At the End of the Rainbow

Plot

On Saint Patrick's Day, Irish boy Matthew O'Brien plays hooky from school and fishes with his friend Timothy Ryan. After parting ways, Matt finds a magic frog and puts it in his pocket. Taking a shortcut through the woods, he gets lost and encounters a leprechaun whose beard is caught in a log. Matt frees him on condition of receiving his bag of gold, which contains seven magic wishing coins that only work when used to help others.

The leprechaun vanishes, leaving Matt alone. Desperate, Matt uses a coin to wish for guidance, bringing a wooden signpost to life. The signpost directs him to a Wizard's cave. In the Wizard's enchanted forest, living trees tell Matt the frog is actually a knight named Sir Humphrey, turned into a frog by the Wicked Wizard.

Matt spends a second coin to transform the frog back into Sir Humphrey, who warns him about the Wicked Wizard and a princess named Cecilia. Sir Humphrey accompanies Matt, but the Wicked Wizard appears in a cloud of smoke and banishes them to a barren desert.

Production

Harold Vaughn Taylor, who wrote The Magic Christmas Tree the previous year, wrote the screenplay. Austin Green, a veteran actor, produced and directed the film, his only credit in those roles.

Twelve-year-old David Alan Bailey, known for guest roles on television series such as Dennis the Menace, The Andy Griffith Show and Bewitched, played Matthew O'Brien. British character actor Clive Halliday was cast as Sir Humphrey after producer-director Green saw his performance in Mary Poppins. Filming locations included Northern California's Carmel-by-the-Sea for the enchanted forest and the desert near Indio, California for the impossible desert sequences.

Release

First shown on October 23, 1965, the film debuted as At the End of the Rainbow. By March 1966, it was retitled The Princess and the Magic Frog.

Typical of children's matinees, it never had a wide release, instead playing locally in U.S. theaters into 1971. Long considered lost, Something Weird Video rediscovered it on DVD in 2004. The distributor called it a hilariously cheap rarity, worse than Jimmy, the Boy Wonder, and noted its Wizard of Oz echoes, from a lost child to a wicked wizard and a rainbow quest.

Reception

The 2004 DVD release gave the film a cult so-bad-it's-good reputation, due to its no-budget sets, amateurish costumes and effects, unintentionally humorous dialogue, and camp performances. Allmovie and TV Guide each gave it two out of five stars, calling it charming and enchanting respectively. A 2009 review in The Seattle Times described it as something to watch at 3 a.m. after overindulgence. KiddieMatinee.com called it a fascinating but threadbare U.S. fantasy film in the spirit of similar mid-1960s kiddie matinee indie product, noting it looks like a children's theatre production restaged in the woods and that whether it works is both yes and no.