The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

A clumsy young man nurtures a plant and discovers that it's carnivorous, forcing him to kill to feed it.

Directors:

Roger Corman, Charles B. Griffith (uncredited)

Writer:

Charles B. Griffith (screenplay)

Stars:

Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jonathan Haze	...	Seymour Krelborn
Jackie Joseph	...	Audrey Fulquard
Mel Welles	...	Gravis Mushnick
Dick Miller	...	Fouch
Myrtle Vail	...	Winifred Krelborn
Karyn Kupcinet	...	Shirley (as Tammy Windsor)
Toby Michaels	...	Shirley's Friend
Leola Wendorff	...	Mrs. Shiva
Lynn Storey	...	Mrs. Hortense Feuchtwanger
Wally Campo	...	Sgt. Joe Fink / Narrator
Jack Warford	...	Detective Frank Stoolie
Meri Welles	...	Leonora Clyde (as Merri Welles)
John Herman Shaner	...	Dr. Phoebus Farb (as John Shaner)
Jack Nicholson	...	Wilbur Force
Dodie Drake	...	Waitress

Storyline

When the clumsy Seymour Krelboyne spoils two flowers of a client, the owner of a small florist shop Gravis Mushnick is ready to fire him. However Seymour tells that he has mixed two plants of different breeds at home and created a hybrid named Audrey Jr. and Mushnick decides to give another chance to his employee. On the next day, Seymour brings Audrey Jr. that becomes the pride and joy of Mushnick, his other employee Audrey Fulquard and clients. Out of the blue, the flower seems to be dying and Seymour accidentally learns that she likes blood. One day, Seymour is upset since he does not know how to feed the flower and he walks along a railroad. When he throws a stone near a railroad track, he accidentally hits the head of a man that falls on the track and is a train runs over him. Seymour brings the pieces of the man to the shop and finds that the plant likes flesh. On the next morning, Audrey Jr. has grown and become the attraction of the shop. But how will Seymour feed his plant ...

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Plot Keywords:

black comedy | man eating plant | speaking plant | hit by a train | eaten alive | 

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Taglines:

The flowers that kill in the Spring TRA-LA

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 August 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Passionate People Eater

Filming Locations:

Bunker Hill, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$27,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$1,400,000, 31 December 1960

Company Credits

Production Co:

Roger Corman Productions, Santa Clara Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The manager of Producer's Studio informed Roger Corman that a large office set had been constructed for a production that was about to wrap. Corman arranged to use the standing set, redressed, as the main set of this film.

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Goofs

Jackie Joseph's character name appears to be spelled incorrectly as "Audry" in the end credits. On the sign outside of Mushnick's shop advertising the new plant, the name appears as "Audrey" Junior, the spelling most often used for this name.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sgt. Joe Fink: [voiceover over a panning shot of a drawing of a sleazy neighbourhood] My name is Sergeant Joe Fink, working the 24-hour shift out of homicide. And this is my workshop. The part of town that everybody knows about, but that nobody wants to see - where the tragedies are deeper, the ecstasy's wilder and the crime rate consistently higher than anywhere else. Skid Row... my beat.

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Alternate Versions

The Filmgroup Inc. opening logo is cut from some prints.

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Connections

Referenced in DVD-R Hell: Pagan Invasion: Halloween, Trick or Treat? - Part 2 (2013)

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Soundtracks

Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
(1616) (uncredited)
Music by R. Melish (1780 ?)
Lyrics by Ben Jonson (in poem To Celia) (1616)
Sung a cappella by Myrtle Vail

User Reviews

Campy classic

I first saw this movie on TV when I was a kid and it probably never even made the Drive-In circuit but went straight to local television station libraries. Even as a kid I never saw any horror in this but viewed it as a tongue-in-cheek horror/comedy. This is directed by the king of Drive-In horror genre movies Roger Corman who also went into straight to video film making as a producer. This movie likely would have had it's limited late night TV run in the 60's and into the early 70's and then disappeared if not for the fact that a young Jack Nicholson had a fun and memorable role in this. Lead actor Jonathan Haze didn't have a notable career after this but Jackie Joseph would go on to a lot of film, television roles and TV cartoon voice-overs. Other cast members Dick Miller and Mel Welles would go on to appear in many television and movie roles and Miller is still very active today. Writer Charles B Griffith and Roger Corman wrote this in a single night, gave their actors three days to rehearse and shot it in two days. Griffith supplies the voice of the man-eating plant. This is a black comedy, low budget campy classic and I've seen it many times. Great character names and a funny script. This is bad by design which makes it pretty good. I would give this a 6.5 out of 10.