By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Burgess Meredith is one of the finest screen actors of all time. He can captivate easily. In many ways, he was the reason the original Rocky was such a success. His personality and talent easily grabs the audience and doesn’t let go.
The same is true for his performance as Mr. Henry Bemis. For the few who haven’t seen the classic episode; he’s a banker who absolutely adores books. He is so focused on Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. He accidentally shortchanges a patron which isn’t unusual, but this time he gets fired. He goes home to an angry wife who grabs the newspaper out of his hand stating that he buries himself in the written word and avoids conversation.
The wife is so wicked that she destroys his books. Bemis is a sympathetic character as despite the standoffishness of Bemis, he never loses his human side. He’s awkward, and anti-social, and completely wrapped up in anything written down.
Catastrophe strikes and all the occupants of earth are killed in a nuclear war where Bemis is the only survivor. He looks around at what’s left of his planet and says in the most chilling way that hits directly home, “The thing of it is, I’m not so sure I want to be alive.” When you think of his predicament as the sole survivor of the world, the question has to come to mind. To drive it home the way that Meredith does is mastery.
After the shock and dismay wears off and after a near suicide attempt, he finds a library filled with books and realizes he can finally read them without anyone interrupting him. Then as fate would have it – his glasses break. Henry Bemis needs someone. He needs human interaction. He needs something that neither a book nor he himself can provide -and there’s no one there to help.
It’s a fantastic tale with the type of moral you’d expect from the Twilight Zone. A place where nothing is black and white despite what the color of your television is telling you.
Scared Stiff Review 10/10 I want Burgess Meredith cloned!
