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To celebrate the centenary of Orson Welles' birth, Mr Bongo Films is delighted to announce the release of a brand new restored 50th Anniversary Edition of his masterpiece Falstaff Chimes at Midnight, released on DVD and Blu-ray on 29th June 2015.
One of the most radical and groundbreaking of all Shakespeare adaptations, Chimes at Midnight was Orson Welles' favourite of his films and will be in cinemas from 1st May 2015 as part of the 100 years of Orson Welles celebrations. This will be followed by a DVD and Blu-ray release on 29th June 2015 alongside the first UK release of Welles' debut feature Too Much Johnson which was amazingly rediscovered and restored in the last decade on DVD and Blu-ray and the superb The Immortal Story starring Jeanne Moreau and Orson Welles on DVD.
On the brink of Civil War, King Henry IV (John Gielgud) attempts to consolidate his reign while fretting with unease over his son's seeming neglect of his royal duties. Hal (Keith Baxter), the young Prince, openly consorts with Sir John Falstaff (Orson Welles) and his company. Hal's friendship with the knight substitutes for his estrangement from his father. Both Falstaff and the King are old and tired; both rely on Hal for comfort in their final years, while the young Prince, the future Henry V, nurtures his own ambitions.
Welles gives a mesmerising performance as Falstaff, in a role that he was born to play, and stars alongside a fantastic cast including John Gielgud, Keith Baxter, JeanneMoreau, Fernando Rey, Margaret Rutherford and Ralph Richardson as the narrator. The film's harrowing war scenes have proven especially influential, cited in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and Mel Gibson's Braveheart.