Little Shop Of Horrors

Little Shop Of Horrors (Director’s Cut)

Movie musicals are a dying breed nowadays, and many would say rightly so, simply because what you have usually is a simple, nondescript story enhanced only by making the audience believe that they are viewing the events through the prism of an alternate universe where at any given time the characters can actually, literally break out into song (complete with use of instruments and backing vocals) pretty much to hide the fact that there really isn’t much of a story here. Sometimes it can work to an extent with the right actors / performers (Grease is a good example) while other times actually having a good, solid story along with the music is the key to making it all come together beautifully (such as with the movie of The Who’s Tommy), but still a large number of viewers can find themselves put off to just the mere concept that character development and story points can be directly expressed in a movie just through the singing of songs. Possibly one of the most “out there” examples of a musical (that worked) was 1975’s Rocky Horror Picture Show, widely considered the most popular of all midnight cult movies in many ways due to its extremely outre nature, complete with its grimly weird, downbeat ending. Perhaps the only time that Hollywood ever tried to “outdo” Rocky Horror (and nearly succeeded) was this 1986 effort directed by Muppet Man Frank Oz. It certainly had the lineage, having started life as a REALLY ultra low budget B movie directed by Roger Corman in 1960 (featuring a then unknown Jack Nicholson in a small role even as every home media release it has ever been accorded would always try to play him up as being the main star), then in an even crazier development, was adapted for the off Broadway stage in 1982 as a bizarre, long running musical which (like Rocky Horror) featured some pretty catchy songs. The test screenings of the film (faithful to the play) were disastrous, with a downbeat, nihilistic ending where Evil wins even as it is implied that it never would have lost in the first place, and more importantly, was completely tonally inaccurate from the goofy nature of the rest of the film, leading to a “happy ending” reshoot that allowed it to be a big hit and even considered for the Rocky Horror mantle of ultimate cult classic. The story of course sees a mysterious new breed of plant be discovered in a small Skid Row flower shop, one that feeds on blood and eventually can actually talk (and sing) with a proposed plan of world domination while also having a bewitching seductive power over anyone who comes near it. Obviously, it goes without saying that the story is but a mere retelling of the classic tale of Faust, about a man who sells his soul to The Devil in exchange for worldly power and fame (even as The Devil feels no obligation to hold up his end of the bargain after he’s already gotten what he wanted), albeit told in the most campy, corny, over the top kitsch manner possible (even writer Howard Ashman advised Oz to just think of the whole thing as being “stupid”), as The Devil takes on the form of the maneating, jive talking plant (Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops, in one of the most effective voiceover jobs in cinema history) with the Faust role coming in the form of the nerdy, put upon flower shop employee Seymour Krelborn, played by Rick Moranis in another of his par for the course lovable nerd roles of the 80s (a sad typecast considering he was actually capable of far more than that), and it’s here that Moranis’ portrayal and the writing of the film itself proved more fitting for its revised theatrical ending than for the intended one, as Moranis’ Seymour is very much a likable sort who merely wants to have a better life than the sad little existence that he suffers through now, even as the plant (Audrey II) picks up on this and capitalizes completely, although in the theatrical cut it’s difficult to pinpoint where exactly Seymour does “sells his soul” ultimately or how (though it is much clearer towards the end of the Director’s Cut), but even more sympathetic is the ditzy blonde love of Seymour’s life, Audrey, played by Ellen Greene in a bit of a casting coup, as while being little known at the time for her film work, she had played the role of Audrey in numerous performances of Little Shop on stage, and to this day is still considered the definitive actress to have ever played the character, so much so that just this past year (2015), she came back to play the part in a concert revival at age 64 opposite considerably younger actors playing Seymour and the others. Moreso, her Audrey is the heart and soul of the film here, a true innocent whose horribly unfair fate in the Director’s Cut is offset by the happy ending in the Theatrical, in many ways because the actress’ astonished, joyful reaction to it seemed genuine (since she had obviously lived out the tragic version on stage for years), and the amount of talent she showed from bringing Audrey’s whispy, breathless sounding way of speaking into a bombastic, full blooded Broadway quality singing voice is astounding, helping greatly to make her the most popular performer in the play (and the movie). But then there’s Steve Martin riding in out of left field as the crazed, abusive, dentist boyfriend of Audrey’s, unforgettably introduced in the “Dentist!” musical number and playing the part like Elvis Presley on steroids, complete with a severely bad addiction to nitrous oxide laughing gas, making such an indelible impression with such limited screen time that for maybe the only time in his career was Martin being seriously talked about when it came to receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, playing a perfectly hatable yet hilarious heel who gives Seymour his true motivation for feeding his plant simply because of the despicable way he uses and abuses Audrey. Legendary character actor Vincent Gardenia is the least effective of the leads as the shop owner Mushnick, a nasty, unscrupulous boss (who nonetheless had taken in Seymour off the streets) whose performance many times borders on cliché even as many of the Jewish / Yiddish stereotypical elements of the character were greatly toned down from the play itself. The film also features a number of cameos popping up throughout, including Christopher Guest grinning like an idiot as the “first customer”, John Candy as the local DJ who pathetically tries to act “weird” over the radio, Jim Belushi as a fast talking salesman who tries to get Seymour to franchise the Audrey II plant (played in the Director’s Cut by Paul Dooley in a MUCH darker toned scene, as the Belushi version of it was a lot funnier), and most crazy of all, Bill Murray (in the only film role he played between 1984 and 1989) as the nutso pain freak (also played memorably by Nicholson in the 1960 film) who pays a visit on Martin’s dentist in order to “try him out” in one of the most hilariously twisted showdowns between a sadist and a masochist ever in film (with Murray insanely adlibbing his almost delirious ramblings while he gets “worked on”). Finally, we have one of the most effective elements of the story given its Faustian themes, that of a literal “Greek Chorus” consisting of three singing black girls (modeled after the Supremes and other girl groups of the 60s) who are part of all the action but remain unseen by the other characters except when in their normal guises as deglamorized “street urchins” just hanging around all of the time. So what does it all add up to? Well, it’s certainly a loudly colorful, yet quite dark piece that in the intended form actually disturbs quite greatly (with the notion that being fed to the plant is akin to that of a satanic sacrifice, complete with swallowing of souls), but in the theatrical version pulls itself ahead as likably fun and silly fluff, with it not exactly being the butchering of a Shakesperean classic but definitely making it more accessible to a wider audience, with well written and performed songs that delight in their Broadway show tunes type pomposity, a slew of entertaining performances (especially by Stubbs, Greene and Martin), and a style of light hearted camp that does indeed put it right on the doorstep as being the 80s answer to the slightly overrated Rocky Horror…

9/10

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