The film suffers from having been left unfinished, which is all too evident from the faulty technical quality, which screams out loud about the insufficient funds - Orson Welles always had problems with this, and he worked on this film for seven years to never see it completed, which project had to be fulfilled long after his death, like his last film. Still, the genius shines through everywhere, in the panoramic scenes of Spanish life, with bull fights and processions, fiestas and rural life, so in spite of the faulty quality, the film is a feast to behold. You regret that it was shot in black and white, because of the lovely landscapes that you pass through in almost every scene, and the costumes ought to have been colourful as well. Don Quijote himself and Akim Tamiroff as Sancho Panza are also perfect, and when Terry Gilliam later made another "Don Quijote" he borrowed very much material and ideas from here, as if he had the ambition to realize Orson Welles' dreams. What the film suffers from, like all "Don Quijote" films, is the awkward story. You can't ignore that Don Quijote actually is nothing short of a hopelessly deluded maniac, and that Sancho Panza is hopelessly stupid. You can't read the novel with any delight because of its macabre absurdity with no sense at all, and all films on the subject have to suffer from the same shortcmings, with two exceptions: "The Man from La Mancha" with Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren, a musical set in both reality and fantasy with Cervantes himself as the main character, and Graham Greene's "Monsignore Quijote" with Alec Guinness, a modern paraphrase with as much wit as the original lacks. Orson Welles succeeds in putting some ingeniousnes into the havoc by his excellent direction and cinematography, so the film is worth enjoying after all.
Review of Don Quixote
