Frog Story is a 1972 short film (14 minutes) directed by Ron Satlof.
Harry is an office worker with an unhappy home life, drinking at a bar. As he wanders out of the bar, a seductive, "come hither" female voice calls out to him. The voice turns out to be coming from a frog sitting on the ground out in front of the bar. The frog tells him to pick her up and take her home, promising "You won't regret it...."
Indeed he does not regret it. Harry takes the frog home and kisses her upon command. Sure enough the frog turns into a gorgeous naked woman. (At her insistence he tucks her under the sheets first.) There's only one problem: Harry is married. Luckily, the woman can turn herself back into a frog at will. Harry then has to figure out how to spend time with his magic frog woman while hiding the secret from his dumpy, crabby wife.
Tropes:
- All Part of the Show: When Harry first hears the frog calling to him, he assumes he's on Candid Camera. ("I watch your show all the time....Where's the camera?")
- Animorphism: A woman who changes to a frog and back, with a kiss necessary to regain human form.
- Awful Wedded Life: A rather low-key example, as Harry and his unattractive wife snipe at each other tiredly.
- Bewitched Amphibians: The standard prince/ss-changed-to-frog setup.
- Curse Escape Clause: Sort of, as it isn't a curse. The woman can change to a frog of her own free will and apparently she does it for kicks. But the other half of the trope does apply as she needs a kiss to change back to a woman.
- Idiot Ball: A smarter man would have put the frog in his suit pocket and taken her to work to keep her safe. Harry chooses to leave the frog at home, and disaster follows.
- Modesty Bedsheet: The frog tells Harry to tuck her under the bedsheets before he kisses her. When they're talking in the bathroom and she has to change back again she makes him put her under a towel first.
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: The good news is that the wife didn't kill the frog. The bad news is that the wife took the frog to the pet store. The film ends with the man buying every frog in the pet store, driving them all home, and frantically kissing them one at a time as they hop around on his bed.
- No Name Given: Harry is the only character to get a name. The frog woman, the wife, and the pet store clerk are nameless.
- True Love's Kiss: What the frog woman needs to regain human form.
- Turning Back Human: The frog becomes a woman when she's kissed.
- Urban Fantasy: A magic frog in what looks like regular old suburban Southern California.
