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:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOhq0AyRNjY

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qejbbkhjkBs

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9000bpLM2j8

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zjF86qfVWw

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zf2EE7-a8Y

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngy17MrSrMo

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ao8fqKXLkw

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UEdDFTY_UQ

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTT4glAO7G8

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu4mgFq7OG0

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At6GgZWSAkk