Nebbish Seymour Krelborn finds an extraterrestrial plant that offers him everything he wants—fame, money, the love of his coworker Audrey—in return for fresh human blood. What started as a 1960 Roger Corman schlockfest is turned into a campy musical from the guys who brought us… The Little Mermaid? Wait, really?
Starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray. Written by Howard Ashman. Music by Alan Menkin. Directed by Frank Oz.
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This week: 1/9/2025
EPISODE 169 – LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986)
Nebbish Seymour Krelborn finds an extraterrestrial plant that offers him everything he wants—fame, money, the love of his coworker Audrey—in return for fresh human blood. What started as a 1960 Roger Corman schlockfest is turned into a campy musical from the guys who brought us… The Little Mermaid? Wait, really?
Yes! Where Corman’s original film was a contemporary black comedy built off the crazy for horror and alien films of the 1950s; the film, by way of a Broadway musical, was a campy homage not only to its source material, but to mid-century American pop culture, where Audrey is a skid row Marilyn Monroe and her evil dentist boyfriend is Elvis-meets-Brando (albeit as performed by Steve Martin). We have a Greek chorus of young Black women named for girl groups of the time (Chiffon, Crystal, and Ronette), and plenty of high profile comedians like John Candy and Christopher Guest in small roles as archetypes of the time—cynical radio DJs, “man on the street” types, shady businessmen, and of course Bill Murray’s masochistic dental patient.
The film differs from other versions by giving us a happy ending, but even that change has its acid if you know where to look for it. In this episode we debate whether the theatrical-cut “happy ending” is a betrayal of the original show, and whether it even matters.
In the end, the only thing that really matters is how incredible those songs are. I’ve been walking around singing “Suddenly Seymour” to myself for a week.
Starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray. Written by Howard Ashman. Music by Alan Menkin. Directed by Frank Oz.
HOLLWOOD AVALON – EXCALIBUR (1981)
Here it is, John Boorman’s epic retelling of King Arthur’s conception, Camelot, the Holy Grail, and his final betrayal by his own son. It’s mostly Thomas Malory’s 15th century romance Le Morte Darthur, mashed up with bits of Jessie Weston’s 1920 book, the Grail study
From Ritual to Romance and with a heavy dollop of 1960s Neopaganism. It has plenty of sex, violence, swords, and sorcery to grab the attention of any young teen watching HBO in the 1980s, and enough Before They Were Stars for the rest of us.
Starring Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nichol Williamson, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi, Gabriel Byrne, Patrick Stewart, Paul Geoffrey, Robert Addie, and Liam Neeson. Written and directed by John Boorman.
This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.
What else are we up to this week?
Mary: I’ll be honest—December was very hard for us, and January hasn’t exactly been relaxing either. Mostly this is work-related (we do have day jobs, ones that seem to have swallowed up all of our waking moments), but on top of that, I dropped a can of seltzer on my laptop on Christmas Eve, and am currently typing this newsletter out on a laptop where several keys no longer work (I’m using a separate keyboard, plugged in through the USB port)—so everything feels like a minor catastrophe right now. I haven’t seen a regular movie in a while—even attempts at seeing Nosferatu in a theater has been thwarted multiple times in the last two weeks. So I really don’t have much to report right now. We’re going to Disney World with my mom and sister next week, so while we’ll have an episode out regardless, I’m definitely not taking in much in the way of arts right now.
Dennis: Not a lot to add this week. My workplace is changing, the USA is changing, everything is up in the air. We just saw A Complete Unknown, which informed the millions of Chalamet-heads that the Time The Were A Changing back in the 60s. I don’t know if that’s a good movie, but screw it, I love those songs and Timmy did a good job. Timothy taking off his sunglasses to try to win Elle Fanning back at the Cape May ferry (filling in for a ferry near Newport) was something. Mary didn’t feel like it was political enough, and she’s probably right. We’re going to Disney World tomorrow, to stay at the Polynesian, which is a place that always reminds me of the things I liked about the 1970s. John Lennon stayed there with his assistant/lover in 1974 or something and I always thought it was weird that I know that. This will be my first time to Star Wars-ville down there.
Pizza: Mary and I ordered a 14 inch medium pizza from Nico’s down the street to split amongst ourselves. I don’t know how many kilos that would be. My half had green peppers, which I first had on a pizza from Logan Square Pizza in downtown Philly (located not on Logan Square). It was good, but I feel like the cheese is creeping over the crust in the last few pizzas I’ve had from Nico’s. I’m a crust fan so points off for me. 3.25 stars out of 5.
NEXT EPISODE: It’s a premise I can’t believe is real—they clone Hitler in the Boys from Brazil.
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