What if the Lord of the Rings films were made in the '60s?

[ChrisIII]

What about Patrick Troughton as Wormtongue?

[Scott Taylor]

How about Roddy McDowell as Gollum

[krazijoe]

If they were we would all be laughing at how bad the effects etc are...

[DrNewGod]

What's also funny is that it's the role he chose to break out of the James Bond typecasting (Which he would a bit later with better films-Lion In Winter, Man Who Would Be King and Robin & Marion)..

I think you mean The Wind and the Lion (which was excellent, BTW). The Lion in Winter was Peter O'Toole (and was also excellent).

[ChrisIII]

If they were we would all be laughing at how bad the effects etc are...

Not necessarily. A lot of epic movies from the time still look pretty good today-A lot of Harryhausen's work for example (although admittedly not all), 2001 space effects looks better than Star Wars in some places, etc. and of course many of the sword and sandal epics. (Which had such high budgets that they didn't make a profit and some were very costly flops)

I'm guessing that most of the big creatures like the Balrog, trolls etc would probably use stop-motion while the Orcs would be guys in costumes/masks, although it looks like Bakshi's version rotoscoped a guy in a big Lion suit for the Balrog.

There's actually a 'lost scene' showing a more impressive looking Balrog that wasn't used:

https://boingboing.net/2014/03/22/lo...of-the-ri.html

[Slimybug]

I'm gonna have to redo my initial list and say Richard Burton, or possibly Robert Redford, for Aragorn.

[achilles]

Clint Eastwood as Aragorn.