July 29, 2004
The Original Lord of the Rings Movie - 1956
- Long before Bakshi, long before Jackson, did you know Tolkien's master work was originally adapted and filmed by Warner Brothers, starring Humphrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre & Orson Welles? Raymond Chandler wrote the screenplay based upon the book from the year before, Bernard Herrman did the music, and all was directed by Howard Hawks.
Amazingly, this forgotton masterpiece was never released.. (ahem).. for some reason. Now you can watch it. If you have Apple Quicktime.
Right-Click the link & Save Link/Target As if you want to download it.
18.5 MB QUICKTIME movie. Courtesy of The Tolkien Sarcasm Pages
With Humphrey Bogart as Frodo Sydney Greenstreet as Gandalf the Grey/White Dooley Wilson as Sam Bob Steele as the Nazgul Charles Waldron as Elrond Godzilla as the Balrog Marlene Dietrich as Galadriel Orson Welles as Saruman Peter Lorre as Gollum Frodo's stunt-double - Joseph Cotten hehe
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you fick suck
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hehehe
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wow - this is pretty well done. I'm impressed.
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That was great. But 1956? Where did that come from? They had an ad for war bonds at the end, for chrissake!
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You weren't supposed to notice that. Nor were you supposed to look up when some of the cast died. (I picked 56 as the most likely date because 55 was the earliest the saga was published.. I forgot about the bit at the end.. and some of the other things)
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[this is good]
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Wild applause for Peter Lorre's Gollum!
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It makes you wonder though, whether Jackson was thinking of Lorre when Gollum was being designed. Frodo certainly wasn't Humphrey Bogart-like, though I wish he'd had been a little more (he was too young in the movie for me, a little too wide-eyed.)
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Peter Lorre made an excellent gollum, those, yesssss. Actually, were he around, he would have made a good Wormtongue as well.