Chimes at Midnight

Director: Orson Welles

Overview

Orson Welles used material from several Shakespeare plays for this memorable adaptation of "Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2," in which the friendship between the lovable old rogue Falstaff and the wild Prince Hal is fated to end when the young man gives up his dissolute life and assumes the throne England after the death of his father, King Henry IV. Working on a narrow budget, Welles achieved a film of astonishing grace and size, bringing to life the epic side of Shakespeare's histories in a dazzling battle sequence, as well as the comedy of Falstaff and his companions, and the heartbreaking drama of love and betrayal. Ralph Richardson narrates. (Alternate title: "Falstaff")

Product Details

Release Date:	07/10/2015
UPC:	0644827574223
Original Release:	1966
Language:	English
Sales rank:	21,050

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Orson Welles	Falstaff,Falstaff's Page
Keith Baxter	Prince Hal
Jeanne Moreau	Doll Tearsheet
John Gielgud	Henry IV
Margaret Rutherford	Mistress Quickly
Norman Rodway	Henry Percy--'Hotspur'
Marina Vlady	Kate Percy
Alan Webb	Justice Shallow
Tony Beckley	Poins
Fernando Rey	Worcester
Walter Chiari	Mr. Silence
Michael Aldridge	Pistol
Andrew Faulds	Westmoreland
Jose Nieto	Northumberland
Jeremy Rowe	Prince John
Patrick Bedford	Bardolph
Ralph Richardson	Narrator,Narrator
Julio Pena	Actor
Fernando Hilbeck	Actor
Andr?s Mejuto	Actor
Keith Pyott	Actor
Charles Farrell	Actor
Luis Ciges	le serviteur d'Henri
Juan Estelrich	Actor
Ingrid Pitt	Actor
Angelo Francesco Lavagnino	Composer

Technical Credits

Orson Welles

Angel Escolano	Producer
Emiliano Piedra	Producer
Alessandro Tasca	Executive Producer
Harry Saltzman	Producer
Orson Welles	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

William Shakespeare's history plays, often overlooked by filmmakers, provide the basis of Orson Welles' adaptation of several of the Bard's works, including Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, Richard III, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. That's right: Welles condenses five of Shakespeare's great plays into less than two hours. The one character uniting all these works is the loquacious, rambunctious, drunken Falstaff, played by Welles himself. Images of quiet melancholy and decay give way to a fiery film, full of the fury of betrayal as Falstaff's influence on young Prince Hal threatens the integrity of the monarchy. Welles fearlessly inverts the Shakespearean emphasis on Henry's rise to power, instead encouraging us to look at the world from the perspective of those he left behind in his climb to the top. The world of Falstaff is wooden, symbolized by his preference for inns, while the world of Hal is stone, focused on images of the castle. The brutal human cost of Henry's drive for power makes him an image of 20th century tyrants; and Welles may also be examining his own treatment at the hands of Hollywood studio executives, whom he felt had just as ruthlessly tossed him aside. As Welles spent almost all of his career operating outside the studio system, he was forced to produce films for a fraction of the cost of the typical studio film. Amazingly, he makes the castle sets and battle scenes look like they belong in a much more expensive epic, and, particularly in the Battle of Shrewsbury, he creates action sequences as good as any ever put on film. Welles does not abandon his long-standing interest in deep-focus cinematography, and the images are stunning. Sadly, the lack of money results in a muddled soundtrack, in which characters' words are often indecipherable. As words are Shakespeare's magical ingredient, that flaw tempers the film's impact.