The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Director:

Roger Corman
(more)

Writer:

Charles B. Griffith (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 September 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Tagline:

The flowers that kill in the Spring TRA-LA

Plot:

A clumsy young man nurtures a plant and discovers that it's a bloodthirsty plant, forcing him to kill to feed it.

Plot Keywords:

Plant | Black Comedy | Flower | Carnivorous Plant | Fame

Cast

Jonathan Haze	...	Seymour Krelboin
Jackie Joseph	...	Audrey Fulquard
Mel Welles	...	Gravis Mushnik
Dick Miller	...	Burson Fouch
Myrtle Vail	...	Winifred Krelboin
Karyn Kupcinet	...	Teenage Girl (as Tammy Windsor)
Toby Michaels	...	Teenage Girl
Leola Wendorff	...	Siddie Shiva
Lynn Storey	...	Mrs. Hortense Feuchtwanger (Society of Silent Flower Observers of Southern California)
Wally Campo	...	Det. Sgt .Joe Fink / Narrator
Jack Warford	...	Det. Frank Stoolie
Meri Welles	...	Leonora Clyde (as Merri Welles)
John Herman Shaner	...	Dr. Phoebus Farb (as John Shaner)
Jack Nicholson	...	Wilbur Force
Dodie Drake	...	Waitress
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Coogan	...	Tramp (uncredited)
Charles B. Griffith	...	Kloy / Drunk at Dentist / Screaming Patient / Audrey Junior / Burglar at Flower Shop (uncredited) (voice)
Jack Griffith	...	Drunk (uncredited)

Directed by
Roger Corman
Charles B. Griffith		(uncredited)
Mel Welles		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Charles B. Griffith		(screenplay)

Produced by
Roger Corman	....	producer

Original Music by
Fred Katz
Ronald Stein		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Archie R. Dalzell		(as Archie Dalzell)
Vilis Lapenieks		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Marshall Neilan Jr.

Art Direction by
Daniel Haller

Makeup Department
Harry Thomas	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Richard Dixon	....	assistant director
Charles B. Griffith	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Art Department
Karl Brainard	....	property master (as Carl Brainard)

Sound Department
Philip Mitchell	....	sound recordist (as Phillip Mitchell)

Production Companies

• Santa Clara Productions

Distributors

• Filmgroup, The (1960) (USA) (theatrical)
• Astral Films (1960) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Hollywood Home Theatre (1980) (USA) (VHS)
• United American Video (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• Hollywood Classics (1991) (USA) (VHS)
• Take 2 Video (1995) (USA) (VHS)
• Westlake Entertainment Group (1995) (USA) (VHS)
• Master Movies (1997) (USA) (DVD)
• Take 2 Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Platinum Disc (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Master Movies (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• United American Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Galam Americas (2001) (USA) (VHS)
• GoodTimes Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Madacy Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• SlingShot Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Navarre Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Brentwood Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• SlingShot Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Ventura Distribution (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (worldwide) (VHS)
• Reel Media International (2005) (worldwide) (TV)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Genius Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Astro Distribution (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Allied Artists Television (????) (USA) (TV)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Future Film (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• LS Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• LaserDisc (????) (Japan) (video)
• Legend Films (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Legend Films (2008) (USA) (DVD) (restored edition)
• Mistar (????) (Finland) (video)
• Pan Vision Oy (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (????) (USA) (VHS)
• SubTV (2002) (Finland) (TV)
• TV3 (1988) (Finland) (TV)
• TriPictures (????) (Spain) (VHS) (colorized)
• VTI Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Video Yesteryear (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Weton Wesgram (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1993) (1998) (Finland) (TV) (TV2)

Other Companies

• Ryder Sound Services  sound services
• Legend Films  colorization
• Legend Films  restoration

Also Known As:

The Passionate People Eater (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S (1998) | UK:A (theatrical rating) (1973) | Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) (2007) | Ireland:PG | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Chaplin Studios - 1416 N. La Brea Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Santa Clara Productions

Trivia:

Charles B. Griffith not only wrote most of the screenplay, he also stars uncredited as several characters; among them: the screaming dental patient that runs out of Dr. Farb's office, the burglar that breaks into the flower shop, and even the voice of Audrey Jr.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The name of the flower shop owner is Gravis Mushnik, but the shop sign says "Mushnick's".

Quotes:

Det. Sgt .Joe Fink: How's the wife, Frank?
Det. Frank Stoolie: Not bad, Joe.
Det. Sgt .Joe Fink: Glad to hear it. The kids?
Det. Frank Stoolie: Lost one yesterday.
Det. Sgt .Joe Fink: Lost one, huh? How'd that happen?
Det. Frank Stoolie: Playing with matches
Det. Sgt .Joe Fink: Well, those're the breaks
Det. Frank Stoolie: I guess so.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dead End (1985)

A surprisingly funny piece of b-movie entertainment from Corman

Mushnick's is a small florists in skid row – a dead end part of town that everyone knows about but nobody wants to know about. Business is not great, in fact it is awful – nobody wants to buy flowers when they can't be sure where their next meal is coming from. However the cleaning boy has nurtured a strange new plant up from seed and it seems to be getting interest. When he discovers it needs a few drops of blood to make it grow Seymour is the toast of the town with his employer very grateful for the increased revenue the visitors bring. However as it grows it begins to need more than a few drops and soon he is heading down a terrible, dark road.

Like many viewers I suspect, I came to this film after seeing the musical remake; as such I assumed that this would be a straight film in the b-movie genre that Corman is famous for. However I was taken by how amusing this film was because really this is as much a horror comedy as the musical is. From Seymour's alcoholic mother to the cop so hard that even the death of his son is met with a shrug, the whole film is full of darkly comic touches that drew some nice laughs from me. This comic approach helps the film because really it is a silly plot and the fact that the script was tongue-in-cheek meant it was easier to swallow, if you pardon the choice of words. As a horror it doesn't really work but it does have a slocky property that Corman films tend to have – not high quality but low budget, b-movie fun.

The cast match the material and all buy into the joke, watching them also shows that the cast in the musical are really pretty much just impersonate the actors here. Haze is enjoyably geeky and convinces throughout. Welles is funny and plays up to his ethnic caricature well. Corman regular Miller hasn't really got much to do but his face is always a ruggedly familiar and welcome sight. Joseph is not great but her performance suits the b-movie genre – likewise Campo and Warford (who are very funny as Dragnet style cops). Nicholson is pretty funny and was a curious find in a small cameo.

Overall this is not a great film but it is a great b-movie horror. Never taking itself seriously means that it can be darkly funny and take the audience along for the ride. To me it is just as funny as the musical even it is a different type of humour and it is worth checking out.