Disney’s new animated film “The Princess and the Frog” opens in wide release tomorrow, so I thought I’d look at another amphibian tale for Eric’s Bad Movies at Film.com: “Frogs.” The title, the film’s poster, and other elements lead you to believe that people will be killed by frogs in the movie, and yet this never occurs. In fact, frogs are about the only animal that DON’T kill anyone. Maybe the title was meant to be ironic?
“Frogs” strikes me as a perfect film for “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” As fans of the show know, to qualify, it’s not enough for a movie to be bad. There are also practical considerations, like whether it has a lot of swearing, nudity, or violence that would need to be edited for TV, or whether it’s too long. “Frogs” is the right length with no language or violence issues, has a couple recognizable actors, was clearly made cheaply in the South in the 1970s, and features characters who hate each other drinking and complaining while being killed — all hallmarks of many, many MST3K movies. It’s a shame they never got around to it.
At the other end of the quality spectrum, this week’s edition of What’s the Big Deal? is about “On the Waterfront,” from 1954. There’s a lot to say about this movie and why it’s a big deal, so I hope you find the column a suitable way of spending 10 minutes.
Am I correct in assuming that the hand in that frog’s mouth just grew there naturally?
Alex, it’s a little known fact, but between the crisis with the ozone layer holes, and the current fear of melting ice-caps, helping frogs with mutant appendages was a fashionable environmental crusade in the middle ’90s. The image on this movie poster was taken from a well-known public service announcement commercial which aired on all of the major networks.
Wow, I have this on DVD!! (saw it at Wal-Mart for $5 at 3AM…yeah, I had to have it) I guess it’s true that the frogs don’t kill anyone directly, but they do band together to cause several deaths. They don’t eat humans though. Classic movie.
Correction: They band together, sort of, to kind of cause one death, the heart attack at the end. In all the other cases, the frogs are just sitting there, not doing anything to cause anyone’s death.
I think they ruined the symbolism of the film by re-shooting the death of the old lady to involve another snake. The version shown in the trailer, with the butterfly and the quicksand is much better.