PERFECT MOVIE: The Lord of the Rings from the 1950s

Hello and welcome to Perfect Movies where I pick a subject for a made up film adaptation and try to deduce the perfect cast and crew. Now you know the rules, let’s start with an adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings from the 1950s, when the book was first published.

DIRECTED BY: The director of this would have to be someone who made films on a BIG scale. I would say Cecil B. DeMille, but I can’t put my desired cast in that much danger. Other examples would be Terrence Fisher, who directed many of the great Hammer Horrors, just for his sense of suspense and fear. Also John Sturges who directed some wonderful epic films in his time such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but I think this role will have to go to John Ford, whose body of work includes glorious scenery of The Searchers, and seeing the way in which he creates these magnificent epic landscapes, puts him in prime position to direct this adaptation.

PRODUCED BY: This may be an odd category, but the producers are often forgotten about in Hollywood. I think for this film it would have to be two producers famous for fantasy films, George Pal and Charles H. Schneer. 

WRITTEN BY: Hopefully J.R.R. Tolkien would be on board with writing a screenplay of his own book. I don’t really think that he had much experience in playwriting and certainly none in screenplays, so I am going to cheat a little bit and suggest that the author of the screenplay be Nigel Kneale, a writer of the Quatermass serials and the screenplay for First Men in the Moon, therefore Tolkien can work with Kneale on the body of the film saying what can be taken out, the order of events, and Kneale can tighten that. 

SPECIAL EFFECTS BY: Well this is a no-brainer! Ray Harryhausen. Need I say more!

Now for the Cast, let’s go:


First let's start with hobbits (Oh God... must resist Mickey Rooney JOKES...)!

FRODO:Francis Matthews. He usually plays the nice, naive youth in many Hammer films and that's Frodo. Plus Captain Scarlet is playing Frodo!!

 

SAM:Playing the loyal Samwise. Boy this was a hard one. I wanted someone who was pleasant an from Yorkshire. Therefore we are going for Peter Sallis. You all know him as Aardman's "CHEEEESE" loving hero Wallace. Now imagine this face when he in his twenties. He is Sam.

MERRY: For Merry I am going to go ahead with casting Alan Freeman, who I was only introduced due to Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and he played a nice, typical family man, not that is what Merry is, but he seemed like a good choice for the role. 

PIPPIN:I am going to go with Roddy McDowall, who always seemed like a funny, generous guy, rather like Pippin.

GANDALF: Michael Hordern. The man had the perfect voice for Gandalf and played the grey pilgrim in the BBC Audio Drama, which is fantastic, by the way!

ARAGORN: Next time for Strider, The Ranger of the North, King Elessar Telcontar... I am so alone. Anyway, I think the only guy to play the gruff Ranger- Charlton "Stinking Paws" Heston. The only thing is, he can't use a gun, so he probably wouldn't want to do it.

LEGOLAS: Choosing an actor to play Legolas wasn't difficult. I immediately thought of Leonard Nimoy. No questions asked really.

GIMLI: This was harder. Choosing an actor to play the gruff dwarf. Now this is going to sound odd, but I am going to go with George Sanders. He is perhaps best known for the voice of Shere Khan, the Tiger from Disney's Jungle Book (1967). He has a very smooth voice, but I saw him in The Black Swan (1942), where he plays the pirate Captain Leech and I didn't recognise him. He is perfect for Gimli.

BOROMIR: For the tragic Gondor prince, named Boromir, I decide to go for a classic Shakespearean actor, and what better actor to play the power hungry hero than Orson Welles. In his career he played arrogant characters like Citizen Kane and Macbeth. Plus Orson Welles is in my fake film (Giddy Geek Scream!)

BILBO: Patrick Troughton. Maybe this is due to this comic adaptation i used to read, but Troughton just always springs to my head when I read Tolkien. He could just wear his Doctor outfit.

SARUMAN: Vincent Price. Need I say more.The man also has a great voice. Price has made a career of playing villains. Plus he was good friends with Christopher Lee, so that kind of means something.

It's the kind of voice that really crawls under my skin, therefore perfect for the decietful Saruman the White... 

...oh, sorry.

ELROND: Yul Brynner. Despite being one of the coolest guys on the planet, I think Brynner has that cold, emotionless okk just right for Elrond. Another choice would of course be Leonard Nimoy, but I think he would be too young for the role. Plus the baldness would look intersting. It was Brynner’s role as Ramesis in The Ten Commandments that sealed the deal for me.

GOLLUM: Gollum must be played by an actor who os known for his villainous, weedy characters, but since Peter Lorre is already taken, I am going for James Cagney. The image below is from the Lon Chaney biopic, The Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). I never thought it looked right, but for Gollum it looks great!

THEODEN: The determination of James Mason's Captain Nemo in Disney's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, just shows what a great King Theoden he would make. 

EOWYN:This was a tough one, as it is true that most female characters weren't as strong as Eowyn, so this is really going by looks. Therefore I think that Barbara Shelley, a frequent actress in Hammer Films, should play Eowyn. She is a very good actress and can play stern feisty characters, especially when it comes vampires.

GRIMA: Peter Lorre. Who else. Plus he is working with Vincent Price again! He has that slimy voice and acting persona that perfectly suits Saruman's aide.

GALADRIEL: Galadriel is someone who should fair, beautiful, but seem as if they are ancient. Therefore I am giving the role to Katherine Hepburn. A classical actress who has all of those qualities.

DENETHOR:Denethor is a tragic figure, displaying madness at a violent rate. Alastair Sim's turn as Scrooge in... Scrooge (1951), is perfect for the mad king!

FARAMIR:Basil Rathbone, my favourite Sherlock Holmes! Not that it has anything to do with this vote. Rathbone has that suave personality. Faramir has to gain Frodo's trust and vice versa. Plus Rathbone was a trained fencer and appeared in many swashbucklers. 

WHEW! Well that's it for this first edition of Perfect Movie, I hoped you enjoyed it. Don't worry next week we'll deal with something with a smaller cast, but it has to be big, explosive, an epic tale of love, war and heroic deeds... it has to be...

...oh yeeeaahh!!

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