THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
US, 1960, 71 minutes, Black and white.
Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, Jack Nicholson.
Directed by Roger Corman.
The Little Shop of Horrors is considered a classic. Made on a shoestring by Roger Corman, it is tongue-in-cheek funny and satiric. The screenplay was written by Charles B. Griffith, author of many B-budget films during the 1950s and 60s. He draws on some of these conventions – but creates something entirely new.
The film is mainly set in the shop itself, a flower shop, run by Gravis Mushnik (Mel Welles) who is full of Jewish says of the “Oy vay” kind. He does it very well and persuasively in the comic style. Jackie Joseph is a nicely ingenuous Audrey who works in the shop. The focus is on Jonathan Haze as Seymour, an awkward young man with continued pratfalls who is cultivating a variation on a Venus flytrap. However, it feeds on blood, makes more and more demands because it is hungry and various bodies are disposed of in Audrey Junior. At some moments, with the jaunty musical score, one expectst characters to burst into song.
A musical was made of Little Shop of Horrors in the 1980s, a film starring Rick Moranis as Seymour, Vincent Gardenia as Gravis and Ellen Greene as Audrey. The film also had a guest role for Steve Martin as a sadistic dentist. The dentist doesn’t appear very much in the first film – although a very young Jack Nicholson is one of his patients.
Roger Corman had directed a number of B-films at this time, genre pictures, especially science fiction. With The Little Shop of Horrors, he attained some reputation – and began films which were somewhat more upmarket, especially a series of adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe stories with Vincent Price.
1.The cult status of The Little Shop of Horrors? Deserved status? The remake? The musical? The stage presentation?
2.Black and white photography, most of the action happening in the shop, in Seymour’s home, in the street? The final chase – and the tyres, the toilets … a surreal atmosphere? The jaunty score?
3.The title, an appropriate description?
4.Gravis Mushnik, the Jewish style, his continued complaints, the flowers, trying to make sales, Seymour tripping over everything, Audrey and her niceness? The visit from Burson Fouch and his ordering carnations and eating them? Winifred Krelboin and her attitude towards Seymour? The Jewish woman forever visiting the shop because all her relatives were dying and she needed flowers? Life in the shop? The plant, Gravis wanting to fire Seymour, letting him stay, the plant growing, an attraction, people coming into the shop? The teenage girls and their admiration, ordering flowers for their pageant? The robber coming in because of the crowd, Gravis finally feeding him to Audrey Junior? The police and their investigations? The discovery of the dead people when Audrey opened and blossomed for the award? Seymour and his finishing up in Audrey Junior – and his face appearing there? Gravis as a satiric and comic Jewish character?
5.Seymour, falling over things, his living with his mother and looking after her, her hypochondria? Her demands on him? At the shop, awkward, cutting the gladioli for the dentist, about to be fired, cultivating the Venus flytrap? Being pricked and the blood going into Audrey Junior? The plant saying it was hungry, asking, “Feed me”? The irony of the dead body at the railway yard and Seymour bringing it back? Feeding Audrey Junior? The girl in the streets, her being provocative, tossing the rock, her death, going into Audrey? Seymour and his love for the real Audrey, their talking together, her meal at his place, his mother’s attitude? Her being upset in thinking that he was speaking when it was the plant? Her finding Seymour’s face in Audrey Junior?
6.Audrey, nice, kindly, serving in the shop, in love with Seymour, going to his house, upset with him?
7.Seymour’s mother, her complaints, the exaggerated dialogue and hypochondria? Her dismay at the end at seeing her son?
8.The Jewish customer, her always being in the shop, complaining? Buying flowers?
9.The minor characters, the man eating the carnations – and going home to dinner because his wife was preparing gardenias? The enthusiastic schoolgirls? The police and their search with Gravis? The robber and his finishing up in Audrey Junior?
10.The tongue-in-cheek approach – and it working and all the elements clicking well?
