Chimes at Midnight (1966) - film adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry the Fourth, Parts One and Two

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Duncan Fraser (University of Sussex)

Ed. by William M. Hamlin, Washington State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Cinema/ Film/ TV

Dates

Date of occurrence 1965-1966

Places

Spain (Involved)
Switzerland (Involved)
United States (Involved)

Adapted mainly from William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. Directed by Orson Welles. Starring Orson Welles, Keith Baxter, John Gielgud, Margaret Rutherford, Jeanne Moreau. Black and white. 111 minutes.

Orson Welles’s Chimes at Midnight is based on a radical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, 1 and 2. The plays are substantially cut to make the Falstaff/Hal and Hal/Henry relationships the substance of the drama, scenes are re-positioned across the two plays, speeches are reassigned to other characters, and additional passages are brought in from Richard II, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Holinshed’s English …

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1062 words

Citation: Fraser, Duncan. "Chimes at Midnight (1966) - film adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry the Fourth, Parts One and Two". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 August 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19435, accessed 01 November 2024.]

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Chimes at Midnight (1966) - film adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry the Fourth, Parts One and Two

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