The Frog
About The Frog
A fairy appears in a fountain and conjures a green frog. An explosion takes her away. While the frog hops, the basin fills with a giant frog, a mustached magician, colored jets of water, and a second magician under a rain of rice. The fairy returns and calls up fountain tableaux: women guarded by halberdiers, women under flower arbors, women stepping from giant shells, women on rearing horses joined by soldiers. The fountain comes back, the fairy leaves, and the frog climbs up to wash.
Cast & crew
More about The Frog
Segundo de Chomón directed the trick film for Pathé. Julienne Mathieu is one of the performers. The French title is La Grenouille. The running time on the French Wikipedia entry is 3 minutes.
Themes
Making
Chomón uses the fountain as a single stage and changes the centerpiece by substitution: animal, magician, water, and groups of women with soldiers.
Technique
The tableaux are changed in the camera, so a frog, a magician, and a ring of women occupy the same basin without a change of set.
Preservation
The short survives in color-capable prints and has been posted by the Public Domain Review.
Notes
- An English title is The Frog. A Russian title is Лягушка.
- IMDb lists the print as colored.
- The closing shot is the frog at the top of the fountain, washing.
Scenes
- The fairy produces the green frog and then vanishes in an explosion.
- A giant frog and two magicians take turns in the basin.
- The small frog climbs the fountain and washes after the fairy has gone.
