Lost Media Archive

Host of Springville's almost weekly ISMN - "Incredibly Strange Movie Night" since 2003. (Previously known as "Tapioca Night" circa 1993 in Ogden, UT). "ISMN" also takes place every last Tuesday at Brewvies Cinema and Pub in Salt Lake City.

FALL 2012 WAS OUR 10th ANNIVERSARY!!!

We are also founder of the world's first Troll 2 cast reunion (which they didn't want to mention in the documentary for some reason, making it look like it started in New York. I guess karma will catch up with them).

Currently we are showcasing Avant Garde, Experimental and Art Films for each letter of the alphabet. This is in response to those who have given us the stereo type of only showing "low budget bad movie trash" not worth their time. So in response we say, "You want high art? It can be just as bizarre, sometimes even more so, and even just as low budget."

No repeat films from the past allowed! (...unless it's a screening at Brewvies.)

LMA is a Utah-based collection of mondo/ kitsch/ cult/ ephemeral/ experimental/ historical/ obsolete/ forgotten/ unearthed audio-visual and textual documents. LMA is also a resource for those who cling to bygone media formats. The LMA was founded by Blair Sterrett and works together with loaf-i productions, the Free Form Film Festival and Salt Lake City Film Festival to arrange screenings, viewings, and concerts. The LMA also promotes and initiates the creation of new and unusual films, albums, performative projects, and book events. We accept donations of any and all projection, recording, and filming devices. When possible, we maintain these machines for use by recordists and filmmakers. (We now curate over 35,000 films.)

For more info, donations or to join the weekly email list, please contact B.C. Sterrett at bcsterrett@gmail.com. Thank you.

Text Post

ISMN: “At the End of the Rainbow” (1965)-Tonight 9:30 pm @ Brewvies 677 S. 200 W. SLC

Not available on NetFlix #28

This film is a celebration of many, many things: The end of our “Not Available on NetFlix” alphabet, St. Patrick’s Day, the bizarre often unexplored world of vintage independent kiddie matinee films, and …my birthday!

                                 

This week’s feature:

“At the End of the Rainbow” (1965)
aka “The Princess and the Magic Frog”
DVDR/80 Mins/Color/Not Rated

I’ve said it before and don’t mind repeating: The world of Kiddie Matinee is some of the most unexplored territory for fans of the Incredibly Strange and Cult movies.  Which is a good or a bad thing, depending on where you stand.

I may not be into smut/nudie cuties/vintage porn/excessive gore but bless Something Weird Video for unearthing such obscurities as “The Princess and the Magic Frog”.  I sat on this film for years, thinking it was probably a semi-interesting but mostly a boring curiosity.  BOY WAS I WRONG!  While previewing this film last year, I had a complete blast, and couldn’t wait to share it this St. Patrick’s season with all of you.

      

This film has absolutely (nearly) NOTHING in common with “The Princess and the Frog” fairy tale, many are familiar with.  Rather it’s a craptastic independent kiddie feature with boggles the mind with the odd creativity that takes place when you don’t have a budget.  If you’re a fan of the “so bad it’s good”, or “so bad it’s hilarious and charming”, etc.  Then this film is for you.

I love the microphone that you can see at the top of the screen during the desert genie scenes.  The wizard looks completely satanic! And talking posts and trees are a welcome addition to any film.  I can’t help but notice the magic words in this film are the same that are spoken in “The Magic Christmas Tree.”  This film also has a very similar feel.  If I had more time while typing this, I’d probably research the relation.

                             

The following from kiddiematinee.com:

Plot Outline: Two kids play hooky from school and find a girl princess, a magic frog, a leprechaun, magic coins, talking trees, puppet people, an evil wizard, and eventually, a magic rainbow.

***

SYNOPSIS: On St. Patrick’s Day, Matthew O’Brien, a young boy, plays hooky from school by fishing at a nearby pond. He doesn’t catch any fish, but takes a little frog with him. On his way home, he gets lost in the woods, and stumbles upon a leprechaun, whose beard is caught in a log.

Matthew agrees to free the little man in exchange for his bag of golden magic coins. The leprechaun reluctantly agrees. Matthew tries the coins, but they don’t seem to work. The leprechaun explains that the magic coins will only work in service of others.

Matthew walks on, and encounters a strange sign post. Matthew tosses one of the magic coins, and the signpost suddenly comes to life and talks! It apologizes to Matthew for not being able to help the boy with his predicament.

Matthew walks into a forest of talking trees. The oldest tree tells Matthew to use a magic coin on his frog, to turn it back into the knight which he formerly was. The frog does, indeed, turn into a bumbling knight in shining armor, Sir Humphrey. The knight tells Matthew of the terrible wizard, and how he was turned into the frog. He then gathers a picnic basket of food for Matthew, from a “picnic basket bush!”

As Matthew eats, Sir Humphrey tells the sad story of how he was turned into a frog after trying to rescue the good Princess Cecilia from the evil Wizard. Just as he finishes the story, the Wizard materializes out of a puff of smoke! The wizard casts a spell, makes Matthew and Sir Humphrey disappear, and turns day into night!


Read this full review @ http://www.kiddiematinee.com/p-pmfrog.html


                           

The following review is from Something Weird Video:

Oh, dear Lord, forgive me for I have seen the face of Satan and he is called The Princess and the Magic Frog…Yes, boys and girls, here’s another mind-boggling children’s film, straight from the mid-Sixties, when Americans would dump their youth at the local theater’s “Kiddie Matinee” and subject the poor tots to all manner of cinematic torture. Such as The Princess and the Magic Frog, a long-unseen rarity that’s so hilariously impoverished, it makes Jimmy the Boy Wonder look like a multi-million dollar work of art.

After finding a frog and stuffing it in his pocket, little Matthew O’Brien takes a shortcut through some seemingly ordinary woods, gets lost, and stumbles upon a leprechaun whose long fake beard is caught in a log (even though this doesn’t seem to be taking place in Ireland). Greedy little brat that he is, Matt agrees to free the creepy little guy in exchange for seven magic coins. Coin Number 1 makes a wooden road sign talk and… well, flap its wood. Coin Number 2 turns the frog in his pocket into Sir Humphrey, an old coot in shiny armor who dances and sings like a goddamn sissy. But an evil wizard (whose pyrotechnic puff of smoke unintentionally starts a small fire!), a gypsy girls who’s really a princess, and those last magic coins…

Gnooonngg, gnooonngg, gnooonngg…Have we snapped yet?

There’s more that a whiff of Wizard of Oz wafting through The Princess and the Magic Frog, from the child who can’t find his way home, to the Wicked Witch, er…Wizard, to the search for the end of the rainbow summed up with the closing line, “You’ve found the end of the rainbow right in your own back yard!” In fact, this was apparently shot as At the End of the Rainbow with that title intact for the final credits. (While The Princess and the Magic Frog certainly sounds more like a children’s film, the story has very little to do with either the princess or the frog.)

And while the plot is about a boy who learns to help others, there’s also a rather perverse endorsement for corporal punishment. Early on, Matt complains about his parent always “walloping” him. So much so that the wants to run away. Later, Matt and Sir Humphrey share this odd exchange: “Mothers and fathers do love their children, don’t they?” “Why or course they do!” “Even when the wallop ‘em when they’re bad?” “The when the love ‘em most! If they didn’t care about them, they wouldn’t correct them!” “If that’s true, my mother and father love me a whole lot!” Yes, boys and girls, be happy when you get beaten!

From a 35mm print with music by Billy Allen, better known to us as WILLIAM ALLEN CASTLEMAN, director of Bummer and Johnny Firecloud! —Dribblejuice

      

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Bonus Short Films:

Preview Clip of Next Month’s ISMN film at Brewvies

+

a music video recap of “Creating Rem Lezar”

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Time: 9:30 PM

Place: Brewvies Cinema and Pub, 677 S. 200 W. SLC, UT

Price: FREE!

Age: Although I am showing bizarro “Rated G” type films, this venue is still 21 and up.

See you there!

-B.C. Sterrett

                  

Posted in Kiddie Matinee Princess and the Magic Frog At the End of the Rainbow Wizard Puppets St. Patrick's Day Frog