Little Shop of Horrors

The most terrifying period in the history of my beat began in a little run-down florist shop called Mushnick's, relates Sgt. Fink in the opening of Roger Corman's 1960 black comedy. Seymour Krelboin works at Mushnick's flower shop on Skid Row. To avoid the unemployment line, Seymour offers his boss a "special" hybrid plant he's been growing at home. When Seymour pricks his finger and the plant tastes blood, he learns the secret to its growth: human flesh. With each victim Seymour supplies, "Audrey Jr." (named after Seymour's girlfriend) grows, and so does its appetite) begging for Seymour to "Feed me! Feeeed me!!" The middle feature in Corman's trilogy of black comedies (the others being A Bucket of Blood (1958) and Creature From The Haunted Sea (1961)), The Little Shop of Horrors has become a cult classic not only for its viciously funny script and improvisational feel, but also for a young Jack Nicholson's small part as a masochistic dental patient. Although, legend has it, The Little Shop of Horrors was filmed in two days on an extremely miniscule budget, the movie's impact generated a smash Broadway hit as well as a major studio remake in 1986. The prolific and inventive Charles Griffith wrote the screenplay, supplied the voice of Audrey Jr., and played a gun-wielding thug.

• comedy