The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Director:

Roger Corman
(more)

Writer:

Charles B. Griffith (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 September 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Tagline:

The flowers that kill in the Spring TRA-LA

Plot:

A clumsy young man nurtures a plant and discovers that it's a bloodthirsty plant, forcing him to kill to feed it.

Plot Keywords:

Plant | Black Comedy | Carnivorous Plant | Flower | Dismemberment

Cast

Jonathan Haze	...	Seymour Krelboin
Jackie Joseph	...	Audrey Fulquard
Mel Welles	...	Gravis Mushnik
Dick Miller	...	Burson Fouch
Myrtle Vail	...	Winifred Krelboin
Karyn Kupcinet	...	Teenage Girl (as Tammy Windsor)
Toby Michaels	...	Teenage Girl
Leola Wendorff	...	Siddie Shiva
Lynn Storey	...	Mrs. Hortense Feuchtwanger (Society of Silent Flower Observers of Southern California)
Wally Campo	...	Det. Sgt .Joe Fink / Narrator
Jack Warford	...	Det. Frank Stoolie
Meri Welles	...	Leonora Clyde (as Merri Welles)
John Herman Shaner	...	Dr. Phoebus Farb (as John Shaner)
Jack Nicholson	...	Wilbur Force
Dodie Drake	...	Waitress
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Coogan	...	Tramp (uncredited)
Charles B. Griffith	...	Kloy / Drunk at Dentist / Screaming Patient / Audrey Junior / Burglar at Flower Shop (uncredited) (voice)
Jack Griffith	...	Drunk (uncredited)

Directed by
Roger Corman
Charles B. Griffith		(uncredited)
Mel Welles		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Charles B. Griffith		(screenplay)

Produced by
Roger Corman	....	producer

Original Music by
Fred Katz
Ronald Stein		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Archie R. Dalzell		(as Archie Dalzell)
Vilis Lapenieks		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Marshall Neilan Jr.

Art Direction by
Daniel Haller

Makeup Department
Harry Thomas	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Richard Dixon	....	assistant director
Charles B. Griffith	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Art Department
Karl Brainard	....	property master (as Carl Brainard)

Sound Department
Philip Mitchell	....	sound recordist (as Phillip Mitchell)

Production Companies

• Santa Clara Productions

Distributors

• Filmgroup, The (1960) (USA) (theatrical)
• Astral Films (1960) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Hollywood Home Theatre (1980) (USA) (VHS)
• United American Video (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• Hollywood Classics (1991) (USA) (VHS)
• Take 2 Video (1995) (USA) (VHS)
• Westlake Entertainment Group (1995) (USA) (VHS)
• Master Movies (1997) (USA) (DVD)
• Take 2 Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Platinum Disc (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Master Movies (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• United American Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Galam Americas (2001) (USA) (VHS)
• GoodTimes Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Madacy Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• SlingShot Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Navarre Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Brentwood Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• SlingShot Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Ventura Distribution (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (worldwide) (VHS)
• Reel Media International (2005) (worldwide) (TV)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Genius Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Astro Distribution (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Allied Artists Television (????) (USA) (TV)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Future Film (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• LS Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• LaserDisc (????) (Japan) (video)
• Legend Films (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Legend Films (2008) (USA) (DVD) (restored edition)
• Mistar (????) (Finland) (video)
• Pan Vision Oy (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (????) (USA) (VHS)
• SubTV (2002) (Finland) (TV)
• TV3 (1988) (Finland) (TV)
• TriPictures (????) (Spain) (VHS) (colorized)
• VTI Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Video Yesteryear (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Weton Wesgram (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1993) (1998) (Finland) (TV) (TV2)

Other Companies

• Ryder Sound Services  sound services
• Legend Films  colorization
• Legend Films  restoration

Also Known As:

The Passionate People Eater (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S (1998) | UK:A (theatrical rating) (1973) | Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) (2007) | Ireland:PG | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Chaplin Studios - 1416 N. La Brea Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Santa Clara Productions

Trivia:

The name of the character 'Siddie Shiva' is a pun from the phrase 'sitting Shiva', a Jewish funerary ritual, as well as a direct reference to her unlucky and constantly expiring relatives.

Goofs:

Continuity: Frank walks into Detective Fink's office, sits down and lights a cigarette. The cigarette remains in his mouth until a close-up shot, where it is missing. When the wide shot is resumed, the cigarette is back again.

Quotes:

[Seymour walks into the shop holding a bag with Dr. Farb's body in it]
Audrey Jr.: Give me food!
Seymour Krelboin: Aw, take it easy, Dracula. What do you think I'm carrying here, my dirty laundry?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "E! True Hollywood Story: Jack Nicholson" (2005)

Still Unique Even After 45 Years

Here's a movie that's gone from cult classic to just plain classic. For me, it's one of the few "cult classics" I saw when it was released and then first shown on television. I loved it then, and I love it now.

Forget the musical re-make made in the 1980s. It couldn't hold a candle to the original.

"Original" is what this is, too. and nowadays, it's great to have it on DVD in which the audio is clear and the picture pretty sharp.

I have always particularly enjoyed the many humorous lines delivered by Mel Welles, who plays the flower shop owner. He is the real comedian of the cast, although the plant does quite well as do the two leads played by Jonathan Haze and Jackie Joseph. The latter two are a little more subtle in their comedy.

All the characters in here are totally whacked, from Haze's hypochondriac mother to Dick Miller's flower-eating character to the Jewish mother who always has a dead relative to moan about and to the dentist and his patient. The latter, of course, is Jack Nicholson, making his movie debut and looking about 16 years old.

In the end, though, what one remembers most is the plant demanding, over and over, to "Feeeeeed me!!"

For that, the plant and the film never fail to make me laugh.