I'm much more familiar with the 1986 version with Rick Moranis. I missed not seeing him, but this is still a good film. The story's pretty easy to understand, with a guy named Seymour raising a man eating plant named Audrey Jr. This is one of the best movies Roger Corman ever worked on. With someone so prolific, he was bound to have a good movie sooner or later. I was surprised to see Jack Nicholson in the movie.He gives possibly the best performance in the whole movie. The funniest part was probably when Seymour says his name is Seymour and the woman he's with mockingly says that and then he says that's his name too! I admit it's kind of dumb, particularly with how the characters act. I guess it's to be expected that a movie filmed in a few days would be short. It's still a well paced film. The visuals are pretty good too. ***

RELEASED IN 1960 and directed by Roger Corman, "Little Shop of Horrors" stars Jonathan Haze as Seymour, a klutzy worker at a Los Angeles Skid Row florist shop. On the verge of getting fired by the owner (Mel Welles), the young man brings his weird hybrid plant to the store to spur business. Unbeknownst to Seymour, it requires flesh & blood to grow and live. Jackie Joseph plays the other worker at the shop and Seymour's potential girlfriend. A very young Jack Nicholson appears as a patient at a dentist office for about 8 minutes. Back when this was released I'm sure the black humor was almost scandalous (e.g. Seymour feeding body parts to the ravenous plant), but Corman got away with it because it's such an inane comedy. A lot of the humor didn't work for me and I personally don't like black & white. But there are enough amusing elements to make it worth checking out and Jackie possesses a winsome sweetness that's a pleasure to behold. Filmed in late December, 1959, the late 50s/early 60s ambiance is a highlight. THE FILM RUNS 1 hour & 12 minutes and was shot in Los Angeles. WRITER: Charles B. Griffith. ADDITIONAL CAST: Toby Michaels and Karyn Kupcinet are on hand as high school girls in need of flowers for a float. GRADE: C

Seymour Krelboyne (Jonathan Haze) is a clumsy young nebbish who works in a flower shop and who has grown a very unusual new plant, something along like the lines of a Venus flytrap. As it grows, it brings him much fame, and it helps to bolster his confidence. Unfortunately, he finds that the plant is bloodthirsty. Not only that, but it can actually talk as well, and soon it's relentlessly prodding him towards procuring it human victims for sustenance.One of legendary producer / director Roger Cormans' best known and best loved movies, its reputation as The Film Shot in Two Days precedes it, but it's really quite an entertaining little dark comedy gem. It's got a high body count and also takes a very cavalier attitude towards death, giving it a fine edgy quality. The dialogue is just full of malapropisms spouted by some of the characters. It's got a high quotient of solid gags, and the cast simply couldn't be better.Corman stock company player Haze, in *the* big role of his career, is appealing as the put upon Seymour. Jackie Joseph is cute in the role of Seymours' co-worker Audrey, who has inspired him to name the plant Audrey Jr. Mel Welles is great blustery fun as flower shop owner Mr. Mushnick. The great Dick Miller of so many fun Corman movies is hilarious as Burson Fouch, who regularly munches on flowers. Other fine contributions are made by Myrtle Vail as Seymours' hypochondriac mom, who has a devastating idea of what constitutes fine cuisine, Leola Wendorff as Mrs. Shiva, whose family members are always dying, Wally Campo and Jack Warford as the deadpan, 'Dragnet' inspired police detectives, Meri Welles (Mrs. Mel Welles at the time) as the hooker Leonora Clyde, and John Herman Shaner as sadistic dentist Dr. Farb. Viewers will automatically recognize the young Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest film roles; he's a riot as masochistic dental patient Wilbur Force, who's addicted to dental pain. Writer Charles B. Griffith appears on screen as the hold-up man & the screaming man in Farbs' office, and is also the voice of Audrey Jr.The jazzy score by Fred Katz and Ronald Stein is enjoyable and the puppeteering / effects are actually pretty good.This is one production that has definitely transcended the gimmick of originally having been made as a joke. It's a wonderfully loony story that inspired a Broadway musical that itself got filmed in 1986.Eight out of 10.

"The Little Shop of Horrors" is a low budget (almost no budget) film that doesn't fit the fright and terror of the horror genre. It's in a league of somewhat scary flicks that are funny as well. The silly premise here is festooned with farce, parody, puns, sight gags, and horrendously humorous lines. The movie pokes light-hearted fun at all sorts of subjects with impunity. The script subtly and not so-subtly switches between subjects that it knocks. One moment it jabs at an ethnic neighborhood, and the next it pans a phobia of dentists. The cast is mostly unknown outside the industry at the time and a cult following today. One exception is a 23-year-old Jack Nicholson in just his fourth movie. This is a decade ahead of his A-film roles and 15 years ahead of his Oscar performance in "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest." Here he plays Wilbur Force with hilarious aplomb. Nicholson's scene in the dentist's office is one of the funniest of the film, combining dialogue and sight gag. In the waiting room, he's reading an article by a doctor in a magazine: "There were other complications. The man had cancer, tuberculosis, leprosy and a touch of the grippe. I decided to operate." One of my favorite scenes is when Seymour, played by Jonathan Haze, goes home to check on his hypochondriac mother. He walks in the door and we hear the radio from his mother's bedroom. "This is radio KSIK. You've been listening to music for old invalids. Our next selection is entitled, 'Sick Room Serenade.'" Seymour is the source of most of the buffoonery in the film. Many sight gags happen throughout the film, and some go by rather quickly. I caught one in a street scene as the camera was panning toward Mushnick's flower shop. A billboard above the street shops advertised in large letters, "Skidrow Seminary." A sign in the flower shop reads, "We don't letting you spend so much."The names of many characters are wonderful jabs at Hollywood and humanity. Detective Sergeant Joe Fink parodies Joe Friday of the long- running TV police drama, "Dragnet" (1951-1959). But in this film, Joe Fink says "I'm a fink," and his partner is Detective Frank Stoolie. Finks and stoolies were the same thing in the underworld of that day, and the terms still are used today. Mrs. Siddie Shiva is a pun for a Jewish funeral rite. Then there's Hortense Fishtwanger of the Society of Silent Flower Observers of Southern California – the SSFOSC. And, there is Gravis Mushnick, for which I offer one possible generic parody – a producer or lover of serious mushy romance stories. By a wild stretch of the imagination, I can see a clever similarity of this movie with the 1940 big-name film, "The Shop Around the Corner." Who knows what director Roger Corman and writer Charles Griffith had in mind at the time? Or any time?All of this is fun, of course. What makes this movie a true treasure and delight to watch – and listen to, is the witty script. Two characters stand out for their riotously laughable lines and hilarious malapropisms. Jackie Joseph is a hoot as demure Audrey Fulquard. And Mel Welles is over the top hilarious as the bombastic Gravis Mushnick. This is a great piece of comedy film, well worth having in any film library. I encourage viewers to read the IMDb Trivia and Quotes sections. Here are some of my favorite funny lines and malapropisms. The latter are wrong words (or no words) that sound like words that should be used, so that the dialogue is nonsensical and usually very humorous. Gracie Allen was a master of malapropism on the George Burns and Gracie Allen TV show (1950-1958). Mrs. Shiva: "I thought possibly because I give you all my funeral business, that maybe you should possibly give to me a little cut rate." Mushnick: "Look at me, Mrs. Shiva. What am I – a philatelist? To my throat I would be giving a cut."Mushnick, to Seymour: "You're fired!" Audrey, to Mushnick: "Why don't you give him a chance to resurrect himself?"Winifred Krelboyne, reading a medicine bottle label: "If you get hit by a truck, call your physician."Mushnick: "I don't like my house cluttered up with rotten vegetables."Seymour to his mom, Winifred: "Look Ma, I've gotta go. Can I bring you anything?" Winifred: "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bring me the Evening News. They're running a self-diagnosis contest. The winner gets to go to the Mayo Clinic."Seymour: "I gave it (the plant) a name." Mushnick: "What name?" Seymour: "Aw, gee …" Mushnick: "What, you gave it a dirty name that you can't even mention it?"Burson Fouch: "I'll see you tomorrow. I'm crazy about kosher flowers."Audrey to Seymour: "I think you're a fine figurative of a man."Seymour: "Look, Audrey. Isn't he beautiful? Isn't he delicious? Isn't he got a $2 raise? What happened to your fingers?" Seymour: "Bee stings." Mushnick: "All four fingers?" Seymour, holding up both hands: "All 10 fingers."Seymour: "Look at that. It's almost a foot long." Audrey: "Isn't it a spiracle?" Mushnick: "It grows, like a cold sore from the lip."Girl in the flower shop: "Doesn't it have a scientific name?" Mushnick: "Yes, of course. But who could denounce it?"Audrey, to Mushnick: "Try to eat something. It'll calm your agrimation."Seymour: "Ain't that something'?" Audrey: "It's monstrosinous."Seymour: "You kiss good, Audrey." Audrey, "I guess I just have a good kisser."Mushnick: "It's a finger of speech."Mushnick: "Are you hungry?" Audrey: "Sure am. I could eat a hearse."Audrey: "There's a lady from some kind of a comitance outside."Seymour, to his dentist: "It's this tooth, over here." Dr. Farb: "Seymour, who's the dentist here, you or me?"