It's October, and Halloween is again among us. This month we will feature columns of freight, terror, and horror for your chilly amusement. We will journey to Collinwood for the Dark Shadows original movies, look back at Hitchcock's The Birds and you can "strap yourselves in" for terror with Baby Jane and Dead Ringer. We begin with Little Shop of Horrors.
Who would ever have thought that a story about a flesh-eating plant would become so popular? From a cheaply produced film directed by Roger Corman in 1960, to a successful stage run of over 2,000 performances to a musical film that has become a treasured favorite, Little Shop of Horrors became more successful than it's original 1960 movie-team could ever imagine. Now, Warner Brothers has completely restored the film as its director Frank Oz intended, including adding the controversial 20-minute "alternate" ending that caused a recall when the film was original released on DVD. The film is a delight and thanks to Warner Brothers (and finding original color negatives for the original ending) we can now view the film as it was released theatrically and as it was originally intended by the original creative team. Added later: I had the chance to watch this disc tonight. I give my hats off to Warner Brothers for such a fantastic presentation, the sound (wow!) and picture were incredible. This is a must-own!
The Geffen Company produced this Frank Oz Film, Little Shop of Horrors, released by The Geffen Company through Warner Bros. Directed by Frank Oz, the monster musical comedy stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene and Vincent Gardenia, with a special appearance by Steve Martin and cameo appearances by John Candy, James Belushi. and Christopher Guest. The screenplay and lyrics were written by the late Howard Ashman and the music composed by Alan Menken, who collaborated on the off-Broadway and London stage hit on which the movie is based.
Mushnikfs Flower Shop is the sleaziest floral store on Skid Row. Wilting corsages, dark brown greenery and bums sprawled in the doorway add credence to the deep-rooted belief that whatever it is that lures people downtown isn1t flowers. With business drooping lower than his Creeping Charlie, Mushnik has decided to throw in the towel and lay off his only two employees, the klutzy orphan Seymour and brave, blonde, battered Audrey. Then Seymour purchases a strange and interesting plant from an ancient Mandarin during a total eclipse of the sun. And business blooms. Customers converge on the shabby premises, attracted by the odd potted pod in the window. Christening his prize Audrey II in honor of his secret love, Seymour showers it with mulch, gro-light and affection. But, as it develops, there's only one type of nourishment that Audrey II craves--and it's not available at your local nursery!
The 1960 Version
Roger Corman is the undisputed king of the low-budget B-movie, and Little Shop of Horrors, produced and directed by Corman, is one of the lowest-budget quickies of them all. Principal photography was completed in just two days, before the sets - built for another movie that had just finished filming - were torn down. Total budget: $27,000. Perhaps most amazing, however, is that the end result is really a very good film which has become a cult classic. It's a black comedy, and a very funny one.
Roger Cormon
Bumbling Seymour Krelboyne, played by Jonathan Haze, accidentally cross-breeds a plant that needs human blood to survive. The plant, resembling a large Venus Flytrap, opens at night to be fed, demanding, "Feeeeed me!" It is interesting to note that Charles B. Griffith not only wrote the screenplay, but he also stars uncredited as the screaming dental patient that runs out of Dr. Farb's office, the burglar that breaks into the flower shop, and even the voice of Audrey Jr.
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A young Jack Nicholson even has a small role as a masochist who looks forward to his visit with the aforementioned dentist. It was released on August 5, 1960 in 35mm mono with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Most of it was filmed around the Chaplin studios and Central City East in Los Angeles. Roger Corman would shoot scenes with two cameras rolling at once while placed at different angles. He rarely shot re-takes and spent little time on lighting scenes. The original 1960 version of Little Shop of Horrors has already been released on Blu-ray by Legend, and includes the fully restored black-and-white version, plus a colorized version.
Broadway poster for the Westwood Playhouse
On Broadway
The stage hit, which has since blossomed into a perennial, was inspired by Roger Connan's "Grade Z" horror film of the same title. Shot in 1960 on an unbelievable schedule of two days and a night (largely because Corman was offered a storefront left over from another movie), Little Shop of Horrors went on to become a cult classic. It was also notable for the brief, bizarre appearance of relative newcomer Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient. This musical was the third longest-running and highest grossing show in Off-Broadway history. The Off-Broadway production opened in 1982 on May 6 at the Workshop of the Players' Art (WPA) Theatre. It opened off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theatre on July 27, 1982. and closed on November 1, 1987 after 2,209 amazing performances.
Original Off-Broadway poster.
Since it was an off-Broadway production, it was not eligible for the Tony Awards. A London West End production opened on January 1, 1983 at the Comedy Theatre, produced by Cameron Mackintosh. It ran for 813 performances. The musical finally made its Broadway debut at the Virginia Theatre on October 2, 2003 with a cast including Foster as Seymour, Kerry Butler as Audrey, Rob Bartlett as Mr. Mushnik, Douglas Sills as Orin, Michael Leon Wooley as the voice of Audrey II and DeQuina Moore as Chiffon. Although this was the first time it had played on Broadway, the show's success in film and numerous regional productions made it fall under the "Revival" category for the 2003 Tony Awards. Foster was nominated for a 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance.
Ellen Greene in the New York production.
A Saturday morning animated cartoon version, titled Little Shop, ran for one season on Fox Kids in 1991. Seymour and Audrey were depicted as teenagers, and the plant, "Audrey Junior", was not man-eating or evil, but had a huge appetite for meat and retained its catchphrase, "Feed me!" Each episode also featured two stylish music video sequences, many of which were raps by the plant.
Animated series on Fox Kids 1991
New York theatre critics gave the stage production of "Little Shop of Horrors" a blue ribbon reception. The New Yorker's Edith Oliver hailed it as "a musical comedy that is both musical and comic... full of surprises and marvelous effects." Richard Corliss in Time magazine welcomed "a carnivore with its own intimidating charm" which "envelops the stage and (gasp!) most of the audience." Winning the Drama Critics-Circle, Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Awards as the season's best musical, the show spawned an American touring company (which on occasion still re-tours and revives on Broadway), a two-year London run, and productions in France, Scandinavia, Israel, Japan, Germany, Australia and Iceland. When it debuted off-Broadway, The New York Times declared Little Shop of Horrors "a fiendish musical creature feature...as entertaining as it is exotic."
Original New York Playbill.
The film musical
With the acquisition of the screen rights by the David Geffen Company, the voracious Venus people-trap had blossomed thrice. Geffen's goal was to fuse the elements of the original story and the show into its own unique entity. The time-frame, he decided, would remain intact. Downtown, it is still 1960. Here, Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis) toils slavishly for Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia), who plucked him as a tyke from the Skid Row Home for Homeless Boys. In his basement bedroom, where he raises exotic foliage, Seymour pines for Audrey (Ellen Greene), the lithe, blonde salesgirl with the Betty Boop voice and cinema noir wardrobe. But Audrey is literally a prisoner of love. Her steady crush--in more ways than one--is Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin), a biker dentist whose delight for burning rubber is only exceeded by his joy for inflicting pain. When he isn't giving root canals a bad name or getting high on his own nitrous oxide, Scrivello spends most of his time putting Audrey in traction.
Audrey II
One night, in the depths of Mushnikfs cellar, Seymour pricks his finger on a rose — and Audrey II gets her first slurp of RH negative. Audrey II grows. Seymour grows anemic. Audrey II demands more sticky, licky sweets. Seymour buys more Band-Aids. If Mushnik's prosperity and his exhausted errand boy are both to survive, fresh blood must be added to the floral food chain... David Geffen original wanted Steven Spielberg to exexutive-produce the film with Martin Scorsese directing. Scorsese wanted to shoot the film in 3D, which was unpopular at the time. John Landis was also approached to direct the film. Frank Oz was just finishing "The Muppets Take Manhatten" when the directing job fell into his lap. Frank at first rejected the project because he felt it was too "stagy." He re-worked some of the script and turned down Geffen's proposal for Cyndi Lauper to star.
Frank Oz (center) with the cast.
For director Frank Oz, the challenge of Little Shop of Horrors was "deceptive." The project, he said, "looked simple, but wasn't. If we played it too camp, the audience wouldn't care about the characters. If we were too straight, we'd veer toward melodrama." What evolved was what Oz calls "heightened reality." In opening the stage show to encompass the littered alleyways, decrepit tenements and end-of-the-line elevated train of Mushnikfs neighborhood, he and Oscar-winning production designer Roy Walker created a fantasy Skid Row. But within the sprawling set--which consumed every square inch of Pinewood Studios' "007" stage (the largest in the world)--0z also sought a certain "intimacy." "I didn't want to balloon it into a musical 'War and Peace' or even a big, splashy '40s extravaganza," said the director. "There are no dizzying overhead crane shots. No irrelevant dance numbers. Nothing to overwhelm what is basically the simple story of a boy, a girl and a man-eating plant." Several production numbers, however, display amusing affection for film lore. The hollow-eyed vagrants, shuffling through the gutters "of "Downtown" recall Busby Berkeley's Depression-era classic, "My Forgotten Man." "Somewhere That's Green" is a paean to the suburban never-never land of scores of movies and '60s sitcoms.
Original Warner Brothers call sheet
Within the "heightened reality," Oz and Geffen gathered a colorfully incongruous cast. Seymour is played by Rick Moranis, one of the Canadian Second City troupe's non-fraternal "McKenzie Brothers," who breezed through "Ghostbusters" as Sigourney Weaver's randy next-door nebbish. His "Little Shop..." role as a botanical body snatcher required "more straight acting than anything I'd done before," said Moranis. "But the real attraction was the chance to sing. Until now, I'd been limited mostly to parody. Ellen Greene, on the other hand, knew the role of Audrey "like a second skin," having played it for two years--in New York, Los Angeles and London. (Time magazine praised her portrayal of "a sweet, sexy, slightly dizzy blonde with an Elmer Fudd lisp, wittle-girl wiles" and a voice that "buckles theatre walls.") This has always been one of my main complaints of many of the musicals of the 1960's and whatever was made in the early 1970's, get the original cast, the people who know the role and have played it sometimes thousands of times, and people who can sing. This was a wise casting choice for the character.
On the set, Rick Moranis
Her character, commented Greene, first came into focus during costume fittings for the off-Broadway show. "We went through about five wigs before Audrey became a cornsilk blonde," she explained. Next came the low-cut leopard skin dresses, stiletto heels and jangling of the B-movie heroines who were Audrey's role models. Vincent Gardenia insists that he was chosen as Mushnik because "Frank Oz liked my name." The Naples-born actor, who began his career as a teenager playing old men in New York's Italian theatre, called Mushnik "a symphony of frustration. He's a man trying to cling to the past despite the depravity building around him and is always very frustrated to make ends meet."
U.S. Poster
At the "root" of much of that depravity is Steve Martin's Doctor Scrivello. (Call him anything other than "Doctor and he'll joyfully rip your eyeteeth out.) As the leather-clad "leader of the plaque," Scrivello parks his Harley Davidson, dons surgical whites and bounces from room to room in his "one patient-no waiting" office armed with a variety of evermore alarming implements. Martin claims that Scrivello makes Lawrence Olivier's sadistic oral surgeon in "Marathon Man" look like a public benefactor. Scattered through Little Shop of Horrors are cameos by several well-known comedic actors. Renewing his Second City rapport with Rick Moranis, John Candy plays Wink Wilkenson, the one-man radio station who introduces Skid Row listeners to "the weirdest stuff" in the world--like Seymour Krelborn's incredible plant. "Spinal Tap's" Christopher Guest is the first customer to put his money down for a magnetic Audrey II. James Belushi is a huckster with a plan to cross-pollinate her cuttings.
Cinefantastique Magazine cover.
Among the inspired notions of the stage musical was a "Greek chorus" of three teenaged girls who sashayed through the action in perfect harmony and street-smart cynicism... like Skid Row Supremes.
To find the film's trio, auditions were held in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, D.C. and London. Out of more than a thousand hopefuls tested, the youngsters chosen for their vocal power and brash energy were 18-year-old Michelle Weeks as Ronette, 16-year-old Tichina Arnold as Crystal and 17-year-old Tisha Campbell as Chiffon. With the trio assembled, there was still one character left to be cast: Audrey II. The challenge of creating a plant like nothing ever seen on this planet," who would talk, sing and bite the hand that feeds her, was entrusted to Lyle Conway. An acknowledged animatronics wizard, Conway worked with Oz (and Jim Henson) on "The Muppet Show" and "The Dark Crystal," and had designed the enchanting Lewis Carroll character for Dennis Potter's "Dream Child."
Setting up a scene, shown is Audrey II.
Conway began the project with an "inspirational" field trip to London's famous botanical Eden, Kew Gardens. "I felt that at each stage of her development, Audrey II should have a distinct look. The 'baby' plant resembles a rosebud with lips modeled after Ellen Greene's. Then she grows... and grows more monstrous." Conway next turned to the Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell, England, for technical advice on creating a core which would support and control the creature. "The scientists there saw it as a game, a pleasant break from their top-security work. They were immensely helpful," he said . "Size," continued Conway "is the downfall of most mechanical marvels. Small creatures are relatively easy. Big ones suffer from gravity. Our challenge was to take something twelve and a half feet tall, weighing slightly more than one ton, and make it rap and boogie with a life of its own."
Japanese poster.
One aspect which concerned director Oz was Audrey II's lip synching. "It had to be perfect," said Conway. "Frank didn't want big, flapping hamburger buns." To get the right effect took as many as forty puppeteers. By the time Conway's work was finished, he'd gone through 15,000 hand-made leaves, 2,000 feet of vine, several hundred gallons of KY Jelly and 11 1/2 miles of cable. ("Just slightly more cable than was used to build the Brooklyn Bridge," he said) But Audrey II was only half-alive. Still to come was the character's voice, performed by Levi Stubbs, an original member of the Four Tops.
Said musical director Robby Merkin: "If I die tomorrow, working with Levi will get me into heaven. Here's a modest, consummate pro who has been singing for thirty years in a group that changed the face of popular music. "He can sing anything, any way you ask him. We showed him what the plant would look like and a light bulb went on in his head. From then on, he was the plant." Combining the film's diverse elements into a hothouse of horrors began long before a camera turned. The first phase of the process was in the hands of production designer Roy Walker, an Academy Award winner for "Barry Lyndon," a nominee for "Yentl," and a subject of critical acclaim for his work with Roland Joffe on "The Killing Fields."
French poster.
The "Little Shop of Horrors" storyboards were the work of Mike Ploog, who graduated from Marvel Comics (where he drew "Conan," "The Werewolf" and "Planet of the Apes"... "anything with hair on it") to films like "Superman II" and "Young Sherlock Holmes." In creating his imaginary Skid Row, complete with "working" elevated train, Walker remained a stickler for detail. Set decorator Tessa Davies was dispatched to New York, on a scavenger hunt to find gas meters, soap boxes, doorknobs, street signs and hundreds of stage props, circa I960. The oddest item on Davies' shopping list were garbage cans from that era—complete with authentic garbage. "They had to be genuine and they had to be old," she said. "I went around the streets in a truck loaded with new garbage cans, offering to trade them for used ones. People thought I was crazy. I suspect I got away with it only because I was a foreigner."
Simultaneously, costume designer Marit Allen was rummaging through thrift shops, with the same sixties flavor in mind. "What helped was that the principals all had a definite idea of how they should dress," she said. Ellen Greene wanted "clothes that suggested cast-offs from Kim Novak and Rita Hayworth. We agreed that there would be a point in the story where her image would change. When she falls in love with Seymour, she goes from red, black and leopard to softer shades." Rick Moranis' wardrobe was designed to "help Seymour bridge the credibility gap, somewhere between a nerdy loser and a shy, appealing guy." Steve Martin was "discreet in his taste in black leather... more Elvis Presley than Hell's Angels." Within the complex interweaving of humor, music, fantasy, horticulture, set design, special effects, choreography, puppetry and the ultimate threat to civilization, the core of the movie is its characters, said Oz. "They have to be people you believe in... people you laugh with, not at."
About the Cast
As Seymour Krelborn, a fledgling Faust on Skid Row, Rick Moranis moves downtown from the Central Park penthouse he occupied in "Ghostbusters." In that #1 comedy hit of 1984, he was the party animal who threw wild bacchanals across the hall from Sigourney Weaver, unaware that her Mid-Manhattan apartment was being repossessed—by dead spirits. Playing New Yorkers of any stripe is no greater surprise to Toronto-born Moranis than the fact that he is an actor at all. "I always thought show business was for Americans," he said with his trademark sly grin. "I didn't realize Canadians could get involved." In fact, he began his career as a radio engineer while he was still in high school.
Rick Moranis publicity still
Although it was only part-time, it offered Moranis an unlooked-for opportunity: after consistently writing funny one-liners for his deejay friends, he was given his own show, and soon became a popular on-air personality. Seguing into cabaret comedy, Moranis performed in Toronto nightclubs, then moved into Canadian television. After several years of writing and performing, he was asked to join "Second City Television" in its third season. When the satirical comedy show was picked up by an American network, it not only won an Emmy but also brought Moranis national recognition. In solo shots on "SCTV," Moranis earned special acclaim for his comedic portrayals of such personalities as Woody Allen and Dick Cavett, and won Emmys for comedy writing in 1981 and 1982.
Rick Moranis publicity still.
With Dave Thomas he created the McKenzie Brothers (Bob and Doug)--beer-guzzling philosophers from the Canadian north woods, whose goofy antics became an "SCTV" mainstay. When the "McKenzie Brothers" made an album, it won a Grammy nomination. When they made their screen bow, it was as the stars, co-writers and co-directors of "Strange Brew"--the top-grossing Canadian film of 1983. Moranis has since appeared in "Streets of Fire" and "Club Paradise," as well as "Ghostbusters." He was especially successful in "Honey, I shrunk the Kids."
Rick Moranis, Vincent Gardenia and Ellen Greene publicity still.
Even though she wanted Audrey to "be ripe enough to fall off a tree," Ellen Greene insisted there was something "playful and kittenish about her... she's a child/woman you fall in love with because of her imperfections." That Greene knows her character inside out is to be expected. She played Audrey for two years on stage—18 months in Los Angeles and off-Broadway, and six months in London's West End. A native New Yorker, whose grandfather was in the Yiddish theatre, she always knew she wanted to be a performer . Although her father was a dentist, one brother a doctor and the other a lawyer, her education-oriented family didn't stand in her way when she started calling on casting agents after finishing high school. She finally landed a gig at Reno Sweeney's, a cabaret club on 13th Street, where she played piano, sang and bantered and earned strong enough reviews to move up to off-Broadway.
Ellen Greene on the cover of Cinefex
With the New York Shakespeare Festival, Greene appeared in David Rabe's "In the Boom Boom Room," "Sorrows of Stephen," "Wake Up, It's Time to Go To Bed" and "Stage Directions." She made her Broadway bow in the title role of "Rachel Lily Rosenbloom and Don't You Ever Forget It" then appeared in "The Nature and Purpose of the Universe," "Teeth and Smiles" and opposite Michael York in "The Little Prince and the Aviator." Her performance as Jenny in "Threepenny Opera" brought her a Tony nomination. After making tier motion picture debut in Paul Mazursky's "Next Stop, Greenwich Village," Greene played Jill Clayburgh's friend in "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can." "Little Shop of Horrois" marked her third film.
Cast studio photo.
When Mr. Mushnik, the flower shop owner, gives Audrey some fatherly advice, "A date gives you a corsage, not a multiple fracture"--he is simply acting in character. According to Vincent Gardenia, who portrays him, Mushnik is a man of Old World manners, trying to cope with the craziness and cruelty around him." A veteran character actor in films, theatre and television, Gardenia was born in Naples, Italy in 1922, and played his first role at the age of five in Brooklyn, where his family settled after emigrating.
Vincent Gardenia
Graduating from juvenile to leading roles in New York's Italian theatre, the growing Gardenia was in his mid-30s when he began his professional career in earnest. His breakthrough came with off-Broadway's "The Man With the Golden Am the 1954 shocker about drug addiction. After enhancing his reputation with "The Brothers Karamazov," "The Visit," "Death of a Salesman" and "A View From the Bridge," Gardenia won the coveted Tony for his performance in Neil Simon's bittersweet "The Prisoner of Second Avenue." He followed up with roles in three more Simon plays "God's Favorite" (written especially for him), "Plaza Suite" and "California Suite." He appeared on Broadway in the 1984-85 hit, "Glengarry Glen Ross."
Interestingly enough, Gardenia, who emanates an easy Italian warmth, had alternated between softies and coldblooded killers in his screen career. He made his bow in"Cop Hater" in 1958, appeared in "Murder Inc" and played mobster Dutch Schultz in "Mad Dog Coll." But he won his Oscar nomination for his crusty, kindly baseball team manager in 1973's "Bang the Drum Slowly." Other films include "Death Wish," "The Front Page" with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and "Heaven Can Wait," with Warren Beatty.
Movie merchandise.
His close-cropped hair is hidden under a black wig that recalls the glory that was "Grease" and his sunshine smile is twisted into a sadistic leer. But as Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. (Doctor of De Sade), Steve Martin has a role he can sink his teeth into. One of the outstanding comics of the past 15 years, Martin has won Emmys for his television work, Grammys for his record albums, and an Oscar nomination for his screen bow as "The Absent Minded Waiter," a 1978 short film. Born in Waco, Texas, he was raised in Southern California, where he sold Disneyland guidebooks at 10, and did magic and comedy routines at Knott's Berry Farm in his teens. After earning his degree in Theatre Arts from UCLA, Martin, then 21, entered television as a writer on the popular "Smothers brothers Show" (his first Emmy). He soon added such clients as Sonny and Cher, Pat Paulsen, Glen Campbell and John Denver to his list, but by the late 1960s began performing his own material. After serving as the opening act for musical groups like the Carpenters and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Martin hit his stride through frequent appearances on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show," and other TV guest shots. Expressions like "Excuuuuuuse me" and "I'm a wild and crazy guy" became part of the language.
Steve Martin publicity still.
Martin's career soon encompassed his own television specials, soId-out concerts and gold-plated comedy albums. His first two--"Let's Get Small" and "Wild and Crazy Guy"--won Grammys, while "Comedy is Not Pretty" and "King Tut" sold in the millions. With "The Jerk," which he co-wrote, Martin moved into feature films in 1979. He starred in the innovative "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," the sci-fi spoof "The Man With Two Brains," the provocative "Pennies From Heaven," as Lily Tomlin's haunted other half in "All of Me," in the remake of "Father of the Bride" and took over the role of Inspector Cleseau in "The Pink Panther." Following Little Shop of Horrors, Martin started shooting "Roxanne," a screenplay he wrote for Columbia Pictures. Directed by Fred Schepisi and produced by Daniel Melnick and Michael Rachmil, Martin starred with Daryl Hannah, Rick Rossovich, Shelley Duvall and Fred Willard.
Bill Murray
Underscoring the dramatic twists of plot and fate in Little Shop of Horrors are Ronette, Crystal and Chiffon, a trio of street urchins played by Michelle Weeks, Tichina Arnold and Tisha Campbell. All were native New Yorkers, who knew each other either from school or from appearing in such musicals as "Sing Mahalia Sing," "The Me Nobody Knows" and "Mama, I want to Sing." Michelle, who plays Ronette, at 18 the oldest and "toughest" of the three, began singing at four and acting at 14. She completed a run in the starring role of Emma in "The Tap Dance Kid" just before filming Little Shop of Horrors. Sixteen-year-old Tichina, whose Crystal is the youngest and "most talkative," was a student at New York's Music and Art High School. She began acting at 11, when she appeared on stage in "The Me Nobody Knows." She planned to study psychology at college. Tisha, who plays 17-year-old Chiffon, "the shy one," is the only member of the trio who came from a theatrical family. At 5 she won a car in a talent show, and has since appeared in various musical shows, including "Mama, I Want To Sing" and "Really Rosie." She is a student at Arts High in New Jersey.
Michelle Weeks, Tichina Arnold and Tisha Campbell
Short but sparkling contributions to Little Shop of Horrors are made by John Candy, James Belushi and Christopher Guest. As radio announcer Weird Wink Wilkenson, John Candy puts his considerable heft through quick character changes, relying on voice and sound effects to fool his listeners. It's childs play for the Toronto-born Candy, who first gained recognition in television's "SCTV," where he impersonated (with precision) such out-sized stars as Orson Welles, Diving and Luciano Pavarotti. He also won two Emmys for his writing contributions. Candy made his film debut as an extra in "Class of 44," but quickly found his metier in such hugely successful comedies as "The Blues Brothers," "Stripes," "National Lampoon's Vacation" and "Splash." He co-starred in "Brewster's Millions," "Volunteers" and "Armed and Dangerous." One of his most memorable roles what that of "Uncle Buck." Candy died in March of 1994 at the young age of 43.
John Candy publicity still.
Portraying a high-powered entrepreneur who plots to get his cut from Audrey II's cuttings is James Belushi, who won wide acclaim as Bernie Litko in "About Last Night." (The character, a crudely endearing sexist, was originally performed by Belushi in David Mamet's "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," the Obie-winning play on which "About Last Night" is based.) Born and raised in Chicago, Belushi graduated from the University of Illinois and spent two years with the city's fertile Second City troupe before signing on as the Pirate King in Joseph Papp's touring production of "The Pirates of Penzance." Following the show to Broadway, Belushi remained in New York for a two-year stint on television's "Saturday Night Live," then returned to his hometown for "Sexual Perversity." After making his film debut in "Thief," he played, a cameo in "Trading Places," starred in "The Man With One Red Shoe," and co-starred as a rock 'n roll deejay in "Salvador."
James Belushi (left) with Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene.
Christopher Guest, the customer who gets rose fever from Audrey II, is a native New Yorker who studied clarinet at the High School of Music and Art, then began his career as a National Lampoon satirist. After several years of "Lampooning" as both writer and performer—59 radio shows, three-Grammy-nominated albums, the off-Broadway hit, "Lemmings," Guest won an Emmy for co-writing television's "Lily Tomlin Special," in which he also co-starred. As a television actor, Guest has ranged from comedy to drama, scoring as Jeb Magruder in "Blind Ambition," opposite Bette Davis in "A Piano for Mrs. Cimino," and in the long-running series "Laverne & Shirley" and "All in the Family." In addition to portraying rock star Nigel Tufnel in Rob Reiner's hit film, "This Is Spinal Tap," Guest has appeared on screen in "The Long Riders," "Girlfriends" and "Heartbeeps."
The Filmmakers
Director Frank Oz was carving a unique niche for himself in motion pictures. For Jim Henson's Muppets, he performs Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Cookie Monster, Bert and Grover. As an actor, he appeared in brief but telling roles in "The Blues Brothers," "Trading Places" and "An American Werewolf in London" before making an overnight folk-hero, and Time cover-boy, of Yoda, the wrinkled, lovable Jedi sage in "The Empire Strikes Back." As a filmmaker, Oz served as producer (with David Lazer) on the Muppets' second movie, "The Great Muppet Caper," co-directed "The Dark Crysta1" with Jim Henson, then made his solo directing bow with "The Muppets Take Manhattan."
Hanging sign for theatre lobbies.
Producer David Geffen, an entertainment entrepreneur whose involvements range from records and films to Broadway shows and talent management, began his career in 1964 in the mail room of the William Morris talent agency. Four years later, with agency co-worker Elliot Roberts, he formed Geffen-Roberts Management which shortly represented such clients as Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Neil Young and Jackson Browne. In 1971, Geffen formed his own label, Asylum Records. He later merged the company with Elektra to form Elektra/ Asylum, which soon became a recognized leader in the music industry, with such artists as The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Queen, Carly Simon and Bob Dylan, among others. In 1975, Geffen was named Vice Chairman of Warner Bros.' film division, a post in which he was responsible for the successful pictures "Oh, God!," "The Late Show" and "Greased Lightning." From 1976 through 1979, Geffen taught a course on the music business at UCLA and Yale University, and, in 1980, was appointed by Governor Brown to the Board of Regents of the University of California.
David Geffen
In 1980, he returned full-force to the music industry with the formation of his own Geffen Records, with such top talents as John Lennon/Yoko Ono, Donna Summer, Elton John and Peter Gabriel on the label. The ' 80s also marked Geffen's entrance into theatrical productions, such as the smash hit "Dreamgirls," the Tony Award winning New York production "Cats," and the Dramatist Guild-winning "Little Shop of Horrors." His other notable theatrical efforts included "Master Harold and the Boys" and the Shakespeare Company's "Good." The '80s also brought Geffen's renewed involvement with motion pictures with formation of The Geffen Film Company. Under his personal guidance, Geffen's film arm has brought to the screen the controversial drama of two young women athletes contending for Olympic gold in "Personal Best," the immensely-successful Tom Cruise,-starring youth comedy "Risky Business," Albert Brooks' well-received yuppy dropout film "Lost In America" and Martin Scorsese's critically-heralded comedy-drama "After Hours." Geffen launched the new Broadway play "Social Security," toplining Mario Thomas and Ron Silver. He then became part owner of the new company Dreamworks, co-owned by Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
A very "adult" film was released in 1973 that stated "A middle-aged man buys a plant with a sexy voice that develops a craving for insects, frogs, dogs, humans." A sexier rip-off of the story which failed at the boxoffice.
Music
Howard Ashman, who wrote the screenplay and lyrics for the film version of Little Shop of Horrors, also wrote the book and lyrics for the musical play, and directed the original off-Broadway production and its London counterpart. A native of Baltimore, Ashman has been associated with the Houston, Pittsburgh and San Francisco Opera companies, the Manhattan Theatre Club, Princeton's McCarter Theatre and New York's WPA Theatre, where he was Artistic Director from 1976 to 1982. He also wrote the book and lyrics (with Dennis Green) for the musical version of Kurt Vonnegut's "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater."
Alan Menkin at D23 plays music from the show at Disney's 75th celebration.
For his contributions to the stage production of "Little Shop of Horrors," Ashman received the Outer Critics! Circle Award for best lyrics and best off-Broadway musical, the New York Drama Critics' Award for best musical and the Drama Desk Award for best lyrics. Howard signed on with Disney in 1988 and wrote the lyrics for "Oliver and Company," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid," and "Aladdin." He died at the age of 40 from AIDS. His team partner, Alan Menkin was in deep grief over his death as the two had become an unbeatable musical team and best of friends. He once said of Little Shop of Horrors, "This was one of the most fun of all of my projects, so far out there and so original we could go in any direction, but we chose to keep it emotional with a bit of comedy."
Alan Menkin, composer.
When composer ALAN MENKEN won the 1982/83 Outer Critics' Circle Award for his music in the stage version of "Little Shop of Horrors," it was the result, he said, of a longstanding friendship and collaboration with Howard Ashman. The pair previously teamed on "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewacer," a 1979 musical of Kurt Vonnegut' s book, which marked Menken'.s first major production. It was while studying medicine at New York University that Menken made the switch to music composition. Joining Lehman Engel's Musical Theatre Workshop, he wrote the music and/or lyrics for its productions, as well as songs heard in revues and cabaret acts around New York. After having his career anointed with "Rosewater," Menken went on to collaborate with Steve Brown on "Attina, Evil Queen of the Galaxy," and to write the music and lyrics for "Real Life Funnies," a revue based on the cartoons of The Village Voice's Stan Mack. He then collaborated with Tom Eyen on "Kicks." Menkin went on to write for Disney with Howard Ashman until Ashman's death, then wrote the score for "Pocahontas," "Tangled" and several songs for Disney's "Enchanted." Menkin also served as composer writing music for films.
The late Howard Ashman, lyricist.
Release
Little Shop of Horrors was produced by the Geffen Company for $25 million. The recorded U.S. Gross is $39 million. The film has become a favorite over the year, gaining new fans with each generation, as its story is timeless and its music an incredible score. It was released as a holiday release on the 19th of December, 1986. The film was released in both 35mm and 70mm versions (the 70mm was a blow-up from the 35mm negative) with an aspect ratio of 1:85:1.
The Controversial Ending
On January 27, 1998, Warner Brothers released the film for the first time on DVD and included the original ending as an extra in black and white. The Geffen Company had the disc recalled immediately, though some copies had made their way into the marketplace and sold for hundreds of dollars on Ebay. Geffen was upset that an unfinished alternate ending was added to the disc, which he knew nothing about. He claimed, "The climax of the film cost $5 million to produce.They put out a black-and-white, unscored, undubbed video copy of the original ending that looked like crap." In November 2011, Warner Bros. reconstructed and restored the ending in an alternate edit, with re-discovered color negatives of the sequence and the help of production notes from Frank Oz and others on the film's creative team.
The original ending, as seen on the recalled DVD and (below) now restored.
Having just played at The New York Film Festival, Frank Oz's director's cut of Little Shop of Horrors had made its way onto Blu-ray for the first time, giving fans the chance to finally see the ending Oz and songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken had originally envisioned. In the cut that was initially released, everything ends happily for the two lovebirds. The Director's cut has an additional 20-minute ending. The director's cut imagines a very different fate for the two; one that had test audiences actually frightened and after two screenings which produced negative responses, the first of which was held in San Jose. Warner Brothers has done a full restoration to the film, and now fans can see in all its high-def glory exactly what Frank Oz had envisioned. The theatrical cut is also included.
The 2012 screening of the director's cut with David Geffen (left), Ellen Greene and composer Alan Menkin.
In development is a new version of Little Shop of Horrors being produced for Marc Platt Productions. Joseph Gordon Levitt was scheduled to star as Seymore, but at Comicon said he had nothing to do with the project although his name is still attached. No other information is available at this time.
A musical, a horror movie, science fiction, call it what you will but there aren't many films as unique as Little Shop of Horrors. Warner Brothers has released a stunning restoration in a Blu-ray digibook edition with plenty of extras including Frank Oz and Little Shop of Horrors: The Director's Cut, Director's Cut Ending with Commentary by Frank Oz, Trailers, an on-screen message from Frank Oz, Commentary with its Director Frank Oz and a documentary on the making of the film from 1987. The film continues its popularity with new generations and I think it will stand the test of time and remain a popular Warner Brothers title.
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