This week’s mystery movie has been the 1965 film “Chimes at Midnight.” It is available from the Criterion collection on DVD and Blu-ray, and also released in bargain versions sold at Wal-Mart.
By all means read E. Yarber’s insightful daily comments on Orson Welles’ “Chimes,” which I have been reading all week and are now public. Yarber also offered extended commentary on Roger Corman’s “A Bucket of Blood” last August and I salute anyone who is equally at home discussing Welles and Corman.
For Monday, we have a mystery woman.
Update: This is Margaret Rutherford.
For Tuesday, we have a mystery gent. And armor.
Update: This is Norman Rodway.
A note to those of you who thought Monday’s mystery woman was too easy. I try to keep the mystery movies varied: a silent one week, a musical the next, followed by a film noir, a pre-code, a foreign film, etc. This is one of the latest films I have ever done (I think the latest film ever to appear is “Closely Watched Trains,” also from the 1960s.) and it is gratifying to see how many people recognize this film from one image. It’s also nice to add a few newcomers to the Brain Trust. Welcome!
Brain Trust roll call: Howard Mandelbaum (mystery movie, mystery woman), Bob Hansen (mystery movie, mystery woman), Anne Papineau (mystery movie, mystery woman), Timothy (mystery woman), moviepas (mystery woman), Mary Mallory (mystery movie, mystery woman), Tucson Barbara (mystery movie, mystery woman — get better!), Norman Desmond (mystery woman), Jenny M (mystery movie, mystery woman), Robert Morrisey (mystery woman), June (mystery woman), Benito (mystery woman), LC (mystery woman), Don Danard (mystery woman), Meridel1 (mystery woman), David Inman (mystery woman), Mandy Marie (mystery woman), Arye Michael Bender (mystery movie, mystery woman), Patricia van Hartesveldt (mystery woman), Chrisbo (mysery woman), Rick (mystery woman), Sue Slutzky (mystery woman), Floyd Thursby (mystery woman), Lee Ann Megan and Thom (mystery woman), Sarah (mystery movie and mystery woman), Earl Boebert (mystery movie, mystery woman), McDee (mystery movie, mystery woman), Roget-L.A. (mystery movie), SylviaE (mysetry woman), Howard Decker (mystery woman), Cary Moore (mystery woman), Patrick (mystery movie, mystery woman) and Candy Cassell (mystery woman).
And for Wednesday, we have this mystery gent, plus diverse mystery companions.
Update: This is Keith Baxter.
Brain Trust roll call: Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Tuesday’s mystery gent), Charles Kjelland (Monday’s mystery woman), Anne Papineau (Tuesday’s mystery woman), Sue Slutzky (mystery movie and Tuesday’s mystery guest), Mandy Marie (mystery movie and Tuesday’s mystery guest), Dan Nather (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery woman), Mike Hawks (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery guest), Tucson Barbara (Tuesday’s mystery guest), Chrisbo (mystery movie), Howard Mandelbaum (reading our minds with Wednesday’s mystery guest), Dewey Webb (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery woman) and Victor H. Brown (Monday’s mystery woman).
For Thurfday, we have a myftery wench. Ye can ignore Back of Ye Hedde Guy or notte, as ye wish.
Update: This is an intimate moment with Mrs. Hotspur (Marina Vlady) and Hotspur — either Norman Rodway or someone else acting as a stand-in as Back of Ye Hedde Guy. Welles apparently used many stand-ins while filming “Chimes” to keep his budget low.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Wednesday’s mystery guest), B.J. Merholz (mystery movie), Mike Hawks (Wednesday’s mystery guest), Roget-L.A. (mystery movie, Wednesday’s mystery guest), Anne Papineau (Wednesday’s mystery guest), Tucson Barbara (Wednesday’s mystery guest), Howard Mandelbaum (Wednesday’s mystery guest, alas I’m afraid not on Tuesday’s guest), E. Yarber (mystery movie and guests, plus a nice little essay on the film), Patrick (Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s mystery guests) and L.C. (mystery movie and cast).
For Friday, we have…
Update: Orson Wells.
… and also…
Update: Keith Baxter and Sir John Gielgud (who also played dead in “The Loved One.”)
Brain Trust roll call: Tucson Barbara (Thursday’s mystery wench/Sir Back of Ye Hedde Guy), Mary Mallory (Thursday’s mystery wench), Anne Papineau (Thursday’s mystery wench), Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mystery wench), E. Yarber (Thursday’s mystery wench and an interesting essay, do come back Saturday to read it!) and Patrick (Sir Back of Ye Hedde Guy, wrong mystery wench). Alas poor Chrisbo! Alas poor Sue Slutzky! They are cast members, but not mystery guests, save Friday’s corpulent liar and wastrel.
ladailymirror.com 
Margaret Rutherford in Chimes at Midnight.
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It’s Margaret Rutherford in Chimes at Midnight, from 1964.
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Margaret Rutherford?
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“Chimes at Midnight”
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Margaret Rutherford?
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Margaret Rutherford
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Margaret Rutherford.
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Margaret Rutherford in “Chimes at Midnight” ?
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Varvara Massalitinova
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margaret rutherford?
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Margaret Rutherford
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None other than Margaret Rutherford!
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The wonderful Margaret Rutherford!
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Movie is Chimes at Midnight.
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A rather medieval Margaret Rutherford, who I just saw in THE VIPS
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Margaret Rutherford
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Margaret Rutherford in one of her “Miss Marple” films.
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Looks like Margaret Rutherford
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Margaret Rutherford?
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Watch out Margaret Rutherford!
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The redoubtable, Margaret Rutherford. Still my favorite Miss Marple. The picture might be from Orson’Welles’ delightful ‘Chimes At Midnight’.
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Margaret Rutherford
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Margaret Rutherford would seem to easy for a Monday.
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“too”
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Dame Margaret Rutherford
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It’s Margaret Rutherford
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Margaret Rutherford in “Hideout in the Alps” perhaps?
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Margaret Rutherford in Chimes at Midnight.
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I’ll guess Dame Margaret Rutherford in “Chimes at Midnight” (1965), which is probably too easy for a Monday.
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Margaret Rutherford, Chimes at Midnight
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For Monday Margaret Rutherford in Chimes at Midnight
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Margaret Rutherford
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It looks like Margaret Rutherford.
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Looks like Margaret Rutheford to me.
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Looks like Dame Edith Evans.
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Alas, I’m afraid not.
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…or rather, Margaret Rutherford.
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CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT.
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Margaret Rutherford in Chimes at Midnight.
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I keep seeing the great Margaret Rutherford in that face, but since she would be too well known for a Monday, perhaps her twin?
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Norman Rodway today.
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Margaret Rutherford on Monday!
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Norman Rodway?
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Today’s mystery man is Norman Rodway. The movie is “Chimes at Midnight.”
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Film has to be ‘Crimes at Midnight”
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I meant Chimes
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Guessing on Tuesday, Norman Rodway
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Looks like I’m late to the party again. I think that’s Margaret Rutherford on Monday.
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And just for the heck of it, I’ll guess the film is CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, which I haven’t seen in decades (but have ordered the DVD).
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I just saw this posting. FALSTAFF/CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT with Margaret Rutherford.
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Norman Rodway
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I haven’t seen it, but I’ll guess Chimes at Midnight.
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Keith Baxter.
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Margaret Rutherford
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Chimes at midnight
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You really pulled a fast one there. I thought surely there is nobody who looks like Margaret Rutherford then I thought ‘ It’s Monday, there must be’. So belatedly – Margaret Rutherford is Monday’s pin up.
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Keith Baxter.
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Don’t tell me Chimes at Midnight!. I see Orson borrowed from Eisenstein.
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Keith Baxter.
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Wednesday: Keith Baxter. Movie: Chimes at Midnight (1965)
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Keith Baxter Wednesday.
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Keith Baxter
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Switched! Tuesday: Tony Beckley; Wednesday: Keith Baxter.
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Chimes at Midnight! Margaret Rutherford, Norman Rodway and Keith Baxter.!
This is the movie that explains best why Welles got so grumpy whenever people only wanted to talk about Kane. It only recently got a re-release with decent sound, so perhaps we’re all finally ready for this John and Hal over a half-century later.
When people talk about Shakespearean film, it’s rare to find a specimen that manages to balance the Bard with a movie that works on its own terms. What you typically find (at least in the submissions I saw) is a wannabe hoping the original work would support whatever he or she was drawing in crayon over the surface. Welles played free with the Bard’s text on both stage and screen, but always with a sharp eye in the service of the specific production at hand. Like Glenn Gould’s recordings of Bach, you wind up with something not quite fish nor fowl, but engaging and rewarding in its own right.
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Norman Rodway on Tuesday and Keith Baxter on Wednesday.
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…and the movie is Chimes at Midnight, today is Keith Baxter, coming soon Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau & John Gielgud.
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Castle In the Air, 1952, old chap?
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Alas, I’m afraid not
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Marina Vlady and Norman Rodway
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Marina Vlady and ye olde Orson Welles.
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Marina Vlady Thursday. All hail IMDB, btw.
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Marina Vlady.
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Bringing in Marina Vlady as Mrs. Hotspur is an interesting choice. She’s barely in the film, but Welles felt it necessary to include her in such a severely abridged text.
In the Vlady scenes, Welles presents Hotspur as the socially-acceptable Henry. He’s happily married and is leading a loyal army toward what they all see as a just goal. The seemingly unstable Hal, bouncing between the twin poles of his disapproving father’s and the opportunistic Falstaff’s whorehouse, seems like an easy target for such an amiable winner. However, the battlefield sets everyone on an equal plane. Both covered from head to foot in armor, Hotspur doesn’t even realize he’s dueling with the prince until at the very moment he thinks he has the fight won, Hal dispatches him with an unexpected thrust of the sword. Middle-of-the-road Hotspur has been fatally narrowed by his advantages, while Hal has learned to adjust to the demands of any given moment through his acceptance of irreconcilable realities.
Thus the film as a whole finds Welles commenting through vivid action on his own paternal issues, as well as a lifetime of public attacks on the “excesses” he was constantly accused of (among other things).
Most bad adaptations take place because the writer comes to an established work with a preexisting grudge that they impose on the material whether it belongs there or not. Welles, on the other hand, carefully chose the subjects he adapted and was aware enough to find those aspects within them that legitimately supported his personal feelings. Rather than overlay himself on the work, he wore the plays like a glove, subtly directing their course from within.
I’m reminded of William Gaddis’s 1955 novel The Recognitions, which extends the notion of “I’d wish I’d written that,” to characters who find sincere artistic voices through forgery, plagiarism and counterfeiting. I don’t know if Welles ever read the book and saw something of himself in the image of a creator speaking through earlier works, but he had enough identification with the concept to explore the connection between art and forgery in his final completed work, F is for Fake.
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Tuesday through Thursgay: Michael Aldridge, Walter Chiari and Jeanne Moreau? Tomorrow: Boy Genius?
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“Thursday”
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Jeanne Moreau and the aforementioned Norman Rodway on Thursday.
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Wednesday’s mystery gent is Walter Chiari. Thursday’s wench is Jeanne Moreau.
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Orson Welles, Keith Baxter and Sir John Gielgud
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Orson Welles and John Gielgud today with Keith Baxter again.
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A sleeping Sir John Gielgud.
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Orson Welles and in repose John Gielgud.
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Monday is Margaret Rutherford. Wed is Keith Baxter. Friday is John Gielgud and Orson Welles
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The film is Chimes At Midnight
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Thurs is Marina Vlady
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Tues is Norman Rodway
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Orson Welles & John Gielgud.
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On Friday the gentleman who purportedly consumed 13 hot dogs at one sitting, a house record at Pink’s on North La Brea; and a knighted gentleman who also played dead most effectively in “The Loved One.”
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Margaret Rutherford on Monday, Orson Welles and John Gielgud on Friday. Chimes at Midnight?
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Fittingly, we end with Baxter between Welles and John Gielgud as his two fathers, their respective “crowns” in evidence.
As Welles presents it, the rivalry between the two older men is largely between opposing frames of reference. While the King and Hotspur would find Falstaff’s parodies of royal practices to be morally objectionable, if not outright blasphemous, both of them suffer for taking the monarchy too seriously. Henry Sr. defeated a weak king without knowing how to proceed afterward, and was entombed in his position. Hotspur would likewise probably have ended up underestimating the weight of royal authority just as he did Hal.
Hal, thanks to Falstaff’s irreverence, evades the aristocratic echo chamber in favor of the very people ignored by the upper classes. Cutting through the self-serving outlook of the castle establishment, he manages to deconstruct his future role through the sham battles and debates that those around him consider simply games. By the time he has to assume the throne, these practice sessions have allowed him to weed out the weaknesses in his approach in order to immediately settle into active leadership.
Given that a fair chunk of Shakespeare’s original audience were young bloods who would never leave home without a sword at their side (and Bill himself was known to brawl in the street), this is a nice way of validating the monarchy’s superiority while allowing the crowd to identify with them. If Richard III eventually upset the apple cart for his clan, that only made the incumbent Tudors look even better. From his own perspective, Welles was more inclined to demonstrate the validity of art as a means of setting one on the right path in real life, provided you know how to use it to illuminate truth rather than prop up tired cliches.
And as this week’s quiz sinks in the sunset and my little craft returns to utter cluelessness, let’s take a moment to lift a glass to poor Sir John Fastolf, a highly skilled commander who suffered a major setback when his superstitious troops fled before Joan of Arc’s forces outside the French town of Patay. Imagine spending your life knee-deep in gore for your King, only to learn in some spiteful afterlife that you’ll either be fictionally immortalized as a drunken fraud or have your entire military career reduced to a single defeat against a teenage girl.
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Pictures with Orson Welles in a pot hat are the films best stills
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I stand corrected. The Welles film about forgery is “F for Fake,” not “F is for Fake.”
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