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.

Director:

Roger Corman

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 clumsy Seymour Krelborn spoils two of a client's flowers, his boss Gravis Mushnick is ready to fire him from his flower shop until Seymour says he has mixed two different breeds of plant at home to create the "Audrey Jr." hybrid. Mushnick agrees to give Seymour another chance, and the next day Seymour brings in Audrey Jr., which becomes Mushnick's pride and joy and draws interest from his other employee Audrey Fulquard and more and more of their clients. Suddenly the plant ails, and Seymour accidentally learns that she likes blood. Upset because he doesn't know how to feed her, he walks along the railroad track and throws a stone that accidentally hits the head of a man who falls on the track and a train runs over him. Seymour takes pieces of the body back to the shop and discovers that the plant likes human flesh. The next morning, Audrey Jr. has grown and become the attraction of the shop. But how will Seymour feed his plant again?

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Plot Keywords:

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

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Taglines:

The store with more.

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Roger Corman would shoot scenes with two cameras rolling at once whilst placed at different angles. He rarely shot retakes and spent little time on lighting scenes.

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Goofs

Frank walks into Detective Fink's office, sits down and lights a cigarette. The cigarette remains in his mouth until a close-up shot, where it is missing. When the wide shot is resumed, the cigarette is back again.

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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 Slingshot DVD is a fabricated 3D version of the film that is viewable in razor3D system. This is of course just an artificial 3D gimmick as the film was shot in standard flat format and not in 3D

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Connections

Referenced in Jeopardy!: Episode #26.100 (2010)

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Soundtracks

Auld Lang Syne
(1788) (uncredited)
Traditional Scottish ballad
Words by Robert Burns
Sung off-screen and a cappella by Jonathan Haze

User Reviews

One of Corman's first is still one of his best

The first version of The Little Shop of Horrors, long before the Broadway musical and Frank Oz's musical/horror/comedy, is one of the primary examples of shoe-string movie-making. Shoe-string, of course, refers mostly to the budget, and this possibly ranks above others like Clerks, Slacker, Night of the Living Dead and Blair Witch in order to put it together so quickly. And yet for all of its little slip-ups and deranged moments of comedy, it does work for what its worth. Not that it doesn't show that the film was made in two days, but on those terms of extremely low-budget, go-for-broke B-movie-making, Roger Corman as a director has quite a nifty effort here. The story is similar to a fairy-tale (a darkly comic one to be sure, like one of the Fractures Fairy tales from the old Rocky & Bullwinkle show), in how Seymour (Jonathan Haze, perfect as an awkward, easily shockable little guy) tries to nurture a plant to earn the affections of Audrey (Jackie Joseph). But then the plant turns into a meat-eater, to put it that way, and from there Charles Griffith's script goes into wild comic turns where he now has to figure out how to take care of the plant before it 'takes care' of him. Some scenes are less notable than others, and sometimes the cheesiness of it all (just look at the plant itself for proof enough) can be wearisome. But Corman keeps the atmosphere with a giddy amount of late 50s 'shlock', and some scenes stand the test of time as the best of their B-movie status. Tops go to the 2nd film appearance from Nicholson as the most psychotic of the bunch, as a 'chipper' fetishist who gets off on getting his wretched teeth worked on- it's a masterpiece of a scene with cartoonish action, innuendo and crazy looks from a 23 year old Nicholson. Worth checking out, maybe more than once, and you're likely to find it (appropriately) in the cheapest lot of DVDs and videos at your local store.

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)

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