Once upon a time, I was in an a cappella group. It was college and the only other colleges that had a cappella groups at the time were all about a thousand years old. Hence, there were standards we couldn’t meet. Check that. My peers were fine; there were standards I couldn’t meet. In our first big performance, I got a solo on “Duke of Earl.” The only comment I make on the performance is that the following week, the critic for the campus paper compared me to “Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors.
You would think that a Strange Brew lover like myself would welcome the comparison to Rick Moranis (in print, no less), but somehow (despite not having seen the picture) I knew this wasn’t exactly flattering. Can’t say I put much stock in it; in your life, you’re gonna get raves and you’re gonna get pans. That’s life. But I sure didn’t go out of my way to see Little Shop of Horrors. Until now. Yeah, turns out it wasn’t a compliment.
Little Shop of Horrors is a bizarre twist on horror pitting man v. plant. This isn’t quite new; we’ve seen such rivalries in The Wizard of Oz, The Happening, and Attack of Killer Tomatoes! This take involved a lot of singing. Of course, Little Shop of Horrors extended back to an awkward era of film in which movies could have black characters so long as they were supplementary or got killed off first. Hence, it surprised me not at all to see four white leads, four white cameos and three black back-up singers acting as something of a Greek chorus.
The film itself is about a pathetic girlieman (this description was not offensive at the time) who lives in the basement of a flower shop and somehow can’t even find the sack to hit on the woman who works the counter. So he stalks her instead – a quality sign in burgeoning romance. Seymour Krelborn (Moranis) has probably been in love with Audrey (Ellen Greene) for as long as they’ve worked together. Shop owner Vincent Gardenia is gonna shut the place down for lack of business until Seymour shows up with a bizarre flower that turns out to be a carnivorous talking alien bent on world destruction. Sure. Why not?
Meanwhile, Audrey appears to be into bad boys, judging from her relationship with callous brute Orin Scrivello, DDS (Steve Martin). While most of the tunes in the film are fun, the first one that really lands is “Dentist!,” Orin’s self-tribute to his unapologetic sadism. (I wonder if screenplay/score writer Howard Ashman had dental problems) The film’s score/original musical score team is Ashman on lyrics and Alan Menken on music – the same team that gave us The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. If you listen carefully, you can hear the pre-Mermaid in this film.
As if the plot about a singing, man-eating violet weren’t enough, two developnents struck me as just plain bizarre: the first was when the plant manages to convince Seymour to kill Orin. The spineless little guy 
actually goes to the dental office, weapon in hand, to off his rival for Audrey’s affection. This is – and I cannot stress this enough- our hero *in a musical comedy*, ladies and gents. I suppose we might call this a crime of passion for Seymour is inspired by Orin beatin’ on Audrey, but, you know, still. We don’t root for the guy who commits murder one, do we? Especially in a comedy. No way.
The other thing that struck me as … off … is the fact that the film best song, the power ballad “Suddenly Seymour” is sung third person. Seymour doesn’t have a pair to move out of the cot in the store basement, but he can sing about himself in third person? Weird.
Disturbing moments aside … Ellen Greene’s dumb blonde show aside … this was a fun film. I’m glad I saw it and almost regret not having done so at the time. Do I hold a grudge about being compared to Seymour Krelbron? Well, I sure haven’t forgotten it, but thinking back on my “Duke of Earl” …? Yeah, that was fair.
♪Nobody ever
Asked me to review
Wasn’t so often they
Cared what I said
Yet staring at screens
In mock-disbelievement
Such wonderful phrases
Pop into my head
Suddenly Steel Frog
Is panning your movie
I rarely consider
The damage he do
Suddenly Steel Frog
Is rating you one-star
You have it coming
For what I’ve been through♫
Rated R? Seriously, “R?”, 94 Minutes
Director: Frank Oz
Writer: Howard Ashman
Genre: “Hey, everybody, we’re in a silly movie!”
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Musical theater majors
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Botanists?
♪ Parody Inspired by “Suddenly Seymour”
