horror comedy
Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and sp ...
film directed by
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
. Written by
Charles B. Griffith
Charles Byron Griffith (September 23, 1930 – September 28, 2007) was an American screenwriter, actor and film director, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of ''Myrt and Marge'', along with Charles' grandmother, Myrtle Vail, and was best known ...
, the film is a farce about an inadequate florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood. The film's concept may have been inspired by "Green Thoughts", a 1932 story by John Collier about a man-eating plant. Hollywood writer
Dennis McDougal
Dennis McDougal (born November 25, 1947) is an American author and newspaper journalist. He has been called "L.A.'s No. 1 muckraker." His book, ''Privileged Son'', was described as "illuminating reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Los ...
suggests that Griffith may have been influenced by Arthur C. Clarke's 1956 science fiction short story "
The Reluctant Orchid
"The Reluctant Orchid" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1956, and later anthologized in'' Tales from the White Hart''. Like the rest of the collection, it is a frame story set in the fi ...
Jonathan Haze
Jonathan Haze (born Jack Schachter; April 1, 1929) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in Roger Corman films, especially the 1960 black comedy cult classic, '' The Little Shop of Horrors'', in which he ...
,
Jackie Joseph
Jackie Joseph (born November 7, 1933) is an American actress and writer. She is best known for her role as Jackie Parker on ''The Doris Day Show'' (1971–1973) and Audrey in '' The Little Shop of Horrors'' (1960), as well as a supporting role i ...
,
Mel Welles
Mel Welles (February 17, 1924 – August 19, 2005) was an American film actor and director. His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnick in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, ''The Little Shop of ...
, and Dick Miller, who had all worked for Corman on previous films. Produced under the title ''The Passionate People Eater'', the film employs an original style of humor, combining
dark comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
with farce and incorporating
Jewish humor
The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the Torah and the Midrash from the ancient Middle East, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal and often anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States ove ...
and elements of
spoof
Spoof, spoofs, spoofer, or spoofing may refer to:
* Forgery of goods or documents
* Semen, in Australian slang
* Spoof (game), a guessing game
* Spoofing (finance), a disruptive algorithmic-trading tactic designed to manipulate markets
__NOTOC__ ...
. ''The Little Shop of Horrors'' was shot on a budget of $28,000 (about $240,000 in 2019), with interiors being shot in two days utilizing sets that had been left standing from ''
A Bucket of Blood
''A Bucket of Blood'' is a 1959 American comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in West Coast beatnik culture of the late 1950s. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days and shares ma ...
''.
The film slowly gained a
cult following
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
through word of mouth when it was distributed as the B movie in a double feature with
Mario Bava
Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the M ...
Last Woman on Earth
''Last Woman on Earth'' (often referred to as ''The Last Woman on Earth'', but it appeared without the word ''The'' in the film's title card) is a 1960 American science fiction film that was produced and directed by Roger Corman. It tells the stor ...
''. The film's popularity increased with local television broadcasts, and the presence of a young
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
, whose small role in the film has been prominently promoted on
home video
Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...
releases of the film. The film was the basis for an
Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
debut.
Plot
Penny-pinching Gravis Mushnick owns a florist shop staffed by himself and two employees, the sweet Audrey Fulquard and the clumsy Seymour Krelboined. Located on
skid row
A skid row or skid road is an impoverished area, typically urban, in English-speaking North America whose inhabitants are mostly poor people " on the skids". This specifically refers to poor or homeless, considered disreputable, downtrodden or fo ...
, the rundown shop gets little business. When Seymour fouls up a floral arrangement for sadistic dentist Dr. Farb, Mushnick fires him. Hoping to change his mind, Seymour tells him about a special plant he has grown from seeds he got from a "Japanese gardener over on Central Avenue." Seymour admits that he named the plant "Audrey Jr.", which delights the real Audrey.
Seymour fetches his sickly, odd-looking potted plant, but Mushnick is unimpressed. When it is suggested that Audrey Jr.'s uniqueness might attract people to see it, Mushnick gives Seymour one week to revive it. The usual kinds of plant food do not nourish the plant, but when Seymour accidentally pricks his finger, he discovers that the plant craves blood. Fed on Seymour's blood, Audrey Jr. begins to grow, and the shop's revenues increase when curious customers are lured in to see the plant. Mushnick tells Seymour to refer to him as "Dad" and calls Seymour his son in front of a customer.
The plant develops the ability to speak and demands that Seymour feed it. Now
anemic
Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, th ...
, Seymour walks along the railroad track; when he carelessly throws a rock to vent his frustration, he inadvertently knocks out a drunken man who falls on the track and is run over by a train. He tries to get rid of the body by throwing it away and burying it in a yard but is nearly caught twice. Guilt-ridden but resourceful, Seymour decides to feed the mutilated body parts to Audrey Jr. Meanwhile, Mushnick returns to the shop to get some cash and secretly observes Seymour feeding the plant. Mushnick considers telling the police but procrastinates when he sees the line of people waiting to spend money at his shop the next day.
Seymour arrives the next morning suffering from a toothache; despite not going to the police, Mushnick still confronts Seymour about Audrey Jr.'s eating habits; while not explicitly revealing what he knows about the plant. Seymour grows increasingly distressed as he realizes that his boss is onto him. After finishing his rant, Mushnick sends Seymour to the dentist; soon after, Audrey runs up and declares that the shop needs many more flowers. When Seymour visits Dr. Farb, the doctor tries to get even for his ruined flowers and attempts to kill him. Seymour, defending himself, grabs a sharp tool and stabs and kills Farb. Although horrified, Seymour feeds Farb's body to Audrey Jr. The unexplained disappearances of the two men attract the attention of Sergeant Joe Fink and his assistant Officer Frank Stoolie.
Audrey Jr. has grown several feet tall and is budding, as is the relationship between Seymour and Audrey. A representative of the Society of Silent Flower Observers of Southern California comes to the shop and announces that Seymour will receive a trophy and that she will return when the plant's buds open. While Seymour and Audrey go on a date, Mushnick stays at the shop to see that Audrey Jr. harms no one else.
While tending to his shop, Mushnick finds himself at the mercy of a robber who pretended to be a customer earlier that day and believes that the huge crowds he observed at the shop indicate the presence of a large amount of money. Mushnick tricks the deranged robber into thinking that the money is where the plant is, which crushes and eats him after Mushnick maneuvers him close enough to it. When Seymour is forced to damage his relationship with Audrey to keep her from discovering the plant's nature, he confronts the plant and asserts that he will no longer do its bidding. The plant then hypnotizes Seymour and commands him to bring it more food. He wanders the night streets and (accidentally) knocks out a
streetwalker
Street prostitution is a form of sex work in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, e ...
, who he takes to feed Audrey Jr. Lacking clues about the mysterious disappearances of the two men, Fink and Stoolie attend a sunset celebration at the shop during which Seymour is to be presented with the trophy and Audrey Jr.'s buds are expected to open.
As the attendees watch, four buds open; inside each flower is the face of one of the plant's victims. Fink and Stoolie realize that Seymour is the murderer; he flees from the shop with the officers in pursuit. He manages to lose them and make his way back to the now-empty shop, where he blames Audrey Jr. for ruining his life, but the plant instead asks to be fed. Seymour grabs a kitchen knife and climbs into Audrey Jr.'s maw saying, "I'll feed you like you've never been fed before!", apparently attempting to kill the plant. Later that evening, it is discovered that Audrey Jr. has begun to wither and die. One last bud opens to reveal Seymour's face. He pitifully moans, "I didn't mean it," and the flower droops.
Cast
*
Jonathan Haze
Jonathan Haze (born Jack Schachter; April 1, 1929) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in Roger Corman films, especially the 1960 black comedy cult classic, '' The Little Shop of Horrors'', in which he ...
as Seymour Krelboined
*
Jackie Joseph
Jackie Joseph (born November 7, 1933) is an American actress and writer. She is best known for her role as Jackie Parker on ''The Doris Day Show'' (1971–1973) and Audrey in '' The Little Shop of Horrors'' (1960), as well as a supporting role i ...
as Audrey Fulquard
*
Mel Welles
Mel Welles (February 17, 1924 – August 19, 2005) was an American film actor and director. His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnick in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, ''The Little Shop of ...
as Gravis Mushnick
* Dick Miller as Burson Fouch
*
Myrtle Vail
Myrtle Vail (January 7, 1888 – September 18, 1978), sometimes credited as Myrtle Damerel, was an American vaudevillian, and radio and film actress and writer. She was a radio fixture from 1932 to 1946 thanks to the popular soap opera '' Myrt ...
as Winifred Krelboined
* Sandra De Bear (as Tammy Windsor) as Shirley Plump
* Toby Michaels as Barbara Fridl
* Leola Wendorff as Mrs. Siddie Shiva
* Lynn Storey as Mrs. Hortense Feuchtwanger
* Wally Campo as Sergeant Joe Fink / Narrator
* Jack Warford as Officer Frank Stoolie
* Meri Welles (as Merri Welles) as Leonora Clyde
* John Herman Shaner (as John Shaner) as Dr. Phoebus Farb
*
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
as Wilbur Force
* Dodie Drake as Waitress
*
Charles B. Griffith
Charles Byron Griffith (September 23, 1930 – September 28, 2007) was an American screenwriter, actor and film director, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of ''Myrt and Marge'', along with Charles' grandmother, Myrtle Vail, and was best known ...
(uncredited) as Voice of Audrey Jr./Screaming Patient/Kloy Haddock
* Jack Griffith (uncredited) as Agony Lush
*
Robert Coogan
Robert Coogan (December 13, 1924 – May 12, 1978) was an American film and television actor.
Biography
Robert Coogan was born in Glendale, California, to parents Jack Coogan Sr. and Lillian Coogan. His older brother was Jackie Coogan, perha ...
(uncredited) as Tramp
Development
''The Little Shop of Horrors'' was developed when director
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
was given temporary access to sets that had been left standing from his previous film, ''
A Bucket of Blood
''A Bucket of Blood'' is a 1959 American comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in West Coast beatnik culture of the late 1950s. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days and shares ma ...
''. Corman decided to use the sets in a film made in the last two days before the sets were torn down.
Corman initially planned to develop a story involving a
private investigator
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
. In the story's initial version, the character that eventually became Audrey would have been referred to as "Oriole Plove." Actress
Nancy Kulp
Nancy Jane Kulp (August 28, 1921 – February 3, 1991) was an American character actress and comedienne best known as Miss Jane Hathaway on the CBS television series ''The Beverly Hillbillies''.
Early life
Kulp was born to Robert Tilden and M ...
was a leading candidate for the part. The characters that eventually became Seymour and Winifred Krelborn were named "Irish Eye" and "Iris Eye". Actor
Mel Welles
Mel Welles (February 17, 1924 – August 19, 2005) was an American film actor and director. His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnick in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, ''The Little Shop of ...
was scheduled to play a character named "Draco Cardala,"
Jonathan Haze
Jonathan Haze (born Jack Schachter; April 1, 1929) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in Roger Corman films, especially the 1960 black comedy cult classic, '' The Little Shop of Horrors'', in which he ...
was scheduled to play "Archie Aroma," and
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
would have played a character named "Jocko".
Charles B. Griffith
Charles Byron Griffith (September 23, 1930 – September 28, 2007) was an American screenwriter, actor and film director, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of ''Myrt and Marge'', along with Charles' grandmother, Myrtle Vail, and was best known ...
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
. According to Mel Welles, Corman was not impressed by the box office performance of ''A Bucket of Blood'', and had to be persuaded to direct another comedy. However, Corman later claimed he was interested because of ''A Bucket of Blood'' and said the development process was similar to that of the earlier film, when he and Griffith were inspired by visiting various coffee houses:
We tried a similar approach for ''The Little Shop of Horrors'', dropping in and out of various downtown dives. We ended up at a place where
Sally Kellerman
Sally Clare Kellerman (June 2, 1937 – February 24, 2022) was an American actress and singer whose acting career spanned 60 years. Her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in Robert Altman's film '' M*A*S*H'' (1970) earned her an Oscar n ...
(before she became a star) was working as a waitress, and as Chuck and I vied with each other, trying to top each other's sardonic or subversive ideas, appealing to Sally as a referee, she sat down at the table with us, and the three of us worked out the rest of the story together.Roger Corman, "Wild Imagination: Charles B. Griffith 1930-2007", ''LA Weekly'' 17 October 2007 accessed 20 April 2014
The first screenplay Griffith wrote was ''Cardula'', a Dracula-themed story involving a
vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
music critic. After Corman rejected the idea, Griffith says he wrote a screenplay titled ''Gluttony'', in which the protagonist was "a salad chef in a restaurant who would wind up cooking customers and stuff like that, you know? We couldn't do that though because of the code at the time. So I said, 'How about a man-eating plant?', and Roger said, 'Okay.' By that time, we were both drunk."
Jackie Joseph
Jackie Joseph (born November 7, 1933) is an American actress and writer. She is best known for her role as Jackie Parker on ''The Doris Day Show'' (1971–1973) and Audrey in '' The Little Shop of Horrors'' (1960), as well as a supporting role i ...
later recalled "at first they told me it was a detective movie; then, while I was flying back o make the movie I think they wrote a whole new movie, more in the horror genre. I think over a weekend they rewrote it."Tom Weaveer, Jackie Joseph interview, ''B Monster'' accessed 18 April 2014
The screenplay was written under the title ''The Passionate People Eater''. Welles stated, "The reason that ''The Little Shop of Horrors'' worked is because it was a love project. It was ''our'' love project."
Officers Fink and Stoolie were obvious take-offs of '' Dragnet'' characters
Joe Friday
Joe Friday is a fictional character created and portrayed by Jack Webb as the lead for his series ''Dragnet (franchise), Dragnet''. Friday is a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. The character first appeared on June 3, 1949 in the ...
and Frank Smith. The film opens up in a similar format to a Dragnet episode.
Production
The film was partially cast with stock actors that Corman had used in previous films. Writer Charles B. Griffith portrays several small roles. Griffith's father appears as a dental patient, and his grandmother,
Myrtle Vail
Myrtle Vail (January 7, 1888 – September 18, 1978), sometimes credited as Myrtle Damerel, was an American vaudevillian, and radio and film actress and writer. She was a radio fixture from 1932 to 1946 thanks to the popular soap opera '' Myrt ...
, appears as Seymour's hypochondriac mother.Dick Miller, who had starred as the protagonist of ''A Bucket of Blood'' was offered the role of Seymour, but turned it down, instead taking the smaller role of Burson Fouch. Production at the ''Bucket of Blood'' sets was compressed into three days of cast rehearsals, immediately followed by two days and one night of
principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
.
It had been rumored that the film's shooting schedule was based on a bet that Corman could not complete a film within that time. However, this claim has been denied by Mel Welles. According to Joseph, Corman shot the film quickly in order to beat changing industry rules that would have prevented producers from "buying out" an actor's performance in perpetuity. On January 1, 1960, new rules were to go into effect requiring producers to pay all actors 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 for the last week in December 1959.
Interiors were shot with three cameras in wide, lingering master shots in single takes. Welles states that Corman "had two camera crews on the set—that's why the picture, from a cinematic standpoint, is really not very well done. The two camera crews were pointed in opposite directions so that we got both angles, and then other shots were 'picked up' to use in between, to make it flow. It was a pretty fixed set and it was done sort of like a sitcom is done today, so it wasn't very difficult."
At the time of shooting,
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
had appeared in two films and worked with Roger Corman as the lead in ''
The Cry Baby Killer
''The Cry Baby Killer'' is a 1958 teen exploitation film produced by Roger Corman that marked Jack Nicholson's film debut. The film was out of print and difficult to find until 2006, when it was issued on DVD for the first time by Buena Vista Home ...
''. According to Nicholson, "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." According to Dick Miller, all of the dialogue between his character and Mel Welles was
ad-libbed
In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; from Latin for 'at one's pleasure' or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation.
The ...
. During a scene in which writer Charles B. Griffith played a robber, Griffith remembers that "When
elles
Elles is a surname, and may refer to:
*Bertram Walter Elles (1877–1963), British colonial civil servant
*Diana Elles, Baroness Elles (1921–2009), British lawyer and peer
*Sir Edmond Elles (1848–1934), British Army lieutenant general
*Gertru ...
and I forgot my lines, I improvised a little, but then I was the writer. I was allowed to." However, Welles states that "Absolutely none of it was ad-libbed ..every word in ''Little Shop'' was written by Chuck Griffith, and I did ninety-eight pages of dialogue in two days."
According to Nicholson, "we never did shoot the end of the scene. This movie was pre-lit. You'd go in, plug in the lights, roll the camera, and shoot. We did the take outside the office and went inside the office, plugged in, lit and rolled. Jonathan Haze was up on my chest pulling my teeth out. And in the take, he leaned back and hit the rented dental machinery with the back of his leg and it started to tip over. Roger didn't even call cut. He leapt onto the set, grabbed the tilting machine, and said 'Next set, that's a wrap.'" By 9 a.m. of the first day, Corman was informed by the production manager that he was behind schedule.
Exteriors were later directed by Griffith and Welles over two successive weekends, with $279 worth of rented equipment. Griffith and Welles paid a group of children five cents apiece to run out of a subway tunnel. They were also able to persuade winos to appear as extras for ten cents apiece. "The winos would get together, two or three of them, and buy pints of wine for themselves! We also had a couple of the winos act as ramrods—sort of like production assistants—and put them in charge of the other wino extras." Griffith and Welles also persuaded a funeral home to donate a hearse and coffin—with a real corpse inside—for the film shoot. Griffith and Welles were able to use the nearby Southern Pacific Transportation Company yard for an entire evening using two bottles of scotch as persuasion. The scene in which a character portrayed by Robert Coogan is run over by a train was accomplished by persuading the railroad crew to back the locomotive away from the actor. The shot was later printed in reverse. Griffith and Welles spent a total of $1,100 on fifteen minutes' worth of exteriors.
The film's musical score, written by cellist Fred Katz, was originally written for ''A Bucket of Blood''. According to Mark Thomas McGee, author of ''Roger Corman: The Best of the Cheap Acts'', each time Katz was called upon to write music for Corman, Katz sold the same score as if it were new music. The score was used in a total of seven films, including ''
The Wasp Woman
''The Wasp Woman'' (also known as ''The Bee Girl'' and ''Insect Woman'') is a 1959 American independent science-fiction horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. Filmed in black-and-white, it stars Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley, Mic ...
'' and ''
Creature from the Haunted Sea
''Creature from the Haunted Sea'' is a 1961 horror comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a parody of spy, gangster, and monster movies (mostly ''Creature from the Black Lagoon''), concerning a secre ...
''. Katz explained that his music for the film was created by a music editor piecing together selections from other soundtracks that he had produced for Corman.
Howard R. Cohen learned from Charles B. Griffith that when the film was being edited, "there was a point where two scenes would not cut together. It was just a visual jolt, and it didn't work. And they needed something to bridge that moment. They found in the editing room a nice shot of the moon, and they cut it in, and it worked. Twenty years go by. I'm at the studio one day. Chuck comes running up to me, says, 'You've got to see this!' It was a magazine article—eight pages on the symbolism of the moon in ''Little Shop of Horrors''." According to Corman, the total budget for the production was $30,000. Other sources estimate the budget to be between $22,000 and $100,000.
Release and reception
Release history
Corman had initial trouble finding distribution for the film, as some distributors, including
American International Pictures
American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...
(AIP), felt that the film would be interpreted as
anti-Semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, citing the characters of Gravis Mushnick and Siddie Shiva. Welles, who was
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, stated that he gave his character a Turkish Jewish accent and mannerisms, and that he saw the humor of the film as playful, and felt there was no intent to defame any ethnic group. The film was finally released by its production company,
The Filmgroup
The Filmgroup was a production and distribution company founded by filmmakers Roger Corman and Gene Corman in 1959. Corman used it to make and distribute his own movies, as opposed to ones he was making for American International Pictures. (The re ...
, nine months after it had been completed.
''The Little Shop of Horrors'' was screened out of competition at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival. A year later, AIP distributed the film as the B movie for their release of
Mario Bava
Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the M ...
's '' Black Sunday''. Despite being barely mentioned in advertising (it was only occasionally referred to as an "Added Attraction" to Bava's film), ''Black Sundays critical and commercial success resulted in positive
word of mouth
Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one pe ...
responses to ''The Little Shop of Horrors''. The film was re-released again the following year in a double feature with ''
Last Woman on Earth
''Last Woman on Earth'' (often referred to as ''The Last Woman on Earth'', but it appeared without the word ''The'' in the film's title card) is a 1960 American science fiction film that was produced and directed by Roger Corman. It tells the stor ...
''.
Because Corman did not believe that ''The Little Shop of Horrors'' had much financial prospect after its initial theatrical run, he did not bother to copyright it, resulting in the film entering the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
. Because of this, the film is widely available in copies of varying quality. The film was originally screened theatrically in the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, but has largely only been seen in
open matte
Open matte is a filming technique that involves matting out the top and bottom of the film frame in the movie projector (known as a ''soft matte'') for the widescreen theatrical release and then scanning the film without a matte (at Academy rati ...
at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 since its original theatrical release.
Critical and audience reception
The film's critical reception was largely favorable. On review aggregation website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
it has an approval rating of 92% based on reviews from 12 critics. ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "The acting is pleasantly preposterous. ..Horticulturalists and vegetarians will love it."
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
, recounting the reaction to a screening of the film, states that the audience "laughed so hard I could barely hear the dialogue. I didn't quite register it right. It was as if I had forgotten it was a comedy since the shoot. I got all embarrassed because I'd never really had such a positive response before."
In his book ''Comedy-Horror Films: A Chronological History, 1914-2008'', Bruce G. Hallenbeck called the film "one of Corman's gems, an idea that was born on 'a night out on the town' that's every bit as looney as it sounds." He cited the hilarious performances delivered by the ensemble cast and Corman's strong results while working under the self-imposed pressures of a cheap budget and a fast shooting schedule.
Legacy
The film's popularity slowly grew with local television broadcasts throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Interest in the film was rekindled when a stage musical adaptation called '' Little Shop of Horrors'' was produced in 1982. It was based on the original film and was itself adapted to cinema as '' Little Shop of Horrors'' in 1986, and with another feature film remake announced in 2020. A short-lived animated television series, ''
Little Shop
''Little Shop'' is a 1991 animated fantasy comedy television series that aired on Saturday morning cartoon, Saturday mornings on the Fox Kids, Fox Kids TV network, about a teenager and a giant talking plant. ''Little Shop'' was based on the 1960 ...
'', inspired by the musical film, premiered in 1991. It ran for one season on
Fox Kids
Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's block programming, programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channel ...
in 1991. Seymour and Audrey were depicted as 13-year-olds, and the plant, "Junior", was a rapping
carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
prehistoric creature that sprouted from a
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
ized seed. Each episode featured a few stylish
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
sequences; Corman served as a creative consultant on the show.
The film was
colorized
Film colorization (American English; or colourisation [British English], or colourization [Canadian English and Oxford English]) is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia, or other monochrome moving-picture image ...
twice, the first time being in 1987. This version was poorly received. The film was colorized again by
Legend Films
Legend Films is a San Diego-based company founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietar ...
, who released its colorized version as well as a restored black-and-white version of the film on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
in 2006. Legend Films' colorized version was well received, and was also given a theatrical premiere at the
Coney Island Museum
Coney Island USA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization founded in 1980 that is dedicated to the cultural and economic revitalization of the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Its headquarters building in the heart ...
on May 27, 2006. The DVD included an
audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
track by comedian
Michael J. Nelson
Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origi ...
of ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000
''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...
'' fame. A DivX file of Legend's colorized version with the commentary embedded is also available as part of Nelson's RiffTrax On Demand service. On January 28, 2009, a newly recorded commentary by Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett was released by RiffTrax in MP3 and DivX formats. Legend's colorized version is also available from
Amazon Video on Demand
Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pri ...
, without Nelson's commentary.
In November 2006, the film was issued by
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,The Cry Baby Killer
''The Cry Baby Killer'' is a 1958 teen exploitation film produced by Roger Corman that marked Jack Nicholson's film debut. The film was out of print and difficult to find until 2006, when it was issued on DVD for the first time by Buena Vista Home ...
'' (billed as a Jack Nicholson double feature) as part of the Roger Corman Classics series. However, the DVD contained only the 1987 colorized version of ''The Little Shop of Horrors'', and not the original black-and-white version.
It was announced on April 15, 2009, that
Declan O'Brien
Declan O'Brien (December 21, 1965 – February 16, 2022) was an American film and television writer and director. He was known as the director of three films in the ''Wrong Turn'' series (2009–2012) and he was the president oFairport Filmwo ...
would helm a studio remake of the film. "It won't be a musical" he told
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
in reference to the
Frank Oz
Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz; May 25, 1944) is an American actor, puppeteer, and filmmaker.
He began his career as a puppeteer, performing the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in ''The Muppet Show ...
film from 1986. "I don't want to reveal too much, but it's me. It'll be dark." When speaking with ''Shock 'Till You Drop'', he revealed "I have a take on it you're not going to expect. I'm taking it in a different direction, let's put it that way." However, this version of the remake seems to have been shelved.
On December 7, 2016, Deadline reported that
Greg Berlanti
Gregory Berlanti (born May 24, 1972) is an American screenwriter, producer and director of film and television. He is known for his work on the television series ''Dawson's Creek'', '' Brothers & Sisters'', '' Everwood'', '' Political Animals'', ...
is set to direct a revamped film of the musical adaptation with Matthew Robinson writing the script.
In April 2017, a modern-day trading card set was released by Attic Card Company. The set includes autograph cards by both Jonathan Haze and Jackie Joseph.
In other media
Roger Corman's short-lived imprint
Roger Corman's Cosmic Comics
Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
released a three-issue
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
adaptation of the film in 1995, written by J. R. Williams with art by Gene Fama and Dean Rohrer.
See also
*
List of American films of 1960
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...