 Keith Baxter compared Welles to Falstaff , since they were both perpetually short of money , often lied and cheated people to get what they needed and were always merry and fun loving . Film scholar Jack Jorgens also compared Welles to Falstaff , stating that " to a man who directed and starred in a masterpiece and has since staggered through three decades of underfinanced , hurried , flawed films , scores of bit parts , narrations , and interviews which debased his talent , dozens of projects which died for want of persistence and financing , the story of a fat , aging jester exiled from his audience and no longer able to triumph over impossible obstacles with wit and torrential imagination might well seem tragic . " When Joss Ackland played Falstaff on the stage in 1982 , he said that he was more inspired by Welles than by Welles 's performance as Falstaff , stating that " like Falstaff , I believe he could have achieved so much , but it was frittered away . " Kenneth S. Rothwell has called Hal 's rejection of Falstaff allegorical to Hollywood 's rejection of Welles . Welles had become deeply depressed in the late 1950s after the disappointment of making Touch of Evil , his intended Hollywood comeback . 
