all the time in the world to read - but does he really? Rod Serling's script for "Time Enough at Last" is whimsical though ultimately tragic, with similarities to both "The Obsolete Man" (also with Meredith) and "The Lonely."
Imagine entering a department store with the intention of buying a small item - like a gold thimble. You are beckoned to by an elevator operator and let off at the store's ninth floor - only to discover that the entire floor is dimly lit and deserted save for a smug saleslady and a single gold thimble. Later, you learn that the store has no ninth floor, and that the saleslady who waited on you is actually a mannequin! This is what happens to Marsha White (Anne Francis) in Serling's uncanny "The After Hours." A particularly notable quality of this episode is the absence, for long stretches, of music or dialogue - apt for this tale of a woman who finds herself alone in an empty, darkened store, with only mannequins for company. In my opinion, the essential theme of "The After Hours" is that of running from or ignoring one's true self.
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Life and Death Come in Many Forms
`THE AFTER HOURS' remains just as fresh and effective as when it was first aired on June 10, 1960 and its lingering haunting imagery remains engraved into one's subconscious. Who can ever forget Anne Francis as Marsha. Her impeccable performance and exquisite face are indelible. "Marsha" that very name and the way it was repeated over and over was so eerily unsettling sending chills down one's spine. This episode when compared to `WALKING DISTANCE' demonstrates the great versatility of Rod Serling as a writer. `WALKING DISTANCE' is probably the best prose that Serling ever penned where every bit of dialogue was so heartfelt and moving. In `THE AFTER HOURS' Serling gives us a more visual tale where the storytelling is more dependent on the images. Serling gives us a story of two strikingly opposite worlds that co-exist within a department store. The vivid contrast and the realistic depiction of those two worlds is at the core of this story that has a strange tinge of melancholy about it. Thanks to effective lighting, production design, photography, Douglas Heyes' Direction and impeccable acting it succeeds on all levels and is one of the definitive episodes of the series. In `TIME ENOUGH AT LAST' a bank teller brilliantly played by Burgess Meredith is a man whose nearsighted-ness is only matched by his preoccupation with reading. Becoming the only survivor of a devastating H-bomb catastrophe he is finally able to pursue his only real passion in life: reading and then more reading. Rod Serling's story interestingly juxtaposes the ultra-introverted world that Burgess Meredith has created for himself with a New World truly void of those human interruptions that would otherwise interrupt his self-imposed solitude. Due to a twist of fate however, the viewer must ponder how will he ever survive? `TIME ENOUGH AT LAST' first aired on November 20, 1959.
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Time Enough At Last
This video is excellent Iwatch it over and over again.
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What Does it Mean to really be Alone
Loneliness in its many forms is a recurrent theme that somehow seems very special to Rod Serling and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. "The After Hours" is one of the most haunting and unforgettable episodes. Anne Francis as Marsha gives one of the best-remembered performances from the entire series. Rod Serling examines the form of the department store mannequin in this eerie tale. This is one episode that you just never get out of your head. There seems to be a parallel or analogy with the darker regions of a department store to those dark corners of the mind. "Time Enough at Last" is good notably for Burgess Meredith's performance as a bookworm who apparently works as a bank teller just to escape his nagging wife and squeeze in time for his obsessive reading passion. I found the ending to be a bit too bitter a twist of fate. However, "Time Enough at Last" is another very memorable episode from Rod Serling because in fact the ending is a very bitter and unique pill to swallow.
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A Great Collection of Episodes
Making its debut on home video is the classic THE AFTER HOURS, which stars Anne Francis as a young woman shopping in a seemingly normal department store. After being locked in accidentally after closing time, the girl, Marsha, is visited by some strangely familiar mannequins.
'TIME ENOUGH AT LAST' has Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith) survive a H-Bomb that destroys civilisation and he the only survivor.
Truly mesmerising stuff.
