Chimes at Midnight
1965: Orson Welles

This curious film (alternatively titled Falstaff) is largely but not wholly Shakespeare; it fuses dialogue from Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 and small bits of Henry V with narrative readings from Ralph Holinshed’s Chronicles, themselves one of Shakespeare’s sources for the histories and for Macbeth. It is black and white, with competent — even occasionally inventive — cinematography, but fairly basic production values for its time (only a year before the much more lavish Zinnemann production of A Man for All Seasons, in which Welles played Cardinal Wolsey).

Nevertheless, it takes some of the choicer scenes from the two Henry IV plays and showcases them, with special emphasis on Falstaff as played by Welles himself. It is hardly a substitute for a full production of the two plays, but it is well done for what it covers, and it has some of the great names of British film in its day — the narration being voiced by Ralph Richardson, Henry IV played by John Gielgud, and Margaret Rutherford as Mistress Quickly. These master actors’ voices are mixed sometimes less than successfully with a rather poorly recorded and distorted score.

It makes interesting collateral viewing to accompany the Henry IV plays. As a representation of the whole it is reshaped chiefly by omission, however, and shouldn’t form the basis of anyone’s impression of them.

Buy Chimes at Midnight on Criterion Blu-ray from Amazon.

Buy Chimes at Midnight on Criterion DVD from Amazon.