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Holiday Hours: The Folger is closing at 4:30pm on Dec 24 and Dec 31. We are closed all day on Dec 25 and Jan 1.

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Michael Anderegg

is professor emeritus of English at the University of North Dakota. His books include "Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture" (1999), "Cinematic Shakespeare" (2004), and "Lincoln and Shakespeare" (2015). He wrote an essay for the Criterion Blue-Ray release of "Chimes at Midnight" and was interviewed for the Olive Films Blue-Ray of "Macbeth."
Chimes at Midnight: Orson Welles is Falstaff
Orson Welles as Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight
Shakespeare and Beyond

Chimes at Midnight: Orson Welles is Falstaff

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Michael Anderegg

Chimes at Midnight, the 1966 film directed by and starring Orson Welles, constructs a rich, complex, and moving portrait of the larger-than-life Sir John Falstaff, who appears in three of Shakespeare’s plays and is among the best-known characters in all…

Was it the first Shakespeare film? The silent King John
Herbert Beerbohm Tree as King John in King John by William Shakespeare. Oil on canvas. Charles Buchel, 1900. Victoria and Albert Museum.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Was it the first Shakespeare film? The silent King John

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Michael Anderegg

With Herbert Beerbohm Tree as the king, the four-minute silent movie “King John” (1899) is often called “the first Shakespeare film,” as Michael Anderegg explains. Watch the surviving one-minute fragment and learn more about its theatrical star.