THE LITTLE SHOP Of HORRORS - Kooky characters, Macabre music and CAMP on the CHEAP!
Corman never believed that the film would be profitable after its first run, so he never bothered to get a copyright. As a result of which, The Little Shop of Horrors [1960] has been in public domain ever since. David, Pierce (June 2007). "Forgotten Faces: Why
Some of Our Cinema Heritage Is Part of the Public Domain". Film
History: An International Journal. 19 (2): 125–43.
The Little Shop of Horrors was filmed in two days and one night, after three days of cast rehearsal. Corman's budget, at the wrap, was only $28,000! Money saving tactics in production included: Persuading the use of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company an evening's use of their train yard for two bottles of scotch. The railroad crew also assisted with a shot, by backing the locomotive into the scene. They were able to convince 'winos' to appear as extras on film for ten cents each and a group of children were paid five cents each to run out of a subway tunnel. The exterior location shots ended up costing a mere $1,100 and included $279 for rental equipment. Much of the exterior was actually shot in downtown LA's Skid Row, where the story takes place. The most bizarre borrowing for Little Shop filming was a funeral home's donation of a hearse and coffin - complete with a real corpse! [imdb]
The Characters
The main story of The Little Shop of Horrors takes place in Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles) Mushnick's Florist Shop, which is staffed by Seymour Krelboined (Jonathon Haze) and Audrey Fulquard (Jackie Joseph).
Screenwriter Charles B. Griffith wrote the ninety eight page script in TWO days. Not surprisingly, he and his family also have small roles in this low budget horror comedy!
Relatives play roles too...
Charles' uncredited roles include - the voice of Audrey Jr, Screaming Patient, and Kloy Haddock ('hold up man' pictured below).
Griffith's grandmother, Myrtle Vail, appeared as Winifred Krelboined - Seymour's hypochondriac mother. Vail was known for her work in Vaudeville, radio (writer and actress for a long running soap opera Myrt and Marge) and film.
Several of Griffith's relatives were placed in crowd scenes. Even his father made a cameo appearance as Agony Lush, a 'schnockered' dental patient!
On to the KOOKY ...
Mushnick's Florist has a constant stream of regular (albeit irregular) customers on any given day in his shop.
Burston Fouch (Dick Miller), a customer with a real appetite for flowers.
"I've got to go home. My wife's making gardenias for dinner." (The actor genuinely ATE the flowers!)
Mrs. Siddie Shiva (Leola Wendorff) Her name is a fun pun for 'sitting shiva,'
which is a Jewish funeral tradition that encompasses seven days of mourning for the dead.
Siddie, is in Mushnick's shop daily, due to her unlucky and ever expiring relatives.
Wilbur Force - Jack Nicholson makes a cameo as a dental patient addicted to pain.
Officer Frank Stoolie (Jack Warford) and Sergeant Joe Fink (Wally Campo)
Their names were a play on 'stool pigeon and informant.' The characters themselves and their narration/dialogue style was a direct takeoff on Dragnet's Joe Friday and Frank Smith.
Mrs. Hortense Feuchtwanger (Lynn Storey) - a representative from the Silent Flower Observers of Southern California (sidebar about her name - Leon Feuchtwanger was a German Jewish novelist and playwright)
Lastly ... the MUSIC ...
Fred Katz was given credit for the film's score.
Katz was a cellist and a composer - one of the first jazz musicians to incorporate the cello into jazz music. He was best known for his musical contribution to Chico Hamilton's quintet, a veryimportant West Coast Jazz group of the 1950's.
Fred Katz's musical partnership with Roger Corman covered seven "B" horror films - some of which include, The Wasp Woman, A Bucket of Blood and Creature From the Haunted Sea. It is said that Katz sold the 'same music' to Corman as if it was new. [wiki]
During his lifetime, Katz served as a composer, songwriter, conductor, teacher (holding scholarships and fellowships in cello and piano), and music director. He has over twenty film music credits and over twenty recording credits.
Among the list of musicians/groups that benefited from his musical direction was U.S. Seventh Army Headquarters, Lena Horne and Frankie Laine. Katz was a professor of ethnic music at the University of San Fernando. [imdb]
and, the uncredited... Ronald Stein.
Ronald Stein was also a composer for The Little Shop of Horrors, but was not given credit for his work on this film. Stein was a composer, pianist and author. He received his education at Washington University, the Yale School of Music and the University of Southern California. Stein's first piano teacher was his mother, who was a pianist in a silent movie theater. Through his mother, he began a love for film and film music.*
He had an extensive career as a horror film composer during the 1950's - 1960's, with over seventy six film credits to his name as composer. Stein had an additional thirty some credits on films as music supervisor, conductor and even composer of stock music - eleven of which gave no credit for his work.
(Why was SO much work UNcredited during this time period?? I cannot find any information on the artist used for the title credits either!)
I digress..
Stein's work in films and television took him into 1980. He taught music composition at the California State University, Northridge. During the 1980's, Stein taught composition, arranging, orchestration and theory at the University of Colorado Denver. Sadly, Ronald Stein was only fifty eight when he passed away in 1988 to pancreatic cancer.
*[Washington University of St. Louis - Gaylord Music Library Special Collections]
"I usually go to the theater to see the films that I've scored just to see if what I've accomplished came out the way it should be for the effect on the audience."
[imdb]
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