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Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile,” Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” and Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park” are among the classic murder mysteries mentioned as inspiration for Rian Johnson’s deliciously clever thriller “Knives Out,” which has earned three Golden Globe nominations and several critics’ awards.

But alas, dear reader, the game is afoot.

As soon as I saw the puzzle-perfect interior of mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer)’s mansion, I thought of the 1972 classic mystery thriller “Sleuth,” starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and adapted by Anthony Schaffer from his Tony Award-winning 1970 play.

The film version of “Sleuth” earned four Oscar nominations: Best Actor for both Olivier and Caine, director for Mankiewicz (it would be the multi-Oscar-winner’s final film) and John Addison’s playful score. Though most acting honors for lead actor went to Marlon Brando for “The Godfather,...

By Jeremy Carr

It’s easy to see why Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight is generally regarded as his finest post-Touch of Evil achievement. This Shakespearean mélange is a dazzling showcase for Welles’ ingenuity, his evident appreciation for the film’s literary foundation, and his relentless aptitude for stylistic inventiveness. However, its haphazard production and its rocky release comprise a backstory as complicated as the movie’s multi-source construction (the script, based on the lengthy play “Five Kings,” written and first performed by Welles in the 1930s, samples scenes and dialogue from at least five of Shakespeare’s works, primarily “Henry IV,” parts one and two, “Richard II,” “Henry V,” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor”). Plagued by what were at this point familiar budgetary constraints, Welles shot Chimes at Midnight over the course of about seven months in Spain, with a break when the financial well went dry.

In this episode of CriterionCast Chronicles, Ryan is joined by David Blakeslee, and Scott Nye to discuss the Criterion Collection releases for August 2016.

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Fans that lament Orson Welles' many career frustrations will flip over this Spanish-filmed masterpiece. Not well distributed when new and Mia for decades, its serious audio problems have now mostly been cleared up. It's great -- right up there with Kane and Touch of Evil, and it features what is probably Welles' best acting. Chimes at Midnight Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 830 1966 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 116 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Falstaff, Campanadas a medianoche / Street Date August 30, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Orson Welles, Keith Baxter, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, John Gielgud, Norman Rodway, Marina Vlady, Walter Chiari, Michael Aldridge, Tony Beckley, Alan Webb, José Nieto, Fernando Rey, Beatrice Welles, Ralph Richardson. Cinematography Edmond Richard Film Editor Fritz Mueller Original Music Angelo Francesco Lavagnino Produced by Alessandro Tasca Directed by Orson Welles

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

It's even better than I remembered. Sometime during film school I went with UCLA friends Clark...

Chicago – Another wondrous pleasure about director Orson Welles – as if he needed something else on his resume – is the discovery of his film career after the “Citizen Kane”/studio system/boy wonder period of the 1940s. Facing difficulties cobbling together financing for his evolving vision, he resorted to overseas money, international casts and more-for-less. One of the prime examples is “Chimes at Midnight” (1965), a Shakespeare amalgamation that is just another example of Wellesian audacity and yes, genius.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

The script takes the text from five Shakespeare plays and is narrated by British actor Ralph Richardson. Orson Welles plays the scalawag John Falstaff, an entourage member of the Prince of Wales, and the focus of the story. The film has a kinetic energy that is exciting, it always seems in motion. Welles is at the top of his game portraying one of his favorite characters (he had previously mounted a similar...

Janus Films' new restoration of Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight (1965), drawing on several plays by William Shakespeare and starring himself, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, John Gielgud, Marina Vlady, Keith Baxter and Fernando Rey, opens in New York and Los Angeles today and screens tomorrow in Portland before rolling out across North America and eventually seeing a Criterion release on DVD and Blu-ray. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky at the Av Club: "A big chunk of Welles’s body of work could be divided up into movies about power (e.g. Citizen Kane, Macbeth) and movies about powerlessness (e.g. The Lady from Shanghai, The Trial), and Chimes at Midnight fits squarely into the latter category." » - David Hudson...

Janus Films' new restoration of Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight (1965), drawing on several plays by William Shakespeare and starring himself, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, John Gielgud, Marina Vlady, Keith Baxter and Fernando Rey, opens in New York and Los Angeles today and screens tomorrow in Portland before rolling out across North America and eventually seeing a Criterion release on DVD and Blu-ray. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky at the Av Club: "A big chunk of Welles’s body of work could be divided up into movies about power (e.g. Citizen Kane, Macbeth) and movies about powerlessness (e.g. The Lady from Shanghai, The Trial), and Chimes at Midnight fits squarely into the latter category." » - David Hudson...

Sweet Creature of Bombast: Welles’ Restored Homage to Shakespeare’s Ultimate Clown

Before the world finally gets a chance to see Orson Welles’ last uncompleted film The Other Side of the Wind, which had been intended to be the troubled auteur’s return to American filmmaking following a decade in Europe, audiences can feast on a restored version of his final narrative masterpiece, Chimes at Midnight. For decades, the 1965 title has been unavailable and now arrives restored on behalf of Janus Films. Playing in competition at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, Welles homage to one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comic characters, Sir John Falstaff, initially received a chilly reception and stilted marketing campaign upon hitting Us theaters. Despite a throng of critics attempting to recuperate its reputation since then, it has remained an obscure classic.

Taking place from the years 1400 to 1408 in England, a narrator explains King Henry IV (John Gielgud...

"I speak to thee, my heart!" Just in time to ring in the chimes at Midnight as New Years 2016 rolls in. Janus Films has debuted another slightly different trailer for Orson Welles' 1965 classic Chimes at Midnight, also known as Falstaff Chimes of Midnight. Earlier in 2015, we featured the trailer for the 50th anniversary re-release in the UK, and now we have a Us version. Chimes of Midnight is really Welles adaptation of his play Five Kings which was an attempt to combine Shakespeare's works Henry IV, V, VI and Richard III into a single play, reportedly "Welles' favorite of his films." The result is a work that is heralded as a masterpiece, featuring performances by Orson Welles, Keith Baxter, John Gielgud and Jeanne Moreau. Chime in below. Here's the new trailer for the restored re-release of Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, from Apple: The crowning achievement of Orson Welles’s later film career,...

Though what William Shakespeare’s greatest creation truly is will be debated on for centuries to come, Orson Welles thought it was the fictional character of Sir John Falstaff, and played the role himself in his monochromatic ode to the Bard of Avon, “Chimes at Midnight.” Shakespeare features the portly, bumptious Falstaff in three of his plays (Henry IV Pts. I & II, The Merry Wives of Windsor) as a bumbling suitor to several women and a friend and aid to young Prince Hal (who would later be Henry V). Welles’s depiction of the story focuses on the Henry plays, and features the legendary Sir John Gielgud as Henry IV and Keith Baxter as his son Prince Hal. The ever-present Jeanne Moreau co-stars, though the focus is on Welles in the role he was perhaps always meant to play. Comparisons have been made comparing Welles to Falstaff in real life,...