The Little Shop of Horrors **** (1960, Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, Jack Nicholson) – Classic Movie Review 3,870

Roger Corman spent only $30,000 and took just two days to shoot the now highly regarded 1960 cult black comedy horror film The Little Shop of Horrors.

Incredibly, producer-director Roger Corman spent only $30,000 and took just two days to shoot the now highly regarded 1960 cult black comedy horror film The Little Shop of Horrors using sets over from A Bucket of Blood (1959). Corman was given temporary access to the sets left standing from his previous film and decided to use them in the last two days before they were torn down

Jonathan Haze stars as nerdy young hero Seymour Krelboyne, who nurtures a plant and discovers that it is a carnivorous monster plant that demands more and more human blood and flesh, forcing him to kill to feed it.

Seymour is employed in a tatty flower shop by rotten boss Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles) and is saved from the horrors of his existence by his love of plants and his passion for Audrey Fulquard (Jackie Joseph).

With character names worthy of a Carry On movie, this horror spoof is surprisingly funny and inventive, thanks to the witty script by Charles B Griffith, and the amusing performances, with a standout scene featuring Jack Nicholson as Wilbur Force, a dental patient who likes pain and enjoys having his teeth extracted.

Also in the cast are Dick Miller as Burson Fouch, Myrtle Vail as Winifred Krelboyne, Karyn Kupcinet [Tammy Windsor] as Shirley, Toby Michaels as Shirley’s friend, Leola Wendorff as Mrs Siddie Shiva, Lynn Storey as Mrs Hortense Fishtwanger (of the Society of Silent Flower Observers of Southern California), Wally Campo as Detective Sergeant Joe Fink, Jack Warford as Detective Frank Stoolie, Meri [Merri] Welles as Leonora Clyde, John [Herman] Shaner as Dr Phoebus Farb, Dodie Drake as the waitress, Charles B Griffith as Voice of Audrey Jr/ Screaming Patient/ Kloy Haddock, Jack Griffith as Agony Lush, and Robert Coogan as Tramp.

It became a stage show as Little Shop of Horrors, then the Frank Oz film musical Little Shop of Horrors in 1986.

The Little Shop of Horrors was colourised and re-released in 1987 to cash in on the musical film remake.

‘The whole movie was a joke,’ recalls Corman. ‘I was trying to break the record for making a movie.’

The film’s concept is thought to be based on a 1932 story about a man-eating plant called Green Thoughts by John Collier, but Griffith may have been influenced by Arthur C Clarke’s sci-fi short story The Reluctant Orchid. Griffith recalled: ‘So I said [to Corman] “How about a man-eating plant?” and Roger said “Okay”. By that time, we were both drunk.’

Griffith was paid just $800 for his work, which included voicing Audrey Jr. He also plays Screaming Patient/ Kloy Haddock. Griffith’s father appears as a dental patient, and his grandmother Myrtle Vail appears as Seymour’s hypochondriac mother.

Jack Nicholson previously appeared in two films and starred in Roger Corman’s The Cry Baby Killer. Nicholson recalled: ‘I went in to the shoot knowing I had to be very quirky because Roger originally hadn’t wanted me. In other words, I couldn’t play it straight. So I just did a lot of weird shit that I thought would make it funny.’

It was distributed as the B movie in a double feature with Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (1960) and later with Corman’s The Last Woman on Earth.

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,870
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Charles B Griffith in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).