Remember That Time Humphrey Bogart Played Frodo?

It’s true*! Ten years before The Lord of the Rings was ever published, Warner Bros. Studios filmed an adaptation of the story starring Humphrey Bogart (Frodo), Sydney Greenstreet (Gandalf), Arthur “Dooley” Wilson (Samwise Gamgee), Peter Lorre (Gollum) and Godzilla (the Balrog). Footage was lost for many years, but much of it was recovered by “scholars at flyingmoose.org” and uploaded for our edification. Please enjoy Frodo shooting the heck out of the Balrog and throwing Saruman off a cliff.

Man, I remember stumbling across this thing on the Tolkien Sarcasm Page (warning, link contains internet time machine) when I was just a wee websurfing fangirl, when the idea that somebody might make a trio of gorgeous big-budget movie adaptations were but a couple of paragraphs on an incredibly spurious fan page, and I had just finished reading The Hobbit.

Goooooood times.

*It’s not true.

(via Neil Gaiman.)