THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)

 

Publicity poster for The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), which made no mention of Jack Nicholson's appearance in it because back then he hadn't become famous – later publicity material for this movie, conversely, would very extensively promote his presence in it, as will be seen later here (© Roger Corman/The Filmgroup/Santa Clara Productions/American International Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 13 July 2021, I finally watched the original 1960 b/w version of The Little Shop of Horrors, which was famously directed by Roger Corman, released by American International Pictures, filmed in just two and a half days, and featured a young Jack Nicholson in an early but memorable movie role as a comically-masochistic pain-addicted dental patient named Wilbur Force.

However, this black comedy's principal storyline features an ineffectual florist assistant named Seymour Krelborn (played by Jonathan Haze) working in an impoverished skid row region of town who creates a bizarre but ever-growing talking plant hybrid (voiced by an uncredited Charles B. Griffth, who also played two other roles in the film as well as writing its screenplay).

Named Audrey Jnr by Seymour in honour of his girlfriend Audrey Fulquard (Jackie Joseph), this peculiar plant attracts considerable public attention, not to mention the very sizeable increase in business that accompanies such attention, the latter outcome being greatly welcomed by the flower shop's scrooge-like owner Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles).

Unbeknownst to its fascinated followers, however, but known only too well to an increasingly desperate Seymour, who is forced to pursue ever-more-nefarious ways of obtaining nutrition for it, his monstrous botanical creation possesses an insatiable taste for blood and flesh – human blood and flesh!

 

Publicity poster for Little Shop of Horrors, the 1986 movie musical version (© Frank Oz/The Geffen Company/Warner Bros – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The musical movie version of The Little Shop of Horrors from 1986 (based upon a 1982 off-Broadway stage musical, in turn inspired by Corman's original film), which starred Rick Moranis as Seymour and Steve Martin as a sadistic dentist, is probably better known nowadays and in my view is far superior too.

Nevertheless, it was very interesting to see how different – and darker – the plot in the Corman version (especially its shock ending) was from that of the musical.

Incidentally, two different colorized versions of this movie have also been produced – one released in 1987 in VHS videocassette format (which I have now just watched and enjoyed), and a restored one released in 2006 by Legend in DVD format (which is apparently the superior colour version, but I have yet to view this in its entirety).

Meanwhile, click here to watch in full for free on YouTube the original b/w version of this herbaceous horror movie.

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The official VHS video for the 1987 colorized version of The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), with Jack Nicholson's appearance in it now being very prominently promoted (© Roger Corman/The Filmgroup/Santa Clara Productions/American International Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)