Little Shop of Horrors

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Directed by: Roger Corman
Written by: Charles B. Griffith
Starring: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, Myrtle Vail, Wallie Campo, Leola Wendorff, John Shaner, Lynn Storey, Jack Nicholson, Charles B. Griffith

The one about a guy who grows a giant man eating plant, remade as a musical with Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene. I've seen the musical many times, but I'd never actually seen this version.

The plot is pretty much the same as that of Bucket of Blood - loser working at flower shop finds the only way to keep his job/get the girl/stop being a loser involves killing people. Actually, the plot is almost exactly the same.

That doesn't really bother me. I find that kind of amusing. The movie was pretty funny, in a sick sort of way. It was unbelievably whacked out. I laughed til I stopped.

The film was allegedly shot in two days, though I gather some of the actors had to come back for reshoots. That's still pretty impressive. It looks pretty good.

There is a lot of stuff in there that doesn't really have anything to do with anything - the movie's only about seventy minutes long, so they couldn't exactly cut all that stuff. The Jack Nicholson scene, for example, doesn't really go anywhere, but it does add to the weird quirkiness of the film.

It sort of takes us way down to funky town (sorry, I really wanted to write that). The plant was pretty silly looking but shit, it's a giant man eating plant. It's supposed to be silly looking.

And then there's Dick Miller, as the plant eating man. That was really weird. I like him, though. He amuses me.

The whole movie did amuse me quite a lot. It tickled my soul, much like Bucket of Blood (I wouldn't want to watch those back to back, though - I think that would be a bad idea), and just goes to show why Roger Corman Captain Amazing. That and he's made, like, nine million movies.

That dude is an inspiration to us all.

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