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Seymour (Jonathan Haze) is the klutzy delivery boy of Mushnick's (Mel
Welles) flower shop, and his klutziness drives his boss to desperation,
so Seymour is always on the brink of getting fired ... until he brings his
boss a new flower which he has grown on his own and which soon enough
attracts a few customers ...
Unfortunately though, the plant soon seems to be dieing, and Seymour
has no idea of how to feed it (water won't work) - until he cuts his
finger, and a few drops of plant fall onto the plant, and that does
the trick.
The next day, the plant has grown to some size and is the center of
interest in the shop, even business starts blooming and lovely shop
clerk Audrey (Jackie Joseph) starts noticing Seymour. The only
inconvenience is that Seymour now has all of his fingers cut ...
But then the plant suddenly starts falling sick again. Seymour just
can't feed it anymore from his own blood (for obvius reason). By accidnet
though he causes a man to run n front of a train (and die, naturally),
then, to not be convicted for murder, brings the body to the flowershop to
hide it ... and suddenly the plant comes in as a Godsend, as it eats the
entire corpse (in pieces though). Thing is, Mushnik spots Seymour feeding
bodyparts to the plant ... and is shocked, but thinking about the good
business the plant has given him, he refrains from going to the police.
and for some part, he Mushnik was even right, the next day, business
is even better ... but that same night, Seymour feeds his sadist dentist
(John Herman Shaner), whom he has accidently killed during treatment, to
the plant, and has to realize to keep his life going well and his
future with Audrey bright, he has to continue feeding the plant.
The next day, two policemen (Wally Campo, Jack Warford) stop by the shop
to look for the missing men, snoop around a little, but find nothing. And
a certain Miss Feuchtwanger (Lynn Storey) of the Silent Flower Watchers
Association shows up and promises to present Seymour with a trophy the
day after tomorrow, when the plants buds open.
Mushnik decides to keep the plant for that long, for publicity, but
decides to keep watch over the üplant himself this night, to prevent
anyone else from being killed. However, that same night, a robber breaks
into the shop and threatens Muchnik, and he can only get rid of him
using the plant (gulp !) ...
Only one more night until he's presented wtih the trophy, Seymur has to
watch the plant again, so he invites Audrey to a picnic in the flower
shop, but the plant's screaming for food (the plant can actually talk)
destroys not only the evening, but possibly the whole relatinship ... then
the plant hypnotizes Seymour into bringing him someone ... who turns out
to be a streetwalker (Meri Welles).
The next evening, in front of a large audience including the police
detectives, Seymour is to be presented with the Trophy while the buds open
... but the open buds show the faces of the people the plant have killed,
and the cops, putting 2 and 2 together, figure they have found their
culprit in Seymour ... but he can escape them in a chase through Skid Row
warehouses ...
Somehow though he ends up inside the plant himself, and one of the
buds opens showing his face ...
Decades before gross-out comedies became en vogue, Roger Corman
presented his audience with this little macabre comedy, which soon
gathered a small cult following ... Little Shop of Horrors however
was of course not the first ever macabre comedy, nor even his first
(Corman shot A Bucket of Blood
back to back with this one and released it earlier), but somehow the
film struck a chord with recipient audiences to grant it longievity, that
would, in the 1980's even lead to a musical adaptation, which in turn was
turned into a multi million Dollar movie by Frank Oz.
The film however does not quite live up to its reputation: Some of the
slapstick humour is rather uninspired and jonathan Haze - a frequent
Corman actor in the 1950's - is not too much of a comedian, and neither
is Jackie Joseph. But on the plus-side the film has several great
supoorting performances, among others of course Mel Welles as Seymour's
boss, Dick Miller as a flower eater, Myrtle Vail as Seymours mother, and a young Jack Nicholson as a devoted masochist who just loves to go to the
dentist. and then there's this apparent cheapness and rushedness
(allegedly the movie was shot in only 2 days) of the film that for some
strange reaason work for it and make it especially endearing.
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