Frogs (1972)

Director:

George McCowan

Writers:

Robert Hutchison (story)
Robert Hutchison (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 March 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Cold green skin against soft warm flesh...a croak...a scream.

Plot:

Malevolent frogs proliferate at a country residence. The family who lives there is engrossed in their own problems, however...

Plot Keywords:

Frog | Island | Pollution | Mansion | Croak

Cast

Ray Milland	...	Jason Crockett
Sam Elliott	...	Pickett Smith
Joan Van Ark	...	Karen Crockett
Adam Roarke	...	Clint Crockett
Judy Pace	...	Bella Garrington
Lynn Borden	...	Jenny Crockett
Mae Mercer	...	Maybelle
David Gilliam	...	Michael Martindale
Nicholas Cortland	...	Kenneth Martindale
George Skaff	...	Stuart Martindale
Lance Taylor Sr.	...	Charles
Holly Irving	...	Iris Martindale
Dale Willingham	...	Tina Crockett
Hal Hodges	...	Jay Crockett
Carolyn Fitzsimmons	...	Lady in Car

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (re-rating) (2005) | Germany:16 | Iceland:16 | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:16 | Canada:G | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:X | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Eden Gardens State Park - County Road 395, Point Washington, Florida, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Due to the film's low budget no live birds were used for the bird attack scene. Instead the attack was created by superimposing footage of flying birds over the footage of the running cast.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the man goes into the greenhouse and he gets killed by the lizards knocking over the bottles of poison, we see that it's very smoky in the greenhouse. The smoke is so thick that we can barely see through it. However, less than a minute later, Smith opens the door to the greenhouse and it's perfectly clear.

Quotes:

Pickett Smith: [Looking at Kenneth, dead on the ground in the greenhouse] Is there a place where we can put him?
Charles: Yes sir, I'll show you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 2001 Maniacs (2005)

A minor thriller with major atmosphere

The plot here is little more than: "Help! We're surrounded by hostile creatures!" Yet there's something about this movie that lodges in the memory and it's probably its heavy, humid atmosphere -- like a hot summer day where nothing's happening yet you know there must be a storm brewing just over the horizon. The eclectic cast is headed by Ray Milland but the star here is Sam Elliott who makes his first real impression in the movies. His let-me-strip-off-my-sweaty-shirt-and-display-my-hairy-chest scenes were SO impressive that they landed him the lead role in that piece of beefcake-nirvana called "Lifeguard."

(June 2009 update: Note how this movie finds echoes, seven years later, in another Sam Elliott movie: "The Legacy." In both movies Elliott plays a young man who, because of a transportation accident, winds up as a reluctant guest at a mansion located in an isolated spot in the country. The mansion is owned, in both cases, by a distinguished older gentleman who suffers from a physical disability. There are other guests at the mansion and during the course of Elliott's stay, these guests are killed off, one by one -- in a variety of bizarre fashions -- by a mysterious force. In both movies, Elliott performs "beefcake" scenes which have a gratuitous quality. In "Frogs," he appears twice without his shirt and in "The Legacy" he has a rear-view nude scene.)