Little Shop of Horrors (1960 and 1986)

For the second entry in “Halloween Month” I thought that I would look at “The Little Shop of Horrors.” I’m not sure how many people know this, but there is a 1960 black comedy version, even though I already know that a lot of people are familiar with the more popular 1986 musical. But how is the 1960 version? Here are my thoughts:

Charles B. Griffith wrote a handful of screenplays for Roger Corman, but he found his niche when he discovered his talent in black comedies, which in turn gave birth to “The Little Shop of Horrors.” Jonathan Haze plays Seymour, who is an employee at Mushnik’s flower shop on skid row. He has a crush on his co-worker Audrey, played by Jackie Joseph, and manages to interest her when he creates a plant he named “Audrey Jr.” Things turn out horribly wrong when the plant is thirsty for blood, which causes Seymour to go out and bring corpses back to the shop for “Audrey Jr.,” who keeps saying “feed me!” (Griffith voices the plant). There are a handful of strange coincidences, like when Seymour accidentally kills a man when he needs some blood. Also, the movie only has several jokes that it constantly uses over and over again, like Seymour’s mother (Myrtle Vail) is a hypochondriac, meaning she eats medicine for every meal, and one of the shop’s customers (Dick Miller) eats flowers. The dentist (John Herman Shaner) appears for a long sequence, but he does very little for the film, and two cops (Wally Campo and Jack Warford) are also in for once in a while and narrate the film in a deadpan clip. Mushnik, played by Mel Welles, is the typical Jewish stereotype, whose only concern is money. Jack Nicholson has a cameo appearance as a guy who loves going to the dentist, and thanks to Roger Corman, he launched his career into the famous actor we all know today. Jeffrey M. Anderson was right in his review when he said, “Aside from all this surface nonsense, there's something interesting about the film (perhaps all the emphasis on eating and mouths).” Corman gives the movie a good feeling and it moves at a pretty quick pace making it harmless and fun.

So if you haven’t seen this version, definitely give it a watch. It’s not a bore to watch, but actually an interesting movie that you should see for Halloween.

But what can be said about the more famous 1986 musical version? You really want to know my thoughts? Ok, here it is:

Roger Ebert admitted, “At a time when so many movies show such cold-blooded calculation, here's one heedless enough to be fun."Little Shop of Horrors" arrives with enough baggage to make it into a thoroughly timid project - what is less likely to make a fresh movie than a long-running stage hit? - and yet the movie has the offhand charm of something that was concocted over the weekend.”

This isn’t only a musical comedy, but also a variety show of sorts: Cameo appearances are made by comedians Bill Murray, James Belushi, and John Candy, and Steve Martin almost steals the show as the motorcycle-riding dentist. But at the core of the movie is a basic likeness, an innocence that goes out to the centerpiece of the movie, which is the man-eating plant Audrey II.

The plant all of a sudden arrives at the flower shop window, crashing on Earth from another planet. It instantly starts to grow, look around for itself, attract attention, and get an appetite for human blood. It also changes the lives of the three workers of the flower shop: the shop assistant, Seymour (Rick Moranis), the salesclerk, Audrey (Ellen Greene), and their boss Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia). Ebert mentions, “Suddenly, they have the sort of fame thrust on them that is usually reserved for lottery winners and people who survive freak accidents.”

There are all kinds of people with ideas of what to do with the plant, and others who want nothing to do with it. The movie uses those people as their material for kind satire and large comedy, and there’s the feeling that the movie is funny with just about anything it thinks up. There is the famous romance between Seymour and Audrey, who must get her away from her fiancé, the dentist, who also gives her cold stares.

Meanwhile, Audrey II, voiced by Levi Stubbs (who also voiced Mother Brain on “Captain N: The Game Master”), grows at a fast rate, feasting on the blood of both Seymour and the other corpses he brings to the plant. This fast growth of the plant was obviously one of the highlights of the stage show this movie was based on, and the movie’s Audrey II, designed by Lyle Conway and directed by the great Frank Oz, is a phenomenon of technique. The plant actually does sound like it has a personality and is amazingly succeeded during the musical scores.

Moranis has developed a personality in this movie, which is somewhat surprising like with the success of Audrey II’s design. Ebert mentioned, “After being typecast as a nerd on SCTV and in such limited and predictable films as "Strange Brew," he emerges here as a shy, likable leading man in the Woody Allen mode.” The movie sometimes makes his role look really simple. But he has a lot to work on for the show and has most of the conversations with the plant, and without him the movie may not have been worth the watch.

Greene repeats her New York and London role as the human Audrey, and by now the wide-eyed blond has become second nature. Her famous song, “Suddenly Seymour,” has the boldness of a Broadway show-stopper even while deflating it with satire.

The show is also narrated by a musical commentary given by a Supremes-looking trio (Tichina Arnold, Tisha Campbell and Michelle Weeks), that go around the flower shop’s inner-city neighborhood with a message of hope that looks as though it’s optimistic, inspired as it is by the human-eating plant, but fits right in with the movie’s light-heartedness.

All of the imaginations of “Little Shop of Horrors” are succeeded with a cool, relaxed charm. The movie doesn’t milk the jokes or insist on its skillful special effects, but dedicates its energies to appearing unforced and delighted. The laughs, when they are in the movie, are hilarious (such as the payoff to Martin’s huge number), but the quiet romantic moments are allowed to have their shy innocence.

Ebert ended his review by saying, “This is the kind of movie that cults are made of, and after "Little Shop" finishes its first run, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it develop into a successor to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," as one of those movies that fans want to include in their lives.”

In the end, this is one of those times where I like the remake over the original, if you would like to call this a remake. If you haven’t seen these movies, I would say check them both out, but you don’t have to see the original first to get the remake. You can watch the remake and get the story just fine, and may have a more enjoyable time with it than the original.

Check in tomorrow for the continuation of “Halloween Month.”