Once upon a time, during a weekend in 1960, Roger Corman had a set, some actors, and nothing better to do. So in three days (so the legend goes), he and scriptwriter Charles Griffith filmed a wacky little horror comedy about a man-eating plant.
This no-budget throwaway has survived as one of the zaniest products of Corman's freewheeling early days. For years it was a staple of the revival circuit and television. Then, a few years ago, someone had the improbable idea to turn the thing into a stage play. And a musical, yet.
The project, shall we say, blossomed. More improbably, it was a big hit. And most improbable of all, it's been made into a movie again, this time with big-budget backing and songs to boot.
Deep down, I'll always prefer Corman's zonked-out quickie. I love its skid road production values and its Catskills-style ethnic humor.
But the new movie has a lot going for it, and deserves to end up as one of this season's hits. It's a bright, ditzy thing, full of artificial sets, arch acting, and goofy songs.
A trio of doo-wop girls serve as a chorus, as we are introduced to a rundown New York neighborhood, circa 1960. Mushnik's florist shop is mired in an apparently terminal slump—until the shop boy, Seymour (Rick Moranis, from "SCTV"), finds "a strange and interesting plant" one day. Placed in the store window, the plant quickly attracts business, much to the delight of Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia) and clerk Audrey (Ellen Greene, adorably vapid). That this homely little bulb would attract all this attention is just the first of the film's intentional absurdities.
Seymour names the planet Audrey II. He harbors a love, or as much goony affection as he can muster, for the real Audrey, but she is stuck with a sadist boyfriend (a plum role for Steve Martin). Naturally, the sadist practices dentistry.
Audrey II brings Seymour money and glamour, but there is a photosynthetical downside. The plant can live only on blood. Human blood. Seymour must supply supper, or lose his plant—and, he supposes, lose Audrey.
Understand that not one whit of this nonsense is played straight. The approach that lyricist Howard Ashman (who also scripted) and composer Alan Mencken have taken is a thorough put-on: campy and tacky.
I don't know how they came up with Frank Oz for director—he's a longtime collaborator of the Muppets' Jim Henson—except that one of the main characters is a large Muppet-like creature; the plant, given voice by the Four Tops' Levi Stubbs, steals a number of scenes, and behaves with much impertinence.
Oz directs with uninhibited glee, frequently stuffing visual gags into the big numbers. Martin's dentist song, a tour de force that ought to be released as a video for MTV, is a string of hilarious jokes on the fear of oral surgery, building to the moment when Oz cuts to a shot looking at the insanely cackling Martin from the inside of a large fake mouth. Oz is exactly in tune with this show's nuttiness.
There are cameos, mostly unnecessary, from John Candy, Jim Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Bill Murray; the latter plays a dental patient who loves pain.
In the original film and the musical play, the plant eats everyone at the end. That ending was filmed, but was reshot after some test previews favored a happier ending. Actually, this new ending may be even better and funnier than the original. In a quiet way, Audrey II still has the last laugh.
First published in the Herald, December 19, 1986
Hey, didja notice I never mentioned the title of the movie? I didn't notice, when I wrote this review. I have a feeling I did this a few times over the years.
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