As promised, there are lots of frogs (and even more toads) in this one. Contrary to the memorable poster, though, no one gets eaten by a giant frog. Reptiles do most of the heavy lifting here.
Tagline: “A tidal wave of slithering, slimy horror devouring, destroying all in its path!”, although it’s hard to beat “Today – the Pond! Tomorrow – the World!”
WTF Factor: *** one extra for death by frog
Notable Dialogue:
- Jason: “That, Mr. Smith, is where you and I part company. I still believe man is master of the world.”
- Pickett: “Does that mean he can’t live in harmony with the rest of it?”
- Jason: [loud croaking on the soundtrack] “You call that horrible racket out there harmonious?”
- Pickett: “Mr. Crockett, I know it sounds strange as hell, but what if nature were trying to get back at us?”
- Jason: “Nonsense!”
Synopsis: Pickett Smith (Sam Elliott) is paddling around a Florida swamp, taking photos, first of animals, then of trash and waste pipes; the credits are timed to the camera clicks. Karen (Joan Van Ark) and Clint (Adam Roarke) Crockett overturn Pickett’s canoe with their power boat.
Karen invites Pickett to come to their house for a picnic lunch and some dry clothes. They meet the not-so-friendly family patriarch Jason Crockett (Ray Milland, slumming), who is wheelchair-bound. He owns the island and is attended by his nephew, Michael (David Gilliam). Jason is hostile to Pickett’s picture-taking but Pickett is going to stay for lunch anyway. Jason demands to know who Pickett is and Pickett says he is a freelance photographer doing a spread on pollution for an ecology magazine (at least until his camera got lost overboard). Meanwhile Jason has sent Grover (whoever that is) out to kill the frogs, which are everywhere.
Let’s meet the rest of the frog fodder. Clint’s wife Jenny (Lynn Borden) is a real nag and they have two mildly annoying children. Ditzy lepidopterist Aunt Iris (Hollis Irving), married to robotic Stuart (George Skaff), is the mother of Kenneth Martindale (Nicholas Cortland), who is there with Bella (Judy Pace), his model girlfriend. There are two servants, Maybelle and Charles (Mae Mercer and Lance Taylor, Sr.).
Jason asks Pickett to go look for Grover while everyone complains about the frogs. Pickett follows a trail of dead animals and when he finds Grover, he’s long gone, covered in snakes and the occasional frog.
The phone is out at the house and the frogs attack the windows. They find a snake in the chandelier of the dining room and Jason shoots it.
Pickett wonders if nature is getting revenge for the way people have treated it.
The next day is both Jason’s birthday and the 4th of July. There’s a big party planned and Jason expects everything to go according to his schedule, no matter what. Pickett and Karen are flirting constantly. Everyone complains about the frog’s croaking during the night.
Forty-five movie minutes have passed and we are finally getting down to business. Michael goes out into the woods to see if he can figure out why the phone lines are not working. He shoots a bird, and then himself in the leg. Then he is gotten by tarantulas and Spanish moss; this requires him to stay still while they do their business.
While Aunt Iris goes out to catch butterflies, Kenneth goes to the greenhouse to get some flowers. Lizards knock over a bunch of chemical bottles and Kenneth is asphyxiated when he deliberately sticks his face in the fumes. Bella is not pleased.
Iris wanders off the path, gets chomped up by leeches, and then bitten by a rattler.
Next her husband Stuart wanders around near the water and is followed and attacked by an alligator. He actually puts up a fight.
Pickett recommends that they evacuate the island but Jason says no. Bella, Maybelle, and Charles leave on Clint’s boat. When they get to the landing on the mainland, there is no one there. We see Bella’s group attacked by birds.
While Clint is looking around, his boat drifts off after the line is cut. He swims out to the boat and in the process gets chomped by the strongest water moccasins in existence.
For some reason his wife Jenny wades into the water when she sees the drifting boat and gets chomped by an alligator snapping turtle while she’s stuck in the mud.
Pickett, Karen, and Clint’s two kids are ready to make a run for it but Jason refuses to leave the island.
Pickett finds Jenny’s crab-laden body, and gets Karen and the kids into his canoe. They paddle off but later get snagged in some tree roots. Pickett gets to do some manly, shirtless water snake wrestling until he gets the boat loose.
When they arrive at the landing there is still no one around. They find Bella’s scattered suitcase, which does not bode well.
The group goes out to the main road and get picked up even though they’re carrying a rifle with them. A boy in the car shows them the biggest frog he’s ever seen (actually it’s a big ol’ toad). The mother mentions that she has not seen anyone along the road for quite a while.
Later, while Jason is having a nightcap, windows start to break and frogs start coming in. Lots of frogs. Jason starts getting panicky. For some reason he gets out of his wheelchair and collapses on the floor. Then the frogs come and hop on him until he dies of embarrassment and the lights go out. Roll credits. It does not say “The End.”
Thoughts: This is what I call a “dead meat” movie, where you have a cast of expendable characters who are going to be picked off in various presumably colorful ways. In this case, the people behave a lot dumber than the frogs. Frogs takes its time in introducing all of the players with their one distinguishing characteristic and moving on to nature’s revenge. The movie is light on gore. The characters are not killed in exactly the order you might predict from the introductions, although you can easily guess who will survive until the end of the movie. The movie is almost entirely devoid of any intentional humor, but there are amusements to be had along the way. There have to be, with so many actors being dead serious in such a silly movie.
This was Sam Elliott’s first starring movie role (although you can definitely make the case that the frogs/toads are the real stars). He certainly brings good looks and that distinctive baritone to the table, but it isn’t yet clear that he is going to evolve into a beloved national treasure. He does fine, but his character is pretty one-note. Oddly enough (cough), this film frequently doesn’t show up in his web biographies.
Frogs benefits greatly from being filmed on location in Eden Park, Florida. The swampy ambience is well-used, as is the sense of isolation on the island. Spanish moss features heavily in the photography and there are some lovely shots of sunlight through the trees on the lawn.
For some reason, I am enamored of this particular interlude.
The movie brought in hundreds of frogs and toads (they used cane toads when they wanted shots of very large “frogs.” With all of the shots of frog hordes and the constant croaking on the soundtrack, there comes a certain ominous atmosphere, although the filmmakers are too smart to try and make the actual frogs scary á la Night of the Lepus and its rabbits (released the same year as this movie). Did you know that a group of frogs is called an army? (I had to look that up.) The movie infers that the frogs are the masterminds, as it were, of the animal invasion. I personally wondered about Jason’s dog, who slinks away from Jason as the house fills with frogs. Are the dogs going to join the animal revolt? Now the whole world is really in trouble.
This is a PG production that I recommend viewing at least once. You’ll smile more than once.
Random Notes:
- Ray Milland was not a happy camper on this movie, so much so that he left the set early. Most of his death scene was filmed with an obvious body double.
- Quite a few frogs and toads got loose on location, which did not please the locals.
- In the movie, Iris is killed by a snake, but they filmed a sequence where she drowns in quicksand. That scene was left in the movie trailer.
Suggested double feature: Night of the Lepus (1972) certainly has more laughs, or more seriously, maybe Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), which has William Shatner and tarantulas instead of killer bunnies.
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “Beautiful women were the victims of his FIENDISH FACIALS!!!”
