Answering the challenge of his fellow prisoners, Cervantes opens the crate of costumes that was tossed into the dungeon with him and casts each of the inmates to play a part in his play. “Then,” he says to them, “you can judge for yourselves my madness.” Needing a way to pass the time, they agree.

As they begin to act their assigned roles under the direction of Cervantes, the movie transitions into the story within the story, the play within the play, wherein Cervantes (O’Toole) becomes Don Quixote and his fellow prisoners become the characters who interact with him. You may recall a similar transition as the farmhands working for Uncle Henry and Auntie Em become the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.

This scene is from the ending of the prisoner Cervantes’ story, as Alonso Quijano – the imaginary old gentleman who imagined himself to be the knight errant, Don Quixote – lies in his bed at home “recovered” from his mad delusion…