For those who listen to the podcast regularly, you know the third of the week is usually devoted to reviews of productions available on DVD or online. This month will be no different. Next Sunday, I’ll cover the 1979 BBC Complete Works of Shakespeare and the 1960 BBC “An Age of Kings” productions, as well as the tape of the Michael Bogdanov-directed English Shakespeare Company production in the massive 23-hour The War of the Roses. These are the usual suspects.
But there is an unusual one as well. In 1967, Orson Welles released, after years of troubled production, his film Chimes at Midnight (European title: Falstaff). The film is his amalgam of the second tetralogy, told from the point of view of the old white-haired devil himself, incorporating The First and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth, with bits and pieces of Richard the Second, Henry the Fifth, and The Merry Wives of Windsor (plus a little narrative from Holinshed).
I won’t be including Chimes at Midnight in this week’s podcast. I’m making this executive decision for a couple of reasons:
- First, I just don’t have enough time this week… the new job is simply not allowing me enough time to do everything I want to do with the blog and podcast.
- Second, we’re not done with Falstaff yet… and I’m going to save this film until we do.