We have heard the chimes at midnight…
- Shakespeare, Henry IV
For as long as I remember, Orson Welles’ 1965 film Chimes at Midnight (AKA Falstaff) -- in which The Great Round One shamelessly yet seamlessly spliced together five different Shakespeare plays to create one cinematic masterpiece -- has been fiendishly difficult to get hold of. Thanks to some decades-old, migraine-inducing ownership issues, you can’t buy, rent or borrow one of history’s most influential films in the English-speaking world and screenings continue to be as rare as rocking-horse shit.
I’m sure the legal shenanigans will eventually get sorted and the film will, at some point or other, get the lovingly-restored, Criterion Collection quality release it deserves. However, if -- like me -- you don’t feel particularly inclined to wait another few decades to find out, some public-spirited soul has uploaded a rather decent copy of Chimes at Midnight in its entirety to YouTube.
Here it is: