Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
There is just something about campy plant-based horror comedy that I love. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I figured I better get my ass in gear and check out the original Little Shop of Horrors.
It’s an extremely goofy comedy about a flower shop in skid row and the creation of a monster plant, lovingly named Audrey Junior, that develops a taste for human flesh. All the characters have their own unique charm. Sgt. Joe Fink opens the show with some hilarious narration followed by the credits over a hand drawn view of Skid Row. Mushnick, Seymour, and Audrey all seem to work in the flower shop, although I can’t tell what Audrey does other than use the wrong words in sentences constantly. Seymour is a lovable looser who’s last chance is growing a plant when he has never grown a plant before, even though he works in a flower shop. Muschnick is the typical broke business owner who loves everyone when business is good and is a complete cheapskate. Then we have Mrs. Shiva, the poor old lady who comes into the shop every day to buy flowers for a different relative who passes away every day. There is a maniacal dentist whose main purpose seems to be padding out the run time but also manages to be one of the funniest players in the show. This also leads us to a small scene with the little known at the time Jack Nicholson who plays a psychotic funeral director who gets off from the dentist drill. There are a few others to round out the group and it is one hell of a mixed bag. My favorite of the bunch has to be Burson Fouch, for no reason explained he seems to enjoy eating flowers. Literally everyone was fantastic in whatever role they played.
Right from the opening line it is non-stop jokes for the next 71 minutes. Thankfully due to its short run time and clever dialogue it is a lot of fun to watch multiple times. In the four times I’ve watched it this week every single time ive noticed at least one more joke I missed the times before. My favorite part of the movie was a rather small one where we finally meet Joe Fink and his partner Frank. Joe askes Frank how his wife and kids are and Frank mentioned nonchalantly that he lost one of his kids the night before, when Joe asked how he died, Frank replied with “playing with matches” as he lights his cigarette with a match. “Those are the breaks.” Says Joe. “Yeah, I guess so.” says Frank. A short while later, after the police went to investigate the flower shop for murder, Joe and Frank are walking out of the shop and they bump in to Mrs. Shiva who is distraught as usually buying flowers because her nephew Frankie lost his boy playing with matches. “Isn’t it terrible what happened to your boy Frankie?” to which Frank just says, “Those are the breaks.” and he walks away. It’s a perfect example of the little things in the film.
This is easily, without a doubt one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. Everything is so preposterous, it is just so much fun, I’m going to watch it again right now. I can’t wait to check out the musical version with Rick Moranis.