Claudio Carvalho
When the clumsy Seymour Krelboyne (Jonathan Haze) spoils two flowers of a client, the owner of a small florist shop Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles) is ready to fire him. However Seymour tells that he has mixed two plants of different breeds at home and created a hybrid named Audrey Jr. and Mushnick decides to give another chance to his employee. On the next day, Seymour brings Audrey Jr. that becomes the pride and joy of Mushnick, his other employee Audrey Fulquard (Jackie Joseph) and clients. Out of the blue, the flower seems to be dying and Seymour accidentally learns that she likes blood. One day, Seymour is upset since he does not know how to feed the flower and he walks along a railroad. When he throws a stone near a railroad track, he accidentally hits the head of a man that falls on the track and is a train runs over him. Seymour brings the pieces of the man to the shop and finds that the plant likes flesh. On the next morning, Audrey Jr. has grown and become the attraction of the shop. But how will Seymour feed his plant again?"The Little Shop of Horrors" is a cheesy and cult low-budget black comedy directed by Roger Corman. The plot is silly and this film is the debut of Jack Nicholson with a small role. The characters are weird; there are just a few locations; but this film is still funny fifty six years later. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Pequena Loja dos Horrores" ("The Little Shop of Horrors")
LeonLouisRicci
It's Simply Amazing that such a No-Budget Movie could be so Rich in Rewards. This is one of the most Famous Movies in B-Movie History, as it Delivers so much Entertainment that the Mind Boggles while it unfolds in all of its Goofy Glory.The Script, with as much Wit as a Marx Brothers Movie, the Cast who all seem to be having a Hoot of a Time (especially Jack Nicholson), and not the least is Director Roger Corman Making the Most of all the Talent Blessing this Dark and Funny Farce.Roger Corman is a Genius with an Eye for Talent and a Feel for the Zeitgeist of Cultural Significance, made Schlock Movies Respectable and Fun. With this one He Displayed what can be done with Intelligence and a Love for the Craft.Much has Been Written about the Movie and for Detailed Analysis about this Cult Film it is suggested that interested Fans Research the Goldmine of Material available. The Movie was made on the Ultra-Cheap but the Movie Never Looks Cheap, Just Minimal. The Design of the Limited Sets are Classy and Not Clumsy.Deserves its Place in the History of Cinema along with the Legendary Director and is Very Funny and Pitch-Black with its Sadistic and Masochistic Word-Play and Tone. A Good-Natured, extremely Self-Aware Masterpiece of the Macabre that Surprises Viewers that go into this Thing Thinking it's going to be Bad. The Jokes on Them and the Jokes Never Stop and make this Surreal Gem Primitive Art at its Best.
SimonJack
"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?"
