1986 – While watching the television, the family sees a
commercial for an upcoming comedy that features a talking plant and stars the
geek from Ghostbusters; even better
Bill Murray is in it. My sister and I were huge fans of Ghostbusters (and still are) as kids, so we implore our dad to take
us to this movie and he eventually acquiesces. We drive on down to Northtown
cinemas and 90 minutes later leave the film completely stunned; what had we
just watched? However, my sister and I
eventually agree that Little Shop of
Horrors was a fairly good movie, despite Bill Murray’s limited screen time;
the TV ads completely played up Bill Murray’s role in the film. We explain to
our cousins the scene in which Seymour (Rick Moranis) chops up the dentist Orin
Scrivello (Steve Martin) and feeds him to the plant and their response is,
“They actually chopped up Steve Martin?” Nope, just the character he played.
Flash forward to 1989- I’m browsing through the TV listings
and notice that the local PBS station (channel 10) is showing The Little Shop of Horrors at 11 PM on
Saturday night; I am absolutely elated. Though, it does strike me a bit odd
that PBS would be airing a fairly recent, big budget movie on their station,
but I shrug it off, the important thing is I get to see Little Shop of Horrors again. Imagine to my horror, that instead of
showing the big budgeted musical comedy from 1986, they instead were showing a
black and white film from the 1960s…an EXTREMELY cheap black and white
film. “Where’s Bill Murray? Where’s Rick
Moranis?” I shouted. Not to mention the film end’s on a rather bleak note; the
death of Seymour. There’s no happy ending with him and Audrey, instead he gets
devoured by the plant and gets turned into a flower.
A few years later, The
Little Shop of Horrors is once again airing on PBS and I decide to give it
another chance, mainly because there is nothing better on television. And much
to my surprise…..I LIKE IT A LOT BETTER THIS TIME AROUND! I finally get the
black humor that is prevalent throughout and realize that the bleak ending
(Seymour’s death) is the RIGHT ending. Seymour is a complete and utter klutz
that there’s really no other way this film could have ended. I liked it so much that I bought a VHS copy of
it at ShopKo for 1.99.
Roger Corman had such little interest in The Little Shop of Horrors that he never bothered to renew the copyright. It largely became a cult film because of how often it popped up on television and video shelves over the years, it was often common to find numerous copies of the film with a different distributor right next to one another. I remember one gimmick to sell the video was that it came with a bag of microwavable popcorn. In the 80s the ultimate gimmick to sell old black and white films was to colorize them and The Little Shop of Horrors received this treatment twice. The most common ploy was (and still is) to play up Jack Nicholson's involvement in the film by either giving his name prominent billing on the video case, or a drawing of him holding the plant.
Part I: The influence of A
Bucket of Blood (1959)
It should be noted that The
Little Shop of Horrors is essentially a reworking of the Roger
Corman/Charles B. Griffith film A Bucket
of Blood. The Little Shop of Horrors has the exact same plot beats as A Bucket of Blood:
1)
The protagonists:
In A
Bucket of Blood the protagonist is an awkward, slightly clumsy bus boy
named Walter Paisley (the great Dick Miller). He works at a coffee house that
is populated by Beatniks, most notable among the group is the popular beat poet
Maxwell (Julian Burton) who never reads the poem twice, because he doesn’t want
to repeat himself. Paisley idolizes Maxwell and has a crush on the pretty
hostess Carla (Barboura Morris), while trying to stay on the good side of his
disapproving boss Leonard (Antony Carbone). Walter accidentally kills his landlord’s cat
and inspired by the word of Maxwell, covers it up with clay and passes it off
as a sculpture. He is hailed as a genius by his peers. The next day, one of his female admirers gives Walter dope as a gift, this exchange is witnessed by an undercover cop. The cop confronts Walter at his apartment. Walter panics and hits the cop over the head with a frying pan. He then covers the corpse with clay and presents it to his new found friends as "Murdered Man." They are galvanized as to how realistic Walter's sculpture looks. The bodies pile up as Walter murders a much hated nude model and a saw mill worker. Finally, Walter is discovered and pays the ultimate price.
In The Little Shop of Horrors the
protagonist is the horribly clumsy Seymour Krelboin (Jonathan Haze), who is a
clerk at a rundown floral shop. He
harbors a crush on the cute, but ditzy Audrey (Jackie Joseph), while doing
everything in his power to stay on good terms with his ever condescending boss
Mr. Mushnick (Mel Welles). Seymour is
about to get fired by Mr. Mushnick, when he shows him the new plant he has
grown; Mr. Mushnick will let Seymour
keep his job if he can nurse the plant back to health. While sitting up with
the plant at night, Seymour accidentally cuts his finger on a thorn and much to
his horror finds that the plant (named Audrey Junior after his crush) feeds on blood. He gives
it a few drops of his blood and the next day the plant has grown in size,
Seymour is promptly hailed a genius by his peers. Mushnick tells Seymour to call him "dad," that is until the plant takes on a sickly appearance. Seymour is reading up on how to nurse the plant back to help, when he hears a voice cry, "Feed Me!" Much to Seymour's surprise, the voice is coming from the plant. Seymour goes for a walk to clear his thoughts and accidentally kills a drunken night watchman. He then feeds the remains to the plant. The next day Audrey Junior has grown tremendously in size, once again Seymour is proclaimed a genius. As the film progresses, two more people get fed to the plant before Seymour is discovered.
2)
The discovery:
In both A Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors the bosses of
the protagonists accidentally stumble upon the hero’s bloody secret midway
through the movie, the only thing that keeps them from going to the police is
pure greed.
A Bucket of Blood – Leonard
accidentally knocks over Walter’s cat sculpture, only to find fur sticking out
from underneath it. When Walter comes in with his new sculpture “Murdered Man,” Leonard is about to call the police when a customer offers him
500 bucks for the cat sculpture. He can’t resist the offer and keeps Walter’s
secret. Leonard tries to make things right by steering Walter in another direction (abstract art),
one that does not involve murder.
The Little Shop of Horrors- Mr.
Mushnick is having dinner with Audrey and discovers that he forgot his wallet.
He goes back to the floral shop to pick up some cash and stumbles upon Seymour
feeding the remains of a dead night watchman to Audrey Junior. The next morning he is set on calling the
police, when he finds a huge line of customers waiting outside his floral shop.
Audrey Junior has grown tremendously in size and the floral shop is raking in
the dough. Like Leonard before him, Mushnick keeps Seymour’s secret and is
relieved when Seymour tells him that the plant can’t possibly get any bigger.
3)
The conclusion:
A
Bucket of Blood ends when Carla notices a finger nail sticking out of the
sculpture of a strangled woman Walter did. She confronts Walter and he tells
her the truth; he then tells her he can make her immortal like the rest of
them. Carla runs out of the coffeehouse and Walter chases after her. Meanwhile,
an undercover cop notices a great similarity between “Murdered Man” and his
missing partner and he promptly smashes the sculpture with a chair. He then chases after Walter with Maxwell in
tow. Walter starts hearing the voices of his
victims and runs to his apartment. He covers his face in clay and hangs himself.
The undercover cop, Maxwell, and Carla burst in on the gruesome scene; Maxwell
proclaims this Walter’s masterpiece and that he would have no doubt called it
“Hanging Man.”
The
Little Shop of Horrors ends when everyone gathers in the floral shop to
witness the opening of the buds on Audrey Junior. The buds open to reveal the
faces of the four victims that have been fed to the plant: a night watchman, a sadistic
dentist, a thief, and a prostitute. Seymour gets cornered by two cops and
shouts, “I didn’t mean it!” He then runs out of the shop and the two cops chase
after him with Mr. Mushnick in tow.
Seymour manages to lose the cops, goes back to the little shop, grabs a
knife and crawls in Audrey Junior’s mouth.
Mr. Mushnick, the two cops, Audrey, and Winifred (Seymour’s mom) return
to the shop to find another bud sitting in Audrey Junior’s mouth. The bud opens
to reveal the face of Seymour, who moans “I didn’t mean it”
and then falls over dead.
4)
Other similarities:
Other than the similar storylines A
Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop
of Horrors have a few other things in common:
a)They were shot in the same set. A Bucket of Blood was shot in the span
of five days. Roger Corman realized the value of a leftover set and promptly
shot The Little Shop of Horrors (if
legend is to be believed) in TWO DAYS, breaking his previous record.
b)They utilize the same score. This is most
noticeable in scenes that involve Seymour and Walter wandering around town, stumbling
upon their next victims.
c)Walter and Seymour both utter the phrase,
“I didn’t mean it” throughout the course of the film.
d)Return cast members: Dick Miller, the star
of A Bucket of Blood, returns in The Little Shop of Horrors as the
flowering eating Mr. Fouch. It’s a small role, but Miller makes the most of it
and actually helps drive the narrative by suggesting to Mr. Muschnick that he
should let Seymour display his exotic plant. Myrtle Vail, who played Walter’s
landlord in A Bucket of Blood, plays
Seymour’s hypochondriac mom. In an interesting note, she was also the grandmother of
screenwriter Charles B. Griffith, who not only wrote both films, but did the
voice of Audrey Junior as well.
The only major difference (the other than whole talking, man eating
plant) between the two films is that in A
Bucket of Blood, Walter’s love for Carla is unrequited; she never thinks of
him as being more than just a friend. When Walter asks Carla to pose for him,
she is flattered, unaware of Walter’s sinister motives. In The
Little Shop of Horrors, Audrey for some inexplicable reason reciprocates Seymour’s love. At one point she
even goads Seymour into proposing to her. Not surprisingly, Griffith would return to
this formula twenty years later with Dr.
Heckyll and Mr. Hype.
Part II: The Off Broadway Play
In 1982 the off Broadway production of “Little Shop of
Horrors” premiered at WPA (Workshop of the Player’s Art) and later open off
Broadway at the Orpheum theatre on July 27,1982. The musical (written by Howard
Ashman and Alan Menken) followed by the basic structure of the Corman original,
but it made a few significant changes to the overall storyline:
1)
Menken and Ashman simplified the narrative by
removing most of the supporting characters from the original film; there are no
scenes with Seymour’s hypochondriac mother and the subplot of the two
detectives investigating local disappearances is completely scrapped. The
musical added the characters of Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette who basically
serve as a Greek chorus.
2)
The name of the sadistic dentist in the original
(Pheobus Farb) has been changed to Orin Scrivello and he serves a much bigger
function in the overall narrative; his abusive treatment of Audrey is what
motivates Seymour into feeding him to the plant.
3)
Audrey Junior, now Audrey II manipulates Seymour
into doing his dirty work. Audrey II offers Seymour fame, fortune, and Audrey
if he can keep him healthy. In the end, it is revealed the Audrey II’s true
goal is world domination. In the original film, Audrey Junior’s goal was merely
to survive and its behavior was on par with that of bratty child, whining until
it goes its way.
4)
The Deaths. In the musical, Seymour actively
seeks out victims for Audrey II, whereas in the original film he has a habit of
stumbling into trouble. This is how the
murders play out in the original film:
a)
The Night Watchman – Seymour is walking through
a train yard, thinking of ways to nurse Audrey Junior back to health. He sees a beer bottle and tries to vent out
his frustration by throwing a rock at a bottle, unfortunately he ends up
hitting the night watchman in the head. The night watchman is in a stupor and
stumbles onto the train tracks, where he is promptly run over by an oncoming
train. Seymour panics, gathers up the night watchman’s remains and tries to
dispose of them. He gets thwarted everywhere he goes and finally returns to the
floral shop and feeds the remains to Audrey Junior.
b)
Phoebus Farb – Seymour has a horrible toothache
and goes to the dentist Dr. Farb to get it pulled. However, Dr. Farb is a
sadist and enjoys inflicting pain on his patients. He comes at Seymour with a
scalpel and in self dense Seymour grabs an electric tooth drill and lunges at
Dr. Farb, killing him in the process. Before he can feed Dr. Farb to Audrey
Junior, he must deal with the masochistic patient Wilbur Force (Jack Nicholson). Seymour
pretends to be Dr. Farb and pulls out Wilbur’s teeth, much to Wilbur’s delight.
c)
The thief- Mr. Mushnick decides to stay up with
Audrey Junior and orders Seymour to take Audrey out on a date. Mr. Mushnick
wants to make sure no one else gets fed to the plant, but his plans get
derailed when a thief breaks into the store and demands that Mr. Mushnick tell
him where the cash is hidden. He points
a gun at Mushnick and gives Mushnick til the count of five to tell him where
the money is, or else. Mr. Mushnick tells the man that the money is inside
Audrey Junior. The thief looks inside Audrey’s mouth and gets swallowed
whole.
d)
The Prostitute- Audrey Junior manages to
hypnotize Seymour into finding another body for him to eat. While walking
through the city, Seymour is constantly be harassed by a prostitute, who is
determined to go home with Seymour. He is completely unresponsive to most of
her tactics, but she catches up to him as he ponders what to do next. When she
asks, “My place or yours?” Seymour spits on a rock and tells her to call “wet”
or “dry” as a way to determine where they should go. Seymour throws the rock in
the air and it crashes downs on her head.
e)
Seymour- Seymour returns to the floral shop
after ditching the police and yells at Audrey Junior, claiming it ruined his
life. He grabs a knife and climbs inside Audrey Junior’s mouth and gets eaten
for his effort; though he does mortally wound the plant.
The deaths in the musical play out in an entirely different
fashion; the victims are not random strangers, but the main characters. Ashmen/Menken were retelling The Little Shop of Horrors as variation of Faust. Seymour is the Faust character who sells his soul to the devil (Audrey II) to get everything he wants, but instead loses everything in the end.
a)
Orin Scrivello – Seymour arranges a late dentist
appointment with Orin with the intention of killing him with a pistol. But
Seymour chickens out. However, Orin is getting high on nitrous oxide and dies
of asphyxiation when the gas tank gets stuck in the on position. Seymour feeds
Orin’s body the Audrey II. This ends the first act.
b)
Mr. Mushnik- Mr. Mushnik accuses Seymour for
causing Orin’s death and wants him to give a statement to the police. Before
they leave, Seymour tells Mr. Mushnik that he put the day’s receipts inside
Audrey II for safe keeping. Mr. Mushnik climbs inside Audrey II’s jaws and gets
devoured. This death is taken from the 1960 film, instead of thief being
tricked into climbing into the plant’s jaws, it is Mr. Mushnik.
c)
Audrey- Unable to sleep because of Seymour’s
behavior, Audrey goes to the plant shop to talk to him. He is not there and the
plant talks to her, begging her for some water.
Audrey approaches the plant to water it and a vine wraps around her and
pulls her into the plant’s jaws. Seymour arrives and pulls Audrey out of the
plans jaws, but he is too late, she has been mortally wounded. Her dying wish
is to be feed to the plant, so she and Seymour can be together forever. She
dies in his arms and he honors her request by feeding her corpse to the plant.
d)
Seymour- Patrick Martin from World Botanical
Enterprises tells Seymour that his company would like to take leaf clippings of
Audrey II and sell them across America. Seymour realizes that Audrey II is bent
on world domination and decides to stop him, no matter what. Much to Seymour’s
horror neither poison nor bullets have any effect on the plant, so out of
desperation he runs at its open mouth with a machete, hoping to kill it from
the inside, but gets eaten quickly.
The next day Patrick Martin returns and taking clippings
from Audrey II. The chorus (Ronette, Chiffon, Crystal) relates that following
these events more plants popped up across America, tricking people into feeding
them blood in exchange for fame and fortune.
Audrey II appears with new flowers that open to reveal the faces of
Seymour, Audrey, Mr. Mushnik, and Orin warning people not to feed the plants.
Audrey II slithers towards the audience and the play ends.
Part III: The 1986
film adaptation.
The play proved to be a great success and it was only matter
of time that it would be adapted into a big budgeted movie. Frank Oz was chosen
to direct the film adaptation, which makes sense given that he was an important
part of The Muppets, and operated and
voice Yoda in The Empire Strike Back;
he certainly possessed the technical knowhow when it came to puppetry. Frank Oz was determined to retain the
musical’s downbeat ending, but test audiences reactions proved to be extremely
negative. A happier ending was filmed,
to guarantee the film would be released, so instead of being reduced to plant
food, Seymour and Audrey survive and live happily together in a home straight
out of “Better Home and Gardens” magazine. Though, even the happy ending is fairly
ambiguous; after we see Seymour and Audrey enter their new home the camera
pans down to a garden to reveal another baby Audrey II, who smiles at the
camera. Granted, if Seymour were to spot this Audrey II, he probably would
dispose of it with a weed whacker. It’s
common now, especially on IMDB boards, to chastise the test audiences for
“ruining” Little Shop of Horrors and
being “extremely limited in their thinking” in terms of cinema. However, I
think the test audience’s opinion was a valid one; both Audrey and Seymour are extremely
likable that seeing them get eaten by Audrey II feels like a betrayal. You
spend the majority of the film caring for these two characters that it becomes
disheartening when it becomes just one long special effects demo reel at the
end.
Even fans of the original downbeat ending (finally restored
to DVD) agree that it goes on way too long. The original consists of multiple
Audrey II’s rampaging through the city, destroying property and gobbling up
innocent civilians. It’s an extremely well done sequence; the model work is
especially impressive. However, after a few minutes it becomes pretty
redundant. Test audiences might have responded better had the ending been
shortened; the original play is wonderfully efficient in regards to the ending,
very little stage time passes between Audrey’s death and the plant’s taking
over the world, it moves a fairly brisk pace.
Secondly, the visual of the Audrey II creeping slowly towards the
audience trumps any effect that Hollywood could muster.
It shouldn't have been too surprising to the filmmakers that
the audience would have such an adverse reaction to this ending for many
reasons:
1)
Rick Moranis-
The casting of Moranis completely changes the entire complexion of the
musical, because quite frankly, he’s extremely likable. In the 1960 film and
the musical, Seymour is not particularly sympathetic and is extremely grating at
times. However, Moranis injects a lot
warmth and sincerity into his portrayal of Seymour that it’s impossible not to
like him. It’s completely baffling as to
why Audrey would fall for the previous Seymours, but it’s extremely believable
that she would fall for Moranis’ Seymour, despite his nerdy disposition.
Seymour’s main motivation for helping the plant out is that he believes (wrongly)
it is the only way he can get Audrey.
Moranis’ Seymour doesn’t really seem to want fame and fortune all that
much, just happiness. In the musical number "Skid Row (Downtown)" Seymour sings about his longing to get out of Skid Row and hoping that luck will eventually come his way.
2)
The Deaths – People who object to the happy
ending often claim that it essentially allows for Seymour to get away with
murder. After all, he does feed two
people to the plant, so he should have to answer for his crimes. Howard Ashman
and Alan Menken were not only inspired by the original film when they wrote the
musical, but the story of Faust as well.
Seymour essentially sells his soul to the devil (Audrey II) to get
everything he wants and ends up losing everything in the process. It’s karma
giving him a swift kick in the nuts.
Seymour in both the 1960 film and the musical never really show remorse
for feeding people to the plant, but rather wallow in their new found
fame. However, in the film version it is
totally apparent that Seymour is troubled by his fame and how he acquired it.
More importantly, and the reason why audience members accepted the happy
ending, is that Seymour is fairly passive when it comes to the actual murders.
Orin dies of asphyxiation, while Seymour looks on stunned, not knowing exactly
what to do. Mr. Mushnik gets eaten, but
is largely at fault for being dumb enough to stick his head in Audrey II’s
opened jaws. Not to mention neither of
the two victims are sympathetic:
a) Orin is a sadist that beats up on the lovable Audrey, throughout the course
of the film we see the abuse he has inflicted on her; at the beginning of the
film she walks into work with a black eye. Later on, she has her arm in a
sling. When asked why she doesn’t dump Orin. She replies, “That would make him
angry. If he does this to me when he likes me, just imagine what he would do
when he’s angry.”
Not
only does he abuse Audrey, but he gets off on inflicting pain on his patients
and his nurse. He’s extremely reckless
in his practice, often getting high on nitrous oxide while operating. In short, he’s a danger to practically
everyone around him.
b) Mr. Mushnik witnesses Seymour chopping
up Orin’s corpse and decides to blackmail Seymour with the information. Mr.
Mushnik has no idea that plant needs to blood to survive and thinks Seymour
murdered Orin to get Audrey. Mushnik
holds Seymour at gun point and makes him march upstairs, threatening to take
him to the police. However, once they reach the front door Mushnik pauses and
tells Seymour he will keep his mouth shut, provided that Seymour leaves town
and teaches him how to take care of Audrey II.
Mr. Mushnik backs into Audrey II, turns
around and sees that the plants jaws are wide open. Seymour tries to warm him,
but it’s too late as the plant gobbles up Mushnik, who obliging sticks his head
inside Audrey II’s mouth, while asking, “What the hell is this?”
3)
Ellen Greene – I’m going to make a bold
statement; Ellen Greene should have been given an Oscar nomination for her performance
as Audrey, because she is essentially the heart of the film. Her Audrey is simultaneously funny and
heartbreaking at the same time; an extremely sweet, if somewhat ditzy woman
that is overly hard on herself for mistakes she made in the past. At one point
she tells Seymour she deserved a creep like Orin Scrivello, because she used to
work at strip club (The Gutter) to make ends meet.
This is in complete contrast to the Audrey in the 1960 film, who is
sweet and ditzy, but that’s about it. She doesn’t really have any ambitions and
is content on the way things are.
Greene’s Audrey is a broken woman, who dreams of a better life, but
doesn’t believe that it’s possible. It’s a wonderfully moving performance. It
should be noted that Greene played Audrey in the original Off Broadway play, so her familiarity
with the role helps a great deal.
4)
The chemistry between Moranis and Greene is
amazing. It’s easy to believe that both characters would be attracted to one
another, despite their flaws. The highlight of the film is their rendition of
“Suddenly Seymour.” It’s a powerful
scene, mainly because it’s the first time in the film that both characters are
genuinely happy. These are two
characters that have been miserable for their entire lives, completely unaware
that happiness was always staring them in the face; Audrey doesn’t think she deserves a “nice”
guy like Seymour, while Seymour doesn’t believe Audrey could ever love a poor
nerd like him. The “happy” ending is
just as valid as the original downbeat ending, because it deals with a theme
that is common in most narratives, redemption. Seymour redeems himself by not
only destroying Audrey II at the end, but with his love for Audrey. After
seeing Audrey get mistreated by Orin for a good portion of the film, it is
wonderful to see a genuine smile on her.
The passionate kiss her and Seymour share at the end of “Suddenly
Seymour” is probably one of the few times where I nearly found myself
applauding a movie scene. The special effects in Little Shop of Horrors are impressive, but they take a backseat to Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene’s wonderful performances. The film would arguably still if it was just a regular romantic comedy about these two characters; the talking, man eating plant is just the icing on the cake.
The odd thing about the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors is that twice that narrative is interrupted
to make way for some random comedy. The first interruption occurs roughly
twenty minutes into the film when Seymour goes on a radio show to talk about
his weird plant. The host of show is named Wink and played by John Candy. It’s a scene that could have easily lasted a
couple of seconds, but goes on for a few minutes to make way for Candy’s comedy
stylings; he spouts lots of nonsensical dialogue while making funny faces. At one point he pretends to be
gunned down by a jealous husband, while Seymour looks on befuddled. This is not a knock on John Candy, he's one of my favorite comedians, but he seems completely out of place in this movie.
The other narrative interruption occurs midway through the
film and centers on Orin Scrivello’s encounter with masochist Arthur Denton
(Bill Murray). As noted before, Orin is a complete sadist and beams with
delight when Denton says he needs a root canal. However, as the scene
progresses Orin gets completely frustrated; not only is Denton not scared, but
he actually enjoys the pain that is being inflicted on him, to the point of a
near orgasm. Disgusted, Orin kicks Denton out of his office and decides to take
his frustrations out on Seymour, who is waiting in a chair. Of course, this
scene is directly lifted from the 1960 film, but with a few variations. In the
1960 film, it was Seymour operating on the patient, Wilbur Force, while posing as Dr.Farb so he wouldn’t draw suspicion to the murder he just committed. The Scrivello/Denton
bit features two great comedians (Bill Murray/Steve Martin) at the height of
their popularity, and while funny, it pales in comparison to the 1960 equivalent
featuring Seymour/Wilbur. The Murray/Martin version kind of fizzles out towards
the end, while the Haze/Nicholson ends on genuinely funny note: Wilbur with his
back turned towards the camera thanks Seymour and says he never enjoyed himself
quite so much. He then turns around
(towards the camera), revealing that he is missing nearly half his teeth; the
product of Seymour’s handiwork.
Part 4: Conclusion.
When I was younger I preferred the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors, but as time has
progressed I find myself liking the original 1960 version more. This is always a matter of taste as both them
are extremely different films: the original was an extremely low budget horror
film made over the course of a weekend for the sole purpose of making a quick
buck, while the 1986 version was big
budgeted musical released during the Christmas Holiday. The 1986 version is far more polished in its
presentation and has wonderful special effects to boot. Yet, part of the charm of the original film
is in its cheapness. The remake was shot on a London soundstage and looks it,
while the original was shot on location in Skid Row (California) which adds an
air of authenticity to the proceedings.
The best thing about the original film is that it embraces its cheapness;
it never makes an attempt to conceal its low budget, for instance in the
background there is a sign that reads “LOTS PLANTS – CHEAP!” In another scene a group of girls are looking
to buy flowers for their float, and Mr. Mushnick tries to persuade them to buy from him,
under the ruse that his flowers are special. The girls ask what is so special about
them, to which Seymour replies, “They’re cheap!”
In his book Cult
Movies, Danny Peary writes this about The Little
Shop of Horrors:
Little Shop is in a way a takeoff on Jerry Lewis
comedies, with Seymour Krelboin as the Lewis-like character with an IQ of
seven, a good heart, a lousy personality, and work habits that drive his boss
crazy.
This is a perfect reading of the original Little Shop, whether Corman and company
intended it or not. Any one who has ever endured a Jerry Lewis comedy would agree that Seymour
is a lot like the characters Lewis portrayed.
A staple of most Lewis comedies is a scene in which his character delves
into self pity and sad music plays on the soundtrack so the audience will feel
sympathy for him. The Little Shop of
Horrors has a similar scene like this, but it’s played strictly for laughs.
At the beginning Seymour and Audrey have this exchange:
Seymour: Don’t waste your pity on me, Audrey. I’m not worth
it.
Audrey: Who says you’re not?
Seymour: Everyone.
Audrey: Yeah, I know.
In the musical remake Seymour is an orphan that was taken
out by Mushnik for the sole purpose of sweeping floors, scrubbing toilets,
etc. In the original Seymour is a loser
that lives in a rundown apartment with his hypochondriac mother. In one of the film’s funniest scenes, he
takes Audrey home to have dinner with his mother, which consists of liver oil
soup (“It’s wonderful for the colon,” insists Seymour’s mom). Later on in the meal Audrey, Seymour, and
Winifred have the following conversation:
Winifred: If you’re going to be married, you got to be a
good cook.
Audrey: You could teach me.
Winifred: You thinking of getting married?
Audrey: Well, he hasn’t asked me yet!
Winifred: Who hasn’t?
Audrey: Seymour.
Winifred: Seymour’s too young to get married. Look here, a boy’s got to go out
and play around a little bit. Go out on the making! Have a ball!
Seymour: Gee ma! I don’t want to have a ball. I want to be with Audrey.
Winifred: No, no Seymour! You promised
you wouldn’t get married until you bought me an iron lung.
Seymour: But you’ve been breathing for years, ma!
Winifred: Well, it aint easy. It aint easy, son.
Later on Winifred warns Seymour that Audrey’s only after his
money. Seymour counters with, “I don’t have money.” She then advises Seymour to
never trust a girl who’s too healthy. Seymour tries to win her approval by
saying that Audrey has a cold, but to no avail.
The 1986 remake gets a lot of mileage out of the likability of Moranis and Greene, but it lacks the spontaneity and creativity of the 1960 film. The original film is populated with colorful supporting
characters, from Mr. Shiva, whose family keeps dropping off like flies, to Burson Fouch who eats flowers for
dinner, “I like to eat at these out of the way places.”
Mel Welles steals the show with his hilarious performance as Gravis Mushnick. In
the musical, Mr. Mushnik is more or less a stern father figure to Seymour, but
in the original he is a condescending employer trying to keep his sanity as the
world crumbles around him. His two employees are completely incompetent, while
his business is being driven into the ground. He has a thick, exaggerated
Yiddish accent and speaks in broken English. Mushnick has the funniest lines in
the film; my favorite being, “Don’t work me about money. I’ve got to get
drunk, now!”
Mushnick has never experienced any form of success and is conflicted when
business starts booming; he loves the money, but is disgusted by how he's acquired it. Surprisingly, even though Mushnick has blood
on his hands (he feeds the thief to Audrey Junior), he never pays for his
crime. In the end Mushnick is still standing, while Seymour gets his just
comeuppance. In the 1986 version, Mushnik’s role is greatly reduced, he is
fairly prevalent in the first half hour, but disappears for a long stretch of
screen time. In the musical play he had a number with Seymour called, “Mushnik
and Son,” in which he offers to adopt Seymour and make him a full partner in
the business (thus securing his share of the profit). This number got cut out of the film adaptation to make room for some unrelated comedy (John Candy, Bill Murray). It's a shame, because it's a fairly pivotal moment in the development of Mr. Mushnik. I always preferred Mushnick in the original;
every time he hears the cash register ring, his guilt lessens.
Audrey II (wonderfully voiced by Levi Stubbs) is a technical marvel, where as Audrey Junior looks like a cheap paper mache puppet. In the original Audrey Junior is like bratty child that whines when he doesn't get his way, whereas Audrey II is very cunning, manipulative villain; he offers Seymour the world and seemingly delivers, but everything comes at a price. I never thought I would agree with Leonard Maltin on anything, put I think he makes a good point when he writes, "But when Audrey II, the plant, turns really mean and monstrous, with super-duper special effects, the fun drains away." I find the first hour of Little Shop of Horrors nearly flawless (with the exception of the John Candy scene) flawless in it's execution. The audience genuinely likes the characters, the musical numbers are wonderful, and there are a lot of laughs, but after the "Suddenly Seymour" number it kind of stumbles; the effects are excellent, but often they overwhelm the story. The Corman version, while extremely cheap, manages to maintain it's wonderfully goofy tone; it certainly help that it's only 72 minutes long. There's always something there to catch your interest or make you laugh, while the last half hour of the remake feels forced, often rush, largely because all the action is relegated to the end. The first hour is a wonderful character study on two lonely people who find one another, the last half hour is a special effects spectacle. Thankfully, Moranis and Greene are around to inject warmth and humor to the proceedings, because without them it would be unbearable.
Credits:
The Little Shop of
Horrors (1960)
Cast: Seymour (Jonathan Haze), Audrey (Jackie Joseph), Mr.
Mushnick (Mel Welles), Burson Fouch (Dick Miller), Wilbur Force (Jack
Nicholson), Winifred Krelboin (Myrtle Vail), Mrs. Shiva (Leola Wendorff),
Audrey Junior (Charles B. Griffith – voice).
Director: Roger Corman
Screenplay: Charles B. Griffith
Running Time: 72 min.
Little Shop of Horrors
(1986)
Cast: Seymour (Rick Moranis) Audrey (Ellen Greene), Mr.
Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia), Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin), Arthur Denton (Bill
Murray), Patrick Martin (James Belushi), Chiffon (Tisha Campbell), Crystal
(Tichina Arnold), Ronette (Michelle Weeks), Audrey II (Levi Stubbs –voice),
Wink Wilkinson (John Candy), First Customer (Christopher Guest).
Director: Frank Oz
Screenplay: Howard Ashman
Running Time: 94 min.
