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I never actually saw the film, instead I remember reading about it (I think on Wikipedia) a long time ago.

It's along the lines of a man not having time to read books in general. Something happens one day, however, and all other people vanish, and he is left alone with plenty of time. However he loses (or breaks) his glasses and can no longer read.

It's definitely an American production, and IIRC quite old. I remember about it from time to time because the plot seemed so over the top when I read about it.

haidahaida
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    This rings a vague bell. Perhaps a Twilight Zone type thing rather than a full movie. – Paulie_D Feb 27 '17 at 21:15
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    This is the top Google result for "last man on Earth loses glasses". – Chris Hayes Feb 27 '17 at 21:21
  • @ChrisHayes can't argue about that, but I just fired the question off the top of my head. :D – haidahaida Feb 27 '17 at 21:28
  • @ChrisHayes - not anymore. Now this question is ;-) – LeopardSkinPillBoxHat Feb 28 '17 at 03:58
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    “I just fired the question off the top of my head”: this is exactly what SE sites kindly ask not to do, and to do a modicum of research before asking. If you don't know the capital of France, posting a question on StackExchange shouldn't be your first instinct. – DaG Feb 28 '17 at 10:04
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    Parodied in Futurama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKgjahj-3qg – drolex Feb 28 '17 at 10:27
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    @DaG can't argue about that either, however: I remember having searched for it unsuccessfully quite some time ago (who knows, maybe googling was beyond me at the time); I was browsing this site when I remembered this question; and frankly, I thought it would benefit some fellow readers who would consequently find out this film/episode exists (if it were identified). While I didn't follow the etiquette, I don't believe it was an unreasonable question. – haidahaida Feb 28 '17 at 11:37

2 Answers2

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Aha..."Time Enough at Last" is the eighth episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Wikipedia

"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."

His despair gone, Bemis contentedly sorts the books he looks forward to reading for years to come. Just as he bends down to pick up the first book, he stumbles, and his glasses fall off and shatter. In shock, he picks up the broken remains of the glasses he is virtually blind without, and says, "That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was—was all the time I needed…! It's not fair! It's not fair!" and bursts into tears, surrounded by books he now can never read.

You can watch the whole thing at DailyMotion

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4lc1sl

Paulie_D
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    I never got this. Dude, just walk to your nearest optician. They'll probably have some glasses to clear up your vision lying around somewhere, even if you don't find your exact prescription. – James T Feb 28 '17 at 09:37
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    @JamesTrotter I think the implication is that he is so blind without his glasses that just finding an opticians will be herculean feat. Then, he has to sort through the piles of glasses (which by the way, only the outstanding orders have a chance of working, all the display ones will be no use). He would starve or die of dehydration before realistically finding a set of usable, especially in the time period the episode is set. – SGR Feb 28 '17 at 10:58
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    Plus, you know the world has been destroyed... "Leaving the bank, he sees that the entire city has been destroyed, and realizes that a nuclear war has devastated the Earth." – Paulie_D Feb 28 '17 at 12:50
  • Burgess Meredith was one of the greats, no doubt about it. – ognockocaten Feb 28 '17 at 14:52
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    obligatory link to futurama's parody of it: https://youtu.be/x4vctmsx3xw?t=2m21s – Kevin Milner Feb 28 '17 at 15:07
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    More realistically, why doesn't he just pick up the largest fragment of his glasses and hold it up to his eye manually to use as a makeshift monocle? – Shufflepants Feb 28 '17 at 15:10
  • @Shufflepants I did wonder that, though I can't say I'd want to be him if he stumbles again while holding shards of glass in front of his eyes. – Harris Feb 28 '17 at 15:11
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    Maybe he is not clever enough, because he skipped reading. – RayofCommand Feb 28 '17 at 16:59
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    What kind of nuclear war happened that killed everybody but left all the books intact and no radiation? – Michael Feb 28 '17 at 18:32
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    Yeah, he was an idiot -- as someone with -8.5 diopter correction, I can tell you that even the worst myopia doesn't keep you from navigating streets and buildings just fine. Unless he lost his memory, he knows where he is and where his regular optician is. And that's not even mentioning the more-or-less well known trick of squinting, or of looking thru a pinhole plate. – Carl Witthoft Feb 28 '17 at 19:58
  • And moreover - if he is now blind and alone (he thinks) on earth, why the crap is he worried about reading? He's gonna be too hungry to care about books in a day or so. – dgo Mar 01 '17 at 17:54
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You're thinking of the Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough At Last".

The main character is an avid bookworm, and gets in trouble for reading on his job at a bank. He goes into the vault to read uninterrupted, and while he's in there, nuclear war wipes out civilization. He emerges from the vault and is overjoyed at finally having enough time to read everything he wanted, but when he reaches down for a book, his glasses fall and shatter.

Roger
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