The Hobbit (1977)
Writers: J.R.R. Tolkien (novel), Romeo Muller (adapted screenplay)
Directors: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Release: November 27, 1977
Tagline: Based on the original version of The Hobbit.
Producer(s): Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Associate Producer: Masaki Îzuka
Stars/Actors: Orson Bean, Richard Boone, Hans Conried, John Huston, Otto Preminger, Cyril Ritchard, Theodore Gottlieb, Paul Frees, Jack DeLeon, Don Messick, John Stephenson, Glenn Yarbrough, Thurl Ravenscroft
Music by: Maury Laws
Production Company: Rankin/Bass Productions
Genre(s): Fantasy, Science Fiction, High Fantasy
ID: tt0077687
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: 90 minutes
Based On: Based on The Hobbit by J.J.R. Tolkien
Synopsis: A homebody hobbit in Middle Earth gets talked into joining a quest with a group of dwarves to recover their treasure from a dragon.
Declassified by Agent Palmer: NBC’s made-for-TV adaptation of Tolkien’s The Hobbit has a comfortable hobbit-hole in my soul
Quotes and Lines
Bilbo Baggins: No hat, no stick, no pipe, not even a pocket handkerchief. How can one survive?
Bilbo Baggins: Bother burglary and everything to do with it!
Gandalf the Grey: Indeed. And how do you intend to enter Smaug’s chambers? Through the front gate? As a houseguest? You would be ashes before you took your seventh step.
Bilbo Baggins: Oh, stop complaining! I never promised to burgle you first class accommodations.
Gandalf the Grey: Bilbo Baggins?
Bilbo Baggins: Uh, yes.
Gandalf the Grey: I am looking to hire a burglar.
Bilbo Baggins: Burglar. I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place.
Gandalf the Grey: You mean you do not wish to share a grand adventure?
Bilbo Baggins: Dear me, no. We, Hobbits, are plain quiet folk. Adventures make one late for dinner
Gandalf the Grey: Enough. I am Gandalf. And Gandalf means ME.
Men: Scurvy dwarves! Thieving dwarves! Kill them!
Elves: Kill the dwarves! Chop them up! Take their heads!
Dwarves: Kill the men! Kill the elves! Save the gold for ourselves!
Bilbo Baggins: [bringing up the dwarves’ rear] Personally, I’d rather be back in Hobbiton.
Bard: Black arrow! You’ve never failed me, and I’ve always recovered you. I had you from my father, and he from of old. If ever you came from the forges of the true King under the Mountain, go now and speed well!
Gollum: The ring? Most definitely. My precious will find it! Will find it! The Baggins. My precious will crush it… and smash it!
Bilbo Baggins: Better douse this.
Gollum: Where is it? Where is it? It is tricksy. It says it doesn’t know the way out… but it knows the way in, my precious. It must… know a way out! It’s off for the back door. My precious must make haste to the back door. To the back door!
Bilbo Baggins: How convenient. Well, follow the leader.
Gollum: It’s not here, my precious. It’s make an escape!
Bilbo Baggins: Ta-ta!
Gollum: Thief! Thief! Baggins! We hates it! Hates it forever!
Bilbo Baggins: Gollum thought I knew the way out and was trying to head me off. I merely followed him to the exit.
Troll #1: Blast! Nothin’ but mutton to eat.
Troll #3: How I long for a bit of man-flesh!
Gollum: Now… This thing, alls things devours. Birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Gnaws iron, bites steel. Grinds hard stones to meal. Slays king, ruins town And beats high mountain down
Bilbo Baggins: Perhaps you know the way out?
Gollum: Yes, gollum. But perhaps we sits here and chats with it a bitsy, my precious. It likes riddles?
Thorin: May the hair on his toes never fall off!
Gollum: Thief! Thief! Baggins! We hates it! Hates it! FOREVER!
Gandalf the Grey: Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies because you helped bring them about? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You’re a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I’m very fond of you, but you’re only quite a little fellow in a wide world, after all.
Bilbo Baggins: Thank goodness!
Gollum: My precious finds a ring… on his birthday… long ago. A golden ring. A magic ring! We must get my precious’ birthday present from its hiding place.
Thorin: Oh great Elf King, my truest friend and ally, we must join our forces against this common scourge!
Elvenking: But of course, oh noble King Under the Mountain. Your people are like brothers unto mine.
Bard: And my men and all their weapons are as one with yours! Together we will vanquish the fell foe…
Everyone: TOGETHER!
Bilbo Baggins: Thorin is correct, I simply do not understand war…
Smaug: Well, thief? I smell you, I feel your air – and I hear your breath. Come along! Help yourself; there’s plenty, AND to spare.
Bilbo Baggins: Oh… thank you, Smaug the Magnificent! I did not come for wealth. I wish only to have a look at you, and see if you are truly as great as tales say; I did not believe them!
Smaug: … Do you now?
Bilbo Baggins: They fall utterly short of reality, King SMAUG Under the Mountain!
Smaug: Hmmm… You have nice manners for a thief – and a LIAR.
Thorin: Child of the kindly West, I have come to know, if more of us valued your ways – food and cheer above hoarded gold – it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell.