The Little Shop of Horrors
| The Little Shop of Horrors | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Roger Corman |
| Written by | Charles B. Griffith |
| Produced by | Roger Corman |
| Starring | Jonathan Haze Jackie Joseph Mel Welles Dick Miller Jack Nicholson |
| Music by | Fred Jatz Ronald Stein |
| Distributed by | Filmgroup |
Running time | 70 minutes |
| Budget | $27,000 - $34,000 |
"The Little Shop of Horrors" is one of the most famous B-movie cult classics in film history.
The film gained notoriety as the fastest film ever shot. According to legend, the manager of Producer's Studio had informed him that a film was about to wrap that included a large office set. Corman's brother Gene bet him that he could not make a film with the set. Corman arranged for the set to be left standing and had it redressed as a flower shop.
However, new information has revealed the true reason that Corman shot the film so fast: money. On January 1, 1960, new industry rules were to go into effect preventing producers from "buying out" an actor's performance in perpetuity. After that date, all actors were to be paid residuals for all future releases of their work. This meant that Corman's B-movie business model would be permanently changed and he would not be able to produce low-budget movies in the same way. Before these rules went into effect, Corman decided to shoot one last film and scheduled it to happen the last week in December of 1959.
Corman and writer Charles B. Griffith purportedly wrote the script over the course of a single evening, writing in all-night Hollywood coffee shops. The film was cast with stock actors that Corman had used in previous films. They rehearsed for three days before filming began.
Principal photography of "The Little Shop of Horrors" was shot in two days and one night by Corman, with other material shot over two successive weekends. He used three cameras at once and shot every scene with only one take. As a result, some scenes run continuously for two or three minutes. The total budget for the production was $27,000 (some reports say $34,000).
"Little Shop" is also noteworthy for featuring a young Jack Nicholson in a small role as Wilbur Force, the dentist's masochistic patient.
Plot summary
The Little Shop of Horrors tells the story of a nerdy young florist's assistant named Seymour Krelboyne, an employee of Gravis Mushnik's Skid Row Florist Shop in Los Angeles. The incompetent Seymour is about to be fired by Mr. Mushnik when Audrey, another employee, urges him to bring out a mysterious new strain of plant that he's been tinkering with. Seymour, who has a secret crush on Audrey, names the mysterious plant after her. Mushnik gives Seymour one week to see if the "Audrey Jr" plant improves his lacklustre business.
Audrey Jr., which looks a bit like a venus fly trap, begins to immediately attract new customers to the flower shop. But the plant is very sick and Mushnik demands that Seymour make it well so that he will continue to make money.
That night, while trying to figure out what is wrong with the plant, Seymour cuts his finger on a coffee can and discovers that Audrey Jr. has an odd quirk: it feeds on human blood. To keep the carnivorous plant alive, Seymour begins to feed it blood from his fingers.
By the next morning, Audrey Jr is now double its previous size and attracts an even bigger crowd to the shop. Mr. Mushnik is making a lot of money from the growing business and tells Seymour to call him "Dad". Seymour is becoming a minor celebrity and Audrey begins to fall in love with him. But when the plant begins to get sick again, Seymour is at a loss as to how to feed it. The answer comes from the plant itself, who now begins to speak, begging Seymour to "Feed Me."
When a frustrated Seymour accidentally kills a hobo by the railroad tracks, he conveniently decides to feed the body to Audrey Jr. But as he's feeding the chopped-up body to the plant, he is discovered by Mr. Mushnik. Now a rich man, Mushnik decides to turn a blind eye to the gruesome discovery.
Unfortunately, the hobo was really an undercover cop. Soon Sergeant Joe Fink and his partner, Frank Stoolie, begin to investigate the disappearance of their missing colleague and discover evidence directly linking Mushnik's Flower Shop.
Audrey Jr. continues to demand food, creating a bigger and bigger problem for Seymour. In order to maintain the shop's popularity and win the affections of Audrey, Seymour is forced to secretly kill people and feed them to the increasingly large and cruel Audrey Jr. Ultimately, Seymour, in a poorly thought out attempt to stop Audrey Jr., climbs inside of the plant to kill it, and is himself eaten. The film ends with Musknik and others discovering that Audrey has sprouted flowers bearing the tortured faces of its victims, including Seymour; the bud bearing Seymour's face whines, "I didn't mean it!"
Other characters in the film include Dr. Phoebus Farb, Mushnik's sadistic dentist; Burson Fouch, a customer who enjoys eating flowers; Mrs. Shiva, a customer who comes by daily to buy flowers for yet another dead relative; Mrs. Krelboyne, Seymour's hypochondriac mother; and Wilbur Force, a masochistic dental patient.
Although Corman has described his original film as humorous (especially in its use of Jewish humor), it was more in the traditional horror genre than its successors. In the musical and film musical versions the storyline is lighthearted and campy, despite some gruesome scenes, with the action punctuated by songs.
Film cast
- Seymour Krelboyne - Jonathan Haze
- Audrey Fulquard - Jackie Joseph
- Gravis Mushnik - Mel Welles
- Burson Fouch - Dick Miller
- Siddie Shiva - Leola Wendorff
- Winifred Krelboyne - Myrtle Vail
- Det. Sgt. Joe Fink - Wally Campo
- Det. Frank Stoolie - Jack Warford
- Wilbur Force - Jack Nicholson
- Audrey Jr. (voice) - Charles B. Griffith