 Chimes at Midnight premiered to a positive audience reception at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival . However , after New York Times critic Bosley Crowther 's unfavorable advance review , American distributor Harry Saltzman decided to give the film little publicity and minimal distribution when it was released in the U.S. the next year . Critical reception on its first release was mostly negative ; the film was not regarded as one of Welles 's best until years later . Crowther criticized the film 's poor audio track and called it " a confusing patchwork of scenes and characters ... designed to give major exposure to Jack Falstaff . " Welles 's performance , he said , was " a dissolute , bumbling street @-@ corner Santa Claus . " Penelope Houston called it " a film which seems to turn its back on brilliance . " A Time review also criticized Welles , stating that " [ he ] is probably the first actor in the history of the theater to appear too fat for the role ... he takes command of scenes less with spoken English than with body English " , but that he is " never entirely bad . " 
