Summary 
A black-and-white episode in a made-for-television production of a cycle of Shakespeare's the War of the Roses history plays. Like previous installments, the first part of the two Henry IV plays is a straight-forward and traditional telling, well-spoken and acted with speed and clarity. More a filmed stage play than a cinematic endeavor, but with multiple cameras and musical scoring. Interesting and dramatic but lacking in visual excitement.
Production
Directed by Michael Hayes. An Age of Kings Episode 3. 1:11. BBC Television. Original Air Date May 26th, 1960.
Cast
Tom Fleming (Henry IV), Julian Glover (Westmoreland), Frank Windsor (Blunt), Robert Hardy (Hal), Frank Pettingell (Falstaff), Brian Smith (Poins), Geoffrey Bayldon (Worcester), George A Cooper (Northumberland), Sean Connery (Hotspur), Gordon Gostelow (Bardolph), Patricia Heneghan (Lady Percy), Angela Baddeley (Mistress Quickly).
Analysis
Michael Hayes begins the first part of Henry IV - with the subtitle of Rebellion from the North - with a rapidly aging Henry seated at a meeting table, bearded and mustached, his hair unruly, his face haggard and his voice fatigued: "so shaken we are, so wan with care." Tom Fleming's Henry begins the third episode of the BBC's An Age of Kings with 1.1 of Henry IV Part One amid tolling bells, his advisors in medium close-up within a claustrophobic chamber, one of them asleep, his head in his arms. Fleming's Henry speaks in sternly whistling diction of his desire to wage a holy war and "chase these pagans in those holy fields," an attempt to atone for the usurpation and murder of Richard II. His plans are delayed with news of a rebellion via a messenger from Westmoreland, and the King praises Hotspur to the extent that he wishes his son Hal - all "riot and dishonor" - was exchanged at birth with Hotspur by a "night-tripping fairy." Henry exits, staggering a little with apparent illness, using his high-backed chair for support.
Hayes counterpoints the opening scene with Hal in a similarly shot 1.2 within the Boar's Head tavern. Robert Hardy's baby-faced Hal, his sandy brown hair cropped in something like a sideburnless page boy, pats his face with rainfall at a window while the obese Falstaff slumbers behind him, his feet upon a tavern table and his doublet unbuttoned. Like King Henry and his advisors, the heavy-drinking Hal speaks with his bar-buddies, Falstaff and the dark-haired prankster Poins. Hal, in his puffy sleeves and leather half-coat, takes a great swig from a bottle and breaks it upon the table to roust the gray-haired and bearded old Falstaff. Frank Pettingell's aged Sir Jack, while well-played with his clever comments - "here apparent that thou are heir apparent" - fails to come across as much of a father figure or influence upon the Prince, or even be a worthy drinking companion. Indeed, Hardy's Hal seems disgusted with Falstaff, grabbing at his protruding belly at "roundly," and overall seems bored and weary to the point of irritation: he waves at Falstaff's apparent bad breath, then slouches with his feet up on the table and acts drunken - "I'll be a madcap!" - at one point holding a sack of sack overhead so a trickle continually pours into his mouth. He concludes the scene alone, again in the window, describing how he will "imitate the sun" to rising music and a fade.
Hayes uses the anger-filled 1.3 as a subtle comparison of the enraged Henry - "I do see danger and disobedience in thine eye" - with the hot-headed fury of Sean Connery's Hotspur. Henry must shout to quiet the bustling room of advisors, shot with the same medium-close-up claustrophobia as 1.1, and he banishes Worcester from the council room. Connery's Hotspur fumes to the left of the frame, then confronts the King, his back to the camera and - significantly - completely obscuring Fleming's Henry from the shot. After explaining his anger at an effeminate messenger on the battlefield and revealing the character's occasional stutter, Connery's Hotspur assumes Worcester's position at the table, then jumps to the aid of the "revolted Mortimer," his brother-in-law, whom Hotspur learns later in the scene was selected as successor to the throne by Richard II. After Henry storms out of the chamber to pounding drums, Connery's Hotspur stands and rages, insulting the King as "this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke" and "this forgetful man." Worcester must close the door for privacy, and after Hotspur, "the wasp stung and impatient fool," slaps the King's chair, he and Westmoreland calm him, and he sits. Connery's Hotspur rises again in sudden choler, and the older men roll their eyes as he laughs and shouts the forbidden name "Mortimer!" in mockery, then further insults Henry as "this king of smiles" and "this fawning greyhound."
The typically excised 2.1 features two carriers pumping water from a well and pouring it over their heads to the sound effect of nearby gobbling turkeys, an all but extraneous scene that leads into an awkwardly staged 2.2 robbery at Gadshill. Hayes' camera stays static at mid-close-up of Falstaff, shushed by Hal and playfully called, "Sir John of Paunch," as he looks for a horse that has been taken by Poins. After a tree branch snaps back into his face, Pettingell's Falstaff pulls a mask on and a fellow-robber climbs a fake-looking stage tree. The travelers approach, all on foot to the clumsy sound effects of clapping horse hooves and whinnying. The robbery is silliness, with the victims standing mouths agape as the bumbling thieves wrap a rope around them, then the thieves flee in panic when they notice two masked men tapping Falstaff's shield with their swords.
Hayes concludes the episode with his two best scenes. 2.3 features Connery's Hotspur as the open-shirted romantic leading man counterpoint to his angry warrior of 1.3. He reads a letter by firelight, cradling a goblet of wine, before reclining on a bed of fur next to his wife Kate, who proves unaware of his involvement in the rebellion. They flirt, and she threatens to break his finger until he kisses her in a tight close-up and a slow fade. Hayes' 2.4 consumes more than a third of the episode, and while the scene depicts the lowbrow camaraderie between Hal and Falstaff, it also reveals some underlying mean-spirited criticism and insults. Hardy's not-very-likeable Hal kicks a table and has his drunken sprawl broken by Poins, then dallies meanly with Francis the drawer ("anon! anon!"), before crudely mocking Hotspur's stutter and not just exposing Falstaff, but humiliating him. Pettingell's Falstaff, in turn, bemoans their supposed friendship - "a bad world, I say!" - and insults the Prince - "a plague of all cowards!" - holding his nose as if from a stench at mere mention of the "Prince" of Wales. When he stammers, "If I lie, spit in my face," Poins must restrain Hal from actually spitting, and they trade a series of vicious ("this huge hill of flesh") and far from friendly ("bull-pizzle") insults. Hal's lack of regard for his tavern mate becomes even clearer when Hardy's Hal takes Falstaff's place on the table, pretending to be his kingly father. Hal declines to wear a pillow as the royal crown, standing to hurl insult ("that huge bombard of sack") after insult ("that old white-bearded Satan") at the old knight before calming and speaking quietly, when implored, "banish plump Jack, and banish all the world": Hardy's Hal says, "I do," and quietly affirms with, "I will," as the tavern laughter dies away and Falstaff hangs his head.
Hayes concludes the suddenly serious scene - and the episode - with Hardy's Hal handling the sheriff and the robbed carriers, lying for Falstaff's sake even when the lie is exposed. Hal promises to make fair amends - "the money shall be paid back again with advantage" - before somberly acknowledging the approaching end of his hedonistic days: "we must all to the wars."