The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

 

Of course, the immortal line of Feed me, feed me! probably comes to mind immediately when this ridiculous dimestore classic (I swear this film always looks like it cost a buck and some change anytime I watch it), but it was on Turner Classics so I thought I would give it a go. I really didn't want to watch anything of serious length and The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) barely passes 60 minutes, but nonetheless, it has so much in it that entertains, thanks to some over the top characters and performances, an outrageous monster plant that lives on blood and human bodies for sustenance, and scenes featuring quirks and eccentric anecdotes (Seymour's mom is a hypochondriac who drinks her "medicine" for its 98% alcohol content, the infamous Jack Nicholson cameo as a mortician sadist looking for dental pain and no Novocaine, the giant human eating plant budding flowers that open to reveal the faces of victims it "eats") that certainly reveal an embrace of the absurd thanks to Griffith's script. 

This does indeed look to have been a challenge Roger Corman accepted, made in like a few days using sets from another film, and shot on the absolute cheap. I mean, it looks cheap, but I just thoroughly enjoy it. I think I enjoy "A Bucket of Blood" (1959) a little bit more, but "The Little Shop of Horrors" is still very much a treat because of the absurdities involved. Seymour is a clumsy foil for the film, a simple guy who flinches a lot when his flower shop boss, Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles) gets really bossy and fussy with his inability to trip flowers for customers. That Seymour (Jonathan Haze) stumbles over tables and crashes into flowers a lot doesn't help Gravis' frustrations. I just love that Seymour's love interest in the film is Jackie Joseph, a beloved actress known to us Gremlins fans, as Audrey, a very tolerant young woman who isn't immediately turned away by his complaining mother and obvious lack of career prospects. The Nicholson episode is very much like "The Terror" (1963), which I was hoping Turner Classics would show this month, in that public domain titles distributed by DVD companies looking to make a buck and late night midnight madness shows propping up anything early in his career, where his Wilbur Force (what a great name, haha) practically gets an orgasm as Seymour pulls a tooth and drills into other "infected" teeth. I can remember insomniac troubles, finding "The Terror" and "Little Shop of Horrors" on late at night. 

That they are cheap Corman productions thrown together because available sets and actors were there to be used is not a surprise. The creature with its puppet mouth opening and closing as a voice (that sounded off-stage) begs to be fed, surrounded by leaves and eventually flowers as it grows with each additional body fed to it is such a concoction. Griffith's script even has victims literally sticking their heads and bodies into the damn thing's mouth (such as a thief holding a gun on Mushnick, lured to it believing valuables were there), while Seymour's ineptitude results in others dying mainly when stones leave his hands and into the skulls of others (like a hot blond played by Meri Welles, who, for some reason, appears attracted to him). Dick Miller as a customer of Mushnick's, buying and eating flowers with some peppered salt on them just cracks me up...he just does it straight, as if it is just normal. That Griffith himself plays the robber eaten by the plant (and a dental victim) is just the icing on the cake. That this whole film was cobbled together quickly and yet remains such a cult classic is a testament to all of the talents involved. 4/5

***That Seymour spends most of the film falling over everything, even put under a trance by the damned plant, to sort of tell you how dimwitted he is, commanded by Audrey Jr to find it a victim to eat, the ending has an irony I appreciated: chased by police, Seymour not only doesn't fall, he even outsmarts them!***