Stubs - The Little Shop of Horrors

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) Starring: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles. Directed by Roger Corman. Screenplay by Charles B. Griffith. Produced by Roger Corman. Run time: 70 minutes. Black and White. USA. Horror, Comedy.

Roger Corman was known for a lot of things as an independent film producer. Not only did he make countless feature films including X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), The Wild Angels (1966), The Trip (1967) and House of Usher (1960), he also handled the distribution in the US for such directors as Federico Fellini (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), François Truffaut (France) and Akira Kurosawa (Japan). He mentored such directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, John Sayles, and James Cameron. He also helped to launch the careers of actors like Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and William Shatner.

But the one title that comes up every time his name is mentioned is The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), a self-described comedy/horror film.

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 films 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.

Originally, the film was conceived with a private detective. Jackie Joseph later recalled "at first they told me it was a detective movie; then, while I was flying back [to make the movie], I think they wrote a whole new movie, more in the horror genre. I think over a weekend they rewrote it."

The film was made on a budget of $28,000 and the interiors were shot in two days on sets left over from A Bucket of Blood (1959), another Corman production. The exteriors shot at Southern Pacific Transportation Company yard cost the production two bottles of scotch. A total of $1,100 on fifteen minutes' worth of exteriors.

Corman had initial trouble finding distribution for the film, as some distributors, including American International Pictures (AIP), felt that the film would be interpreted as anti-Semitic, citing the characters of Gravis Mushnik and Siddie Shiva. The film was finally released on September 14, 1960, by its production company, The Filmgroup, nine months after it had been completed.

The film opens with the voice-over narration of Det. Sgt. Joe Fink (Wally Campo) describing how “the most terrifying period” in the history of his “beat” began at Mushnik’s shop. Fink speaks in a style parodying the character “Sgt. Joe Friday” of the television series and film Dragnet. Fink’s voice is heard occasionally in narration at other points in the film.

Penny-pinching Gravis Mushnik (Mel Welles) owns a florist shop on Los Angeles’ skid row. He has two employees, the sweet and very simple Audry Fulquard (Jackie Joseph) and the even simpler Seymour Krelboin (Jonathan Haze).

While Gravis Mushnik (Mel Welles) and Audry Fulquard (Jackie Joseph) watch,
Burson Fouch (Dick Miller) chows down on the carnations he just bought.

One of the few repeat customers is Mrs. Siddie Shiva (Leola Wendorff), who seems to have a never-ending string of dead relatives for whom she comes to buy flowers for their funerals. A new customer is a man named Burson Fouch (Dick Miller), who shows up one day to buy carnations. When asked if he wants them wrapped, he insists that he’ll eat them there, which he proceeds to do.

Seymour manages to foul up a simple order from Dr. Farb, a nearby dentist, and Mushnik fires him over it. But sweet Audry wants Seymour to get a second chance. Seymour talks about a special plant he’s growing at home, cross-bred from a buttercup and a Venus flytrap, that he wants to show Mushnik. Based on Fouch’s comments that a novelty plant might bring in customers, Mushnik offers to give him a second chance.

Seymour rushes home where his mother, Winifred Krelborn (Myrtle Vail), is a hypochondriac and is bed-ridden.

Seymour Krelboin (Jonathan Haze) only holds onto his job by bringing "Audry, Jr." into the shop.

Hurrying back with the plant, Mushnik is unimpressed, as the plant looks sickly. But Seymour calls the plant “Audry Jr.” and Audry is delighted by that. Mushnik gives Seymour a week to revive the plant or out the both of them will go.

Seymour has already discovered that the usual kinds of plant food do not nourish his strange hybrid and that every night at sunset, the plant’s leaves open. When Seymour accidentally pricks his finger on another thorny plant, Audry, Jr. opens wider, eventually causing Seymour to discover that the plant craves blood. After that, each night Seymour nurses his creation with blood from his fingers, and although he feels increasingly listless, Audry, Jr. begins to grow.

The popularity of Audry Jr., brings in other business opportunities.

Audry, Jr. drives business to the flower shop and revenues increase. Mushnik gives Seymour a raise and starts to call him “son.” Two teenaged girls, drawn to the shop to see Audry Jr, have $2000 to spend on decorations for a Rose Parade float and their committee for permission to buy the flowers from Mushnik’s shop. As Mushnik dreams about building a greenhouse for Seymour to breed plants and owning a shop in Beverly Hills, Audry, Jr. wilts.

Seymour stays again that night with Audry, Jr. (Charles B. Griffith), which has begun to talk. The plant demands that Seymour “Feed me!” Knowing that he can’t keep giving it his blood, Seymour goes for a walk to think things through. Down by the railroad tracks, he carelessly throws a rock at a seemingly abandoned liquor bottle to vent his frustration and inadvertently knocks out a man who reaches for it. The man is knocked out and falls onto the track and is run over by a train.

Seymour feeds Audry Jr., the body part of a man he accidentally killed.

Seymour puts the body parts in a bag and tries to throw them away, but every time he does, someone is around. Desperate, he takes the parts back to the shop and ends up feeding them to Audry, Jr.

Meanwhile, at a restaurant, Mushnik is dining with Audry and discovers he has no money with him. The waitress (Dodie Drake) makes Mushnik go get his wallet and keeps Audry there to ensure he’ll come back. When he returns to the shop to get money out of the register, he happens to observe Seymour feeding the plant the man’s body parts. Stunned, he returns to the restaurant and asks for every kind of liquor.

Per Fink’s narration, if Mushnik had gone to the police like he had planned the next morning, the events would not have transpired, but he didn’t and they do. His plans go out the window when he sees a long line of people waiting to spend money at his shop. When Seymour arrives, later that morning, suffering a toothache, Mushnik confronts him about the plant’s “food.” Seymour claims that, based on information he read about the plants he cross-bred, Audry, Jr. should require no more feedings.

Placated, Mushnik sends Seymour to Dr. Farb for his toothache, but at the office, Seymour hears another patient (Charles B. Griffith) suffering and realizes the dentist is sadistic. He tries to flee, but Farb prevents him from leaving and tries to remove several of his teeth. Grabbing a sharp tool, Seymour fights back and accidentally stabs and kills Farb.

Wilbur Force (Jack Nicholson) leaves happy despite missing teeth.

Just then, masochist Wilbur Force (Jack Nicholson) arrives at the dental office and Seymour, not wanting to be caught, pretends to be the dentist. Force insists that Seymour treat his “three or four abscesses, nine or ten cavities” and other dental problems, but doesn’t want any anesthetic. Seymour gallantly does his best and Wilbur later leaves happily with several teeth noticeably missing.

Seymour brings Dr. Farb's body to Audry Jr.

Seymour is disturbed that he has now murdered twice, but nevertheless feeds Farb to Audry, Jr., which, despite never being transplanted, continues to grow.

Meanwhile, at the police homicide division, Detective Joe Fink and his partner, Det. Frank Stoolie (Jack Warford) discuss the disappearances of Dr. Farb and the man at the railroad tracks. They go to the florist and question Mushnik and Seymour, who acts suspiciously nervous, but they conclude that he knows nothing.

Seymour takes Audry home to meet his mother, Winifred Krelborn (Myrtle Vail).

Audry, Jr., which has grown several feet tall, is beginning to bud, as is the relationship between Seymour and Audry, whom Seymour invites on a date. When a representative of the Society of Silent Flower Observers of Southern California, Mrs. Hortense Feuchtwanger (Lynn Storey), comes to the shop to check out the plant, she announces that Seymour will soon receive a trophy from them and that she will return when the plant’s buds open the next night.

Unwilling to risk that the plant will eat more people, Mushnik decides to stay at the shop all night to watch it. When Audry, Jr. begins to call out for food, Mushnik refuses to feed it.

Meanwhile, because he has no money, Seymour takes Audry home for dinner that his mother, Winifred, prepares. The food is more medicinal than anything else; the first course is a cod liver soup garnished with sulfur powder. This is followed by chow mein flavored with Chinese herbs and Epsom salts. During dinner, Winifred tries to discourage Seymour and Audry from marrying until he buys her the iron lung he has promised her.

Back at the shop, an armed burglar, Kloy Haddock (Charles B. Griffith), breaks in and Mushnik hides in the refrigerator case. He is, however, quickly found by the burglar and he offers the contents of his cash register. But the burglar is not satisfied and, with a gun to Mushnik’s head, demands more money. Seeing a way out of this predicament, Mushnik directs him to look inside the open plant and when the burglar climbs in, he is eaten.

The next day, Mushnik tells Seymour that they must destroy the plant after he receives the trophy and orders him to stand guard that night.

Because Seymour must work at the shop that night, Audry suggests that they have a picnic there and makes them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which Seymour claims never to have had before. Audry, Jr. interrupts the picnic by yelling, “Feed me!” Unaware that the plant can talk, Audry assumes Seymour is being rude and leaves in tears. Seymour chases after her, trying to explain, but she will not listen to him.

 Prostitute (Merri Welles) won't take "no" for an answer from Seymour.

Angry, Seymour returns to Audry, Jr. and vows never to feed it again, but the plant hypnotizes Seymour to go out in search of “food.” In a trance, Seymour walks through the streets, past beckoning prostitutes, looking for food for the “master.” When a prostitute (Merri Welles) practically hunts down Seymour, he thinks she is “volunteering,” knocks her on the head with a rock and carries her to the shop.

Audry Jr.'s blossoms are images of its victims.

Still lacking clues about the mysterious disappearances of the two men, Fink and Stoolie attend the special sunset celebration at the shop, during which Seymour is to be presented with the trophy from the Society of Silent Flower Observers of Southern California. Audrey, Jr.’s buds are expected to open. As the attendees look on, four buds open. Inside each flower is the face of one of the plant’s meals: the man at the railroad tracks, Farb, the burglar and the prostitute.

Seymour escapes capture by hiding in a commode.

Seymour panics and runs through the streets, and police lose his trail later when he takes refuge in a yard filled with sinks and commodes. Mushnik encourages Fink and Stoolie to give up the search, which they do.

Seymour decides to kill Audry Jr.

Seymour eventually makes his way back to Mushnik’s shop, where Audry, Jr. is yelling for food. Ignoring the plant’s demands, Seymour blames it for ruining his life. He takes a knife and climbs into the plant, intending to cut it up, but he is swallowed.

Later, when Audry, Winifred, Mushnik and the police return to the shop after searching for Seymour, another bud on Audry, Jr. opens, revealing the face of Seymour, who moans “I didn’t mean it!”

The film apparently received positive reviews and has an approval rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, I must disagree with that rating. When we recently watched the film, I found little or nothing enjoyable about it.

As a horror film, The Little Shop of Horrors is not scary. There are no jump scares and the horror is really played for the absurd. The attempts at comedy fall flat as the humor, whatever there may have been, has not aged well.

The acting, which Variety called “…pleasantly preposterous” is in fact rather flat and uneven. The best actor is Jackie Joseph, who played Audry, and I wouldn’t say she was great in the role, only that she was better than those around her. Joseph is perhaps better known for her work on television, appearing on sitcoms like The Doris Day Show and The Bob Newhart Show amongst others.

While future star Jack Nicholson appears in the movie, his part in the film comes off as filler, as it has really nothing to do with the plot. If you find masochists funny, then you will really like the part. I must admit I didn’t.

The camerawork suffers from how it was shot. 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."

The Joe Friday parody doesn’t really go anywhere, either. Not that Dragnet isn’t parodiable, but this doesn’t really hit the mark either.

The special effects are cheaply made, in line with the film’s budget, and they’re more sad than clever. A low budget, which is the world in which Corman lived most of his career, can bring out the best in the filmmaker’s creativity. As an example, German Expressionism was born from low budgets and that affected the look of those films with shadows, as an example, being painted into the sets. But then there is cheap is cheap and that’s what we have here.

While I can see how this might be considered a cult film, that doesn’t make it good. This is one of those films that I’ve looked forward to seeing, based on word-of-mouth, but having seen it, I cannot honestly recommend it.