Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

GazerRise Fantastic!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Leofwine_draca LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is another one of the Roger Corman quickies made on the cheap. This one was shot in just two days and it shows. It's got a one-trick storyline, takes place for the most part in a single set, and with a small group of actors involved, many of whom were Corman regulars. It could have been a load of old rubbish but it works and the major reason for that is down to the interesting, original storyline. Griffith's idea is about a sort-of Venus flytrap plant that feeds on human blood rather than flies; in essence this is a vampire story, but with a plant rather than a human. There were lots of 'killer plant' type stories being churned out in the pulp age of weird fiction and this is just like one of them. Corman chooses to play things for laughs and the result is a quirky comedy with lots of surreal humour involved.Many of the laughs come from the bizarre characters in the film. Jonathan Haze is very good as the dim-witted Seymour and Jackie Joseph shines as the beautiful object of his obsession, Audrey. Mel Welles has fun as the larger-than-life flower shop owner and there are great, minor roles for Corman regulars Jack Nicholson (hilarious as a sado-masochist) and Dick Miller (as a guy who loves eating flowers). The special effects of the killer plant are VERY limited but the ending, with the faces of the victims appearing in the blossoms, is imaginative and slightly disturbing. It's not a film that you'll want to watch more than once, and the musical remake vastly outclassed it in terms of budget and technical proficiency, but the skewed, off-kilter comedy and bizarre storyline make it worth a watch.

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?"

AaronCapenBanner Jonathan Haze plays a clumsy young man named Seymour who works in a florist shop run by his cheap boss(played by Mel Welles) To everyone's surprise, Seymour grows an unusual plant that becomes quite popular, which he names Audrey, after his girlfriend. Sadly, Audrey the plant can only survive on blood, so Seymour reluctantly has to provide victims...Bizarre film is a big cult item with many, and certainly has a most offbeat sense of humor, but I found this a stupid, clumsy and grisly comedy with annoying characters and no point at all, especially in its ending. Jack Nicholson does give a most enthusiastic performance in his brief bit that seems dropped in from somewhere else...One funny bit: the "Fink" speech!

alejandrothedirector Before it became a hit musical which was later adapted into the popular 1986 musical film, Little Shop of Horrors was this, a B-movie at it's best. For a film that was shot over the course of a few days, I was impressed by. The cinematography isn't daring because of this, but the film's best asset is in it's style. It's dark and farce at the same time, strangely, the two go well together in this universe. The plot is simple, a boy working in a florist's shop creates a strange plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The more it eats, the stronger and larger it becomes, it even develops the ability to talk and hypnotize people to do it's bidding. I personally am more of a fan of the musical film version, but it's nice to see it's roots. Director Roger Corman does a good job at tying all of it together for it's short production schedule. Hats off to Jack Nicholson, who manages to make a cameo in the film.