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).

 

My Audrey Jnr-lookalike figurine (photo © Dr Karl Shuker)

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. (Having said that, the original filmed ending for the musical movie version was just as shocking, so much so that preview audiences absolutely hated it, prompting the producers to replace it with the uplifting ending that we all know today – but the exceedingly dark original one can be watched here on YouTube.)

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).

 

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

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

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

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)

 

SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND: THE MOVIE

Publicity poster for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Movie (© Michael Schultz/Apple Corps/RSO Records/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As regular readers  of my movie mini-reviews here will know, I have a penchant for viewing movies slated by the critics, if only because more often than not I discover that I actually like them – I'm contrary that way! And so it proved once again on Sunday afternoon [2 August 2020], when I viewed Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Movie (hereafter SPLHCBTM, for purposes of brevity, relatively speaking!).

Directed by Michael Schultz, produced by Robert Stigwood, and originally released in 1978, as its title suggests this fantasy movie musical features many of the songs that first appeared on the Beatles' iconic Sgt Pepper album (as well as some from their Abbey Road album), but the Fab Four do not star in it. Instead, it features a then still extraordinarily youthful-looking Peter Frampton (best known for fronting the rock bands Humble Pie and The Herd) and the Bee Gees brotherly trio of Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb.

SPLHCBTM's quite surreal, and sometimes decidedly psychedelic, plot and visuals tell the suspending-of- all-disbelief tale of a legendary brass band quartet named – yes indeed – Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, hailing from the homely little American town of Heartland but whose spirits-lifting music is instrumental (sorry!) in bringing World War I to a close and makes them immensely popular for decades afterwards, continuing to perform until a now-elderly Sgt Pepper's sudden death, whereupon their metaphorical baton is passed on to his young grandson Billy Shears (played by Frampton). When he grows older, Billy forms a new, pop-rock version of his grandfather Sgt Pepper's original band with his three best friends, the Henderson brothers Bob, Dave, and Mark (the Bee Gees).

Their music comes to the attention of a Mr Big-in-Showbiz character named B.D. (a totally unrecognizable Donald Pleasence), who brings them to his palatial home in Los Angeles and swiftly signs them up, within a week of which they become major stars throughout the USA and beyond (as you do), despite being managed by Billy's less than honest, money-mad half-brother Dougie (Paul Nicholas). They also face constant temptation of the carnal kind from another of B.D.'s signings, a foxy foursome performing as Lucy and the Diamonds (Dianne Steinberg and Stargard).

Meanwhile, however, their hitherto wholesome Heartland hometown falls under the dark shadow of the villainous Mr Mustard (played in his own inimitable fourth-wall-demolishing style by famous British comedian Frankie Howerd in his only major American movie role), which sees most of its stores and even its City Hall bought up by Mustard and converted into sleazy clubs and casinos, to the despair of Heartland's honorable mayor Mr Kite (George Burns, who also serves as the movie's narrator). Billy's loyal girlfriend, Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina), who had stayed behind in Heartland when Billy and the boys journeyed to L.A. to meet with B.D., now makes her own way there to warn them of what is happening back in Heartland, not knowing that Mustard is actually following orders received within his computerized, android-assisted headquarters concealed inside his grotty van from a mysterious unseen entity named FVB whose aim is to take over the world.

In order to do so, however, FVB needs the magical joy-bringing musical instruments of the original Sgt Pepper's band, now proudly displayed in Heartland's museum inside City Hall, so Mustard duly steals them and distributes three of the four to various persons designated by FVB. These malcontents include a deranged plastic surgeon named Dr Maxwell Edison (Steve Martin) and a malevolent, mind-warping cult leader who calls himself Father Sun (Alice Cooper). If all of this seems convoluted and just the teensiest bit OTT, you ain't seen – or heard – nothing yet!

Suffice it to say that Strawberry, Billy and the boys, aided and abetted by Dougie and Lucy, pursued by a manic Mustard as they seek to recover the stolen instruments, and finally confronting the villainous FVB, who turns out to be a megalomaniacal rock band called Future Villain Band (Aerosmith), get to perform a sizeable number of Beatles songs along the way, and some of them quite impressively (e.g. 'Here Comes the Sun', 'You Never Give Me Your Money', 'A Day In The Life'). However, for me the two stand-out performances are actually Frankie Howerd's hilarious rendition of 'When I'm Sixty-Four' (click here to view it), and (click here) Steve Martin's hysterically insane interpretation of 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' (a song by Paul McCartney that I have to confess I'd never heard or even heard about before, and which sounds deceptively like a children's song until you listen to the words and realize that they are actually describing the murderous activities of a youthful serial killer!).

A tragic, moving scene is the unexpected death and sorrowful funeral of Strawberry Fields, but hey, this is SPLHCBTM, so that is soon rectified by the Sgt Pepper-dedicated gilded weather vane atop of Heartland's City Hall. For not only does it magically come to life as Billy Preston strutting his stuff in an eye-dazzling gold lamé suit but also it soon works the very same magic upon Strawberry too, restoring her into the land of the living as good as new, before swiftly banishing the baddies and kitting out the goodies in shiny new outfits – just in time for them to bring this bright, breezy, if sometimes decidedly bewildering movie to a happy-clappy close with a huge array of mostly music-based showbiz stars joining together to sing the movie's theme song. Knowing that this scene was coming, I paid close attention to see how many stars I could spot, with my eventual tally including Helen Reddy, Keith Carradine, the Paley Brothers, Leif Garrett, Carol Channing, Tina Turner, Peter Noone, Dr John, José Feliciano, Rick Derringer, Robert Palmer, Sha-Na-Na – and, with no apparent reason whatsoever for his inclusion there, Barry Humphries as his Aussie housewife-superstar alter ego Dame Edna Everage.

Beatles purists will no doubt hate this movie with a vengeance, but as an exercise in vividly colourful visuals, entertaining if indisputably nonsensical storylines, an outrageously eclectic mix of stars that would never be expected to appear together (Frankie Howerd, Alice Cooper, George Burns, Peter Frampton, Donald Pleasence, and the Bee Gees – really??!!), and the unquestionable quality of the classic, timeless songs upon which this whole eccentric extravaganza is hung, it is very far indeed from being the worst big screen or small screen experience of two hours' tenure that the critics would have you believe it to be. Take my word for it, I enjoyed it immensely – then again, I'm sure that you know me well enough to know that I would! But if you'd like to make your own mind up about it, click here to watch this movie's official trailer.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees as Sgt Pepper and His Lonely Hearts Club Band (© Michael Schultz/Apple Corps/RSO Records/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)