Falstaff (Chimes At Midnight), film review: Digitally-restored version marks Orson Welles' centenary and film's 50th anniversary

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Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

Orson Welles' "lament for merrie England" was his favourite among his films but remains one of his least well known. Dogged by rights issues, it has rarely been revived. This digitally restored version is being released to mark both Welles' centenary (he was born on 6 May 1915) and the 50th anniversary of the film itself. The script is taken from various Shakespeare plays, primarily Henry IV part 1 and part 2.

Welles himself brings enormous pathos and humour to his role as Falstaff. Early scenes show him carousing with Prince Hal (a very dashing Keith Baxter) as Margaret Rutherford's Mistress Quickly clucks around them. There is a wonderful cameo from Jeanne Moreau as a very feline and voluptuous Doll Tearsheet.

Hal's father, King Henry IV (John Gielgud), is in despair at Hal's dissolute ways and compares him very unfavourably with the dashing and dutiful "Hotspur," Henry Percy (Norman Rodway). The carefree slapstick of the early scenes is belied by a ferocious and very brutal battle sequence, barely alleviated by the comic scenes of Falstaff running about the battlefield in tinpot armour, pretending to be a hero.

Hal's eventual betrayal of Falstaff ("I know thee not old man") is the most poignant moment in all of Welles' movies. The irony is also very obvious. Hal deludes himself that in letting go of his old friend, he is at last embracing his responsibilities as adult and king. Falstaff, though, represents a sweetness and innocence that he can never recapture.