Burgess Meredith Let Himself Be Lit On Fire For The Sake Of The Twilight Zone
Burgess Meredith had a damn good run. He became a Broadway and film star almost simultaneously in the 1930s via his starring role in the Sacco and Vanzetti-based drama "Winterset," and turned in an unforgettable portrayal of George opposite Lon Chaney Jr.'s Lennie in Lewis Milestone's 1939 adaptation of "Of Mice and Men." He worked steadily, tirelessly until his death at the age of 89 in 1997. He was the Penguin on ABC's "Batman," the Italian Stallion's gruff-but-lovable trainer Mickey Goldmill in five "Rocky" movies, and Jack Lemon's surly Pops in the "Grumpy Old Men" movies.
And he was fortunate enough to appear in four particularly memorable "Twilight Zone" episodes.
Meredith's finest half-hour in the land of both shadow and substance, or things and ideas was obviously "Time Enough at Last," where he stars as a bibliophile who survives a nuclear apocalypse (and winds up wishing he didn't). The twist of this episode is vintage Rod Serling (though based on a short story by Lynn Venable), and Meredith was so strangely sympathetic as a selfish bookworm that we accepted him as a permanent resident of this nightmarish dimension. He was practically the on-screen mayor of The Twilight Zone (apologies to Twi).
Meredith's final visit to the Twilight Zone came during the show's most difficult season, when CBS forced Serling to plug a hole in the network's schedule and expand the episodes' run times to 50-ish minutes. On the plus side, his appearance in "Printer's Devil" was one of the season's highlights. Not so plus-side: he had to get lit on fire.
Flame on, Burgess!
Film and television set safety was pretty rock solid as both mediums entered the 1960s, but if you're gripped by a particular phobia, the presence of a top-notch stunt crew can only be so comforting. Being engulfed in flames is a fairly universal phobia. And, amazingly, in the early 1960s, actors could still be involved in pyrotechnic gags.
Computer generated effects were still a good 30 years off when Meredith played the Mephistophelean Mr. Smith in "Printer's Devil," so when his hell-sent character lights a cigarette sans match by snapping his fingers, the flame had to be real. And director Ralph Senensky (who would go on to direct the classic "This Side of Paradise" episode of "Star Trek") wasn't about to cheat. So they rigged up Meredith with a practical apparatus that allowed his hand to catch fire without burning to a crisp.
As Senesky explained in Marc Scott Zecree's "The Twilight Zone Companion":
"There was a wire that went onto a battery and ran up his pant leg through his shirt to his hand. Then they stuck his finger into a coffee can of ice water. It would just get good and cold. They poured lighter fluid over it and then, when he did this [snaps his fingers], they would hit the switch, the spark would ignite it, and the lighter fluid would burn. The finger was literally a step from being frozen, so that it wouldn't hurt."
It's a nifty trick, and it looks great on camera. Was it the coolest technical coup carried off by a "Twilight Zone" director? Not at all! But it didn't result in Meredith doing an impromptu Human Torch audition, so let's call this a win and thank the technology gods that actors aren't placed in such perilous situations anymore.