Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988)


Wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper is known in cinematic circles for one particular movie: They Live, a classic John Carpenter film in which he co-starred with Keith David and helped save the world from alien yuppies.  That same year, however, he made his actual acting debut in a low-budget parody of apocalyptic road movies.  That particular film is Hell Comes to Frogtown. 

Sam Hellman (Piper), also known as Sam Hell, is arrested after getting Capt. Devlin's (William Smith) daughter pregnant.  It turns out Hellman has become a bit of a legend, both for his prowess and the fact that he is one of the few fertile men that still exist after a nuclear war a decade before.  When transferred to Med-Tech, a scientific wing of the New Provisional Government, he is found to have the highest sperm count of any man so far.  Problem is, fertile women are also few and far between, and a group of them have just been captured by Commander Toty (Brian Frank), the leader of a mutant settlement called Frogtown. 

To rescue the women he is teamed with a martial-arts trained medical expert named Spangle (Sandahl Bergman) tough military veteran Centinella (Cec Verrell).  The plan is to bluff their way in but, as plans often do, it goes awry, leaving Spangle and Hellman in grave danger.  On top of that a mysterious man named Count Sodom has been illegally providing the mutants of Frogtown with weapons in preparation for them to take on the Provisional Government.

The whole premise - a virile man living in a society dominated by women, and who has practically every woman stripping naked for him, is tasked with helping to repopulated the Earth by using his manhood - sounds like an inventive porno.  In fact, in some ways, it's not too far off from the plot of an actual pornographic art film called Café Flesh, in which those who can copulate without having ill effects are forced to perform for the rest of society which can't.  It is also somewhat reminiscent of the last third of A Boy and His Dog, made all the way back in 1975.  Despite all this the movie is rather tame on nudity, largely because director Donald G. Jackson didn't notice until it came time to film some nude scenes that Sandahl Bergman's contract for the film said no nudity.  That means a scene with Cec Verrell, and a few veiled nipples on the slave girls, are all there is for a movie that talks about sex so much and has it as a central part of the plot. 

Piper plays the role as an innocent drifter who just happens to drop into the situation, but occasionally there are hints of a deeper story under his humorous guise.  For those thinking it's going to be the same type of performance as They Live, the good news is Piper got an acting coach and decided to learn how to at least be serviceable in the part rather than just rely on the skills he learned while wrestling.  Bergman is pretty and great when it comes to action, but her acting isn't really any better than it was in Conan the Barbarian. 

What is most surprising about the movie is the makeup and effects.  The budget was heavily cut from what was originally promised as New World Pictures was quickly going under at the time this was made and plans for a major theatrical release tanked along with the company.  Still, Steve Wang provided convincing giant frog costumes for the mutants on a small budget.  

As for the movie itself it is good in fits and starts.  Piper is fun to watch as is Bergman, despite the fact that her line delivery is dull.  All the bad guys, from Toty's right-hand amphibian Bull (Nicholas Worth) to the commander himself and the final reveal of Count Sodom, are great.  There is a period in the middle that kind of stops and starts, and there are some uncomfortable attempts to find humor in forced copulation and impregnation.  If this was a serious movie in the vein of Mad Max 2 then it would fail miserably, but as a parody of many of the imitators and rip-off movies George Miller's trilogy inspired at the time it is not bad.  Under a better director, and with a better script, it could have been more of what it was trying to be, as from the time the actual title of the movie begins until the end it does provide some great entertainment. 

Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988)
Time: 86 minutes
Starring: Roddy Piper, Sandahl Bergman, Cec Verrell, Brian Frank, William Smith
Directors: Donald G. Jackson, R. J. Kizer

 

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