It wasn't just Sir Christopher Lee who appeared in both Star Wars and
Lord of the Rings films. Anthony Daniels was also present in both Middle
Earth and a galaxy far, far away—or at least his voice was. The man geeks love
as C-3PO provided the voice of Legolas in Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation.
While divisive at the time of release, many fans warmed to it over time (and it
looks like a true masterpiece compared to the streaming series). With Middle
Earth returning to animation (look for an upcoming Cinema Daily US review),
viewers can revisit the 1978 film, since Bakshi’s The Lordo of the Rings is
conveniently scheduled to air this Sunday on Adult Swim.
You
know how this goes—there was one ring to rule them all—and somehow in ended up
in the possession of Bilbo Baggins. Fortunately, his friend, Gandalf the
wizard, convinced the hobbit of the ring’s danger, so he relinquished it to the
care of his nephew Frodo. Unfortunately, the Dark Lord Sauron has been
searching for the all-powerful accessory, so Frodo embarks on a quest to safely
dispose of it, once and for all.
Of
course, a modest hobbit like the younger Baggins will need help. In fact, he will
need a fellowship, including Aragorn, a brave but down-on-his-luck ranger, who
also happens to be of noble blood. It is august company, considering Legolas is
also the son of the elf king and Boromir is the heir to the kingdom of Gondor.
However, hobbit tag-alongs Sam Gamgee, Pippin Took, and Merry Brandybuck are
arguably even less formidable than Baggins, but they mean well.
At
the time, Bakshi’s film took a lot of flak, because it was conceived as the
first installment of a duology, but not marketed accordingly—and unfortunately,
the second part was never produced. However, Bakshi and co-screenwriters Chris
Conkling and Peter S. Beagle did a nice job combining the first two books,
fittingly culminating with the Battle of Helm’s Deep.
Indeed,
it is clear Bakshi “got” Tolkien. He understood the huge archetypal
significance of events like Gandalf’s return from presumed death and clearly
appreciated the fantasy genre in general (having already helmed Wizards).
Bakshi’s
extensive use of rotoscope animation techniques was innovative at the time.
However, the photo-negative effect is more potent for shorter scenes fueled by
dark magic than the extended battle sequences. Regardless, his scenes of the
shadow riders stalking the hobbits have lost none of their intensity.
Hammer Films actually took the trouble of clearing the rights to a number of
classic Universal monsters, but the one they never got around to adapting was
the Invisible Man. The 1958 Invisible Man TV series is sort of the
closest thing to a Hammer Invisible Man, even though it isn’t gothic, or even
horror. Instead, it placed an invisible scientist (the good guy for a change)
in a Cold War espionage context, but it regularly co-starred familiar Hammer
players, like Michael Ripper and Thorley Walters. Even the voice of the
Invisible Man, Tim Turner, had a Hammer connection as the future narrator of The
Mummy’s Shroud. The half-hour format was way too short for the genre, but
it is still fun to watch an Invisible Man battle Communists, especially
villainous Anton Diffring and Andre Morell in two of the better episodes (which
release in yet another DVD-set this Tuesday).
“The
Prize” (S2 E4, directed by Quentin Lawrence and written by Ian Stuart Black)
was freshly ripped from the headlines, taking transparent inspiration from the
Nobel Prize that was awarded to Boris Pasternak, before the Soviets browbeat him
into declining it, just less than a year before the episode originally aired. In
this case, it is dissident author Tania Roskov (played by Swedish thesp Mai Zetterling)
who intended to accept a Nobel-like prize in Europe, but was intercepted by the
sadistic secret police officer Gunzi at the border.
You
know who else is picking up an award for science at the Nobel-like gala? That’s
right, invisible Dr. Peter Brady. Sure, he is still working on reversing the
invisibility process, but he achieved something pretty amazing. Distressed by
Roskov’s plight, Brady decides to sneak into the unnamed but presumably Baltic
nation to rescue her.
