Chimes at Midnight (1966)

Orson Welles plays the legendary John Falstaff, Shakespeare’s “fat knight,” in this epic story, which he combined from five Shakespeare plays. Falstaff rowdily enjoys the good times with his young cohorts in royal Elizabethan society, tolerated by the powers that be for his goodness. He then suffers deep betrayal, rejected by his friends as they rise to power and their alliances fragment. With his grand cinematic vision, Welles goes beyond the merriment to build a powerful, engrossing tale around one of Shakespeare’s greatest characters.