The Little Shop of Horrors - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[sandra]

At the time of shooting, Jack Nicholson had appeared in two films, and had worked with Roger Corman as the lead in The Cry Baby Killer. According to Nicholson, "I went in to the shoot knowing I had to be very quirky because Roger originally hadn't wanted me. In other words, I couldn't play it straight. So I just did a lot of weird shit that I thought would make it funny."

[kyle]

Charles B. Griffith put several of his relatives in the film; Myrtle Vail, "Grandmother" Myrt, for example, is actually his grandmother, and the hobo who Dr. Farb tortures in his office is Griffith's father. He also placed several of his relatives in crowd scenes. The bums in the background of the street shots on Skid Row are real transients, however, and were filmed in the actual skid row area of Los Angeles, California.

[fred]

Before video and streaming made repeated viewings possible, both this film and "A Bucket of Blood" were often confused with one another. They both starred Dick Miller, they both cast Myrtle Vail as the mother, they both had a kooky jazz score, and they both featured a dim-witted hero, who finds unexpected celebrity; who ends up killing people, and themselves, to prolong their fame and hide their crimes.

[jessie]

It had been rumored that the film's shooting schedule was based on a bet that Corman could not complete a film within that time. However, this claim has been denied by Mel Welles. According to Joseph, Corman shot the film quickly in order to beat changing industry rules that would have prevented producers from "buying out" an actor's performance in perpetuity. On January 1, 1960, new rules were to go into effect requiring producers to pay all actors residuals for all future releases of their work. This meant that Corman's B-movie business model would be permanently changed and he would not be able to produce low-budget movies in the same way. Before these rules went into effect, Corman decided to shoot one last film and scheduled it to happen the last week in December 1959.

[tammy]

For the trophy presentation, Winifred Krelborn is dressed like an aging showgirl. Myrtle Vail played an aging showgirl in Myrt and Marge (1933), which is based on a 1931-1942 radio program of the same name, which is largely based on her own experiences.

[bernice]

The manager of Producer's Studio informed Roger Corman that a large office set had been constructed for a production that was about to wrap. Corman arranged to use the standing set, redressed, as the main set of this film.

[miriam]

Much of the comical dialogue between Mel Welles and Dick Miller was ad-libbed.

[manuel]

Griffith and Welles spent a total of $1,100 on fifteen minutes worth of exteriors.

[harry]

When asked where Seymour got the plant, he replies that the seeds were obtained by a Japanese gardener who found the bulb in a "plantation next to a cranberry farm." This joke is lost on modern audiences. In 1959, it was announced that cranberry crops were tainted with traces of the herbicide aminotriazole, and as a result, cranberry sales plummeted.

[camila]

The film was originally released on a double feature with Black Sunday (1960), and later on a double bill with Last Woman on Earth (1960).

[veronica]

Interiors were shot with three cameras in wide, lingering master shots in single takes. Welles states that Corman "had two camera crews on the set--that's why the picture, from a cinematic standpoint, is really not very well done. The two camera crews were pointed in opposite directions so that we got both angles, and then other shots were 'picked up' to use in between, to make it flow. It was a pretty fixed set and it was done sort of like a sitcom is done today, so it wasn't very difficult."

[jim]

According to Nicholson, "we never did shoot the end of the scene. This movie was pre-lit. You'd go in, plug in the lights, roll the camera, and shoot. We did the take outside the office and went inside the office, plugged in, lit and rolled. Jonathan Haze was up on my chest pulling my teeth out. And in the take, he leaned back and hit the rented dental machinery with the back of his leg and it started to tip over. Roger didn't even call cut. He leapt onto the set, grabbed the tilting machine, and said 'Next set, that's a wrap.'" By 9 am of the first day, Corman was informed by the production manager that he was behind schedule.

[ken]

Opening credits: All events, characters, firms and institutions in this photoplay are fictional and any similarity to any persons, living or dead, or to any actual events, firms and institutions is coincidental and unintentional.