Little Shop of Horrors **** (1986, Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin) – Classic Movie Review 3,871
Frank Oz’s 1986 movie musical of the off-Broadway stage show based on Roger Corman’s 1960 cult black comedy horror film The Little Shop of Horrors is colourful and winning. Little Shop of Horrors has much to recommend it but Miriam Margolyes was not amused.
Director Frank Oz’s colourful and winning 1986 movie musical of the off-Broadway stage show based on Roger Corman’s 1960 cult black comedy horror film The Little Shop of Horrors is jolly, surreal and just a little bit nasty. Little Shop of Horrors has much to recommend it.
Among its exceptional charms are the fun doo-wop rock score by Howard Ashman (lyrics) and Alan Menken (music), effervescent star Ellen Greene (as squeaky Audrey), Rick Moranis as the nerdy florist Seymour Krelborn who raises a vicious plant that feeds on human blood, Vincent Gardenia as the grumpy florist shop owner Mr Mushnik, Steve Martin in a cameo as the sadistic biker dentist Orin Scrivello, and the wickedly wonderful monster plant puppet (voiced by Levi Stubbs) that all but steals the movie.
Throw in the cameos by James Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Guest and Bill Murray and the witty, satirical script and you have a movie that is a shopful of fun.
It is based on the hit show by writer Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949), also starring Greene in both New York and London. Ashman also writes the screenplay. Menken’s scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards.
Tragically Ashman (May 17, 1950 – March 14, 1991) died of AIDS, aged 40. He won Best Original Song Oscars for Under the Sea (from The Little Mermaid) and Beauty and the Beast (from Beauty and the Beast).
Little Shop of Horrors was filmed on the Albert R Broccoli 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios, England, where a downtown set, complete with overhead train track, was built. The film was produced on a budget of $25 million, compared to the $30,000 cost of the original film.
The film’s original 23-minute finale, based on the musical, was rewritten and reshot after audiences at the preview screenings rejected it. The original ending was available only as black-and-white work print footage until it was fully restored as the director’s cut on DVD in 2012.
The film grossed $38 million at the box office, and was an under-performer in cinemas, but it became a hit on its home video release in 1987.
Miriam Margolyes plays the cynical dental nurse/ secretary to Martin’s psychopathic dentist Orin Scrivello in the film and, in their musical number ‘Dentist!’, Margolyes is punched by Martin’s character, who also slams a door into her face,
Margolyes recalled: ‘I was hit all day by doors opening in my face; repeatedly punched, slapped and knocked down by an unlovely and unapologetic Steve Martin – perhaps he was method acting – and came home grumpy with a splitting headache.. He was undeniably brilliant, but horrid to me.’
The cast are Rick Moranis as Seymour Krelborn, Ellen Greene as Audrey, Vincent Gardenia as Mr. Mushnik, Steve Martin as Orin Scrivello, Levi Stubbs as the voice of Audrey II, Tichina Arnold as Crystal, Michelle Weeks as Ronette, Tisha Campbell as Chiffon, Jim Belushi as Patrick Martin, John Candy as Wink Wilkinson, Christopher Guest as The First Customer, Bill Murray as Arthur Denton, Miriam Margolyes as a Dental Nurse, Stanley Jones as the Narrator, Mak Wilson, Danny John-Jules, Danny Cunningham, Gary Palmer and Paul Swaby as the doo-wop backup singers, Heather Henson (daughter of Jim Henson) as one of Orin’s patients, Vincent Wong as the Chinese Florist, Kerry Shale as a Life magazine assistant, and Bertice Reading as “Downtown” Old Woman.
http://derekwinnert.com/the-little-shop-of-horrors-1960-jonathan-haze-jackie-joseph-mel-welles-dick-miller-classic-movie-review-3870/
© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,871
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