Chimes at Midnight

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Chimes at Midnight
Directed by	Orson Welles
Produced by	Ángel Escolano Emiliano Piedra Harry Saltzman
Written by	William Shakespeare Orson Welles
Starring	Orson Welles Jeanne Moreau Margaret Rutherford Keith Baxter John Gielgud Marina Vlady Fernando Rey Beatrice Welles Ingrid Pitt
Release date(s)	December 22, 1965 (Spain)
Running time	117 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Chimes at Midnight (aka Falstaff) is a 1965 film directed by Orson Welles based around the character of Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare. Orson Welles himself played Falstaff, Keith Baxter was Hal and John Gielgud as Henry IV. Jeanne Moreau appeared as Doll Tearsheet and Margaret Rutherford as Mistress Quickly.

The script contains text from five Shakespeare plays: primarily Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2, but also Richard II, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. The film's narration, spoken by Ralph Richardson, is taken from the chronicler Holinshed.

The film was nominated (in 1968) for a BAFTA film award for Welles as Best Foreign Actor. At the Cannes Film Festival Welles was nominated (in 1966) for the Golden Palm Award and won the 20th Anniversary Prize and the Technical Grand Prize. In Spain it won (in 1966) the Citizens Writers Circle Award for Best Film.

Welles held this film in high regard and considered it along with The Trial his best work, he said in 1982 "If I wanted to get into heaven on the basis of one movie, that's the one I'd offer up"^[1]. Many critics, including Peter Bogdanovich and Jonathan Rosenbaum, also consider it Welles's finest work. The scene depicting the Battle of Shrewsbury has been particularly admired, serving as an inspiration for movies like Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan.

Due to complications concerning the film's ownership, Chimes at Midnight remains unavailable in the United States. It is most readily available as an import DVD from Brazil.

1 Cast
2 Books
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Cast

Orson Welles ... Falstaff
Jeanne Moreau ... Doll Tearsheet
Margaret Rutherford ... Mistress Quickly
John Gielgud ... Henry IV
Marina Vlady ... Kate Percy
Walter Chiari ... Mr. Silence
Michael Aldridge ... Pistol
Julio Peña
Tony Beckley ... Ned Poins
Andrés Mejuto
Keith Pyott
Jeremy Rowe ... Prince John
Alan Webb ... Shallow
Fernando Rey ... Worcester
Keith Baxter ... Prince Hal

[edit] Books

Chimes at Midnight: ISBN 0-8135-1339-1 : Rutgers University Press (January 1989) ISBN 0-8135-1339-1 (complete screenplay included)

[edit] External links

Chimes at Midnight available as a Brazilian Import at Amazon
Chimes at Midnight at the Internet Movie Database
Review by Roger Ebert - part of Ebert's "Great Movies" series.
Review at Senses of Cinema
Review at Cinescene

[edit] References

^ Interview with Orson Welles, BBC Arena, 1982

v • d • e Films directed by Orson Welles

Citizen Kane (1941) • The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) • The Stranger (1946) • The Lady from Shanghai (1947) • Macbeth (1948) • Othello (1952) • Mr. Arkadin (1955) • Touch of Evil (1958) • The Trial (1962) • Chimes at Midnight (1965) • The Immortal Story (1968) • The Other Side of the Wind (1972) • F for Fake (1974)