Blocked by the studio system from making
his movies just 20 years after “Citizen
Kane,” Orson Welles was so driven to make
this long-gestating project that he agreed to
play Long John Silver in another movie in order
to secure financing. The result of his patience
and determination is a masterwork of
staggering proportions, blending five Shakespeare
plays to tell the epic story of Falstaff,
a tragicomic scalawag perfectly aligned with
Welles’ fixations. Caught for years in legal
wrangling, the film has been nearly impossible
to see since its completion. But a brand
new restoration has returned it to the big
screen in all its majestic and mournful glory.
Critic supreme Vincent Canby called it “the
greatest Shakespearean film ever made, bar
none.” But what gives us chills is the fact that
Welles once said, if he had to offer up just one
film as a summation of his life’s work in order
to get into heaven, “Chimes at Midnight”
would be it.
In Person: Orson Welles’ Daughter,
Beatrice Welles.
