The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 dark comedy film directed by Roger Corman. The film is famous for having been shot in two days. The film tells the story of a nerdy young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. The film is also noteworthy for featuring a young Jack Nicholson in a small role as Wilbur Force, the dentist's masochistic patient.



A softcore pornographic spoof of the movie was released in 1973 as Please Don't Eat My Mother. Interest in the original movie was rekindled when a stage musical called Little Shop of Horrors was produced in 1982. It closely followed the original film and was itself adapted to cinema as Little Shop of Horrors, in 1986. This in turn spawned an animated TV series Little Shop.



The film gained notoriety as the fastest film ever shot. According to legend, the manager of Producer's Studio had informed him that a film was about to wrap that included a large office set. Corman's brother Gene bet him that he could not make a film with the set. Corman arranged for the set to be left standing and had it redressed as a flower shop.



However, new information has revealed the true reason that Corman shot the film so fast: money. On January 1, 1960, new industry rules were to go into effect preventing producers from "buying out" an actor's performance in perpetuity. After that date, all actors were to be paid 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 of 1959. [citation needed]



Corman and writer Charles B. Griffith purportedly wrote the script over the course of a single evening, writing in all-night Hollywood coffee shops. [citation needed] The film was cast with stock actors that Corman had used in previous films. They rehearsed for three days before filming began. [citation needed] Principal photography of The Little Shop of Horrors was shot in two days and one night by Corman, with other material shot over two successive weekends. [citation needed] He used three cameras at once and shot every scene with only one take. As a result, some scenes run continuously for two or three minutes. The total budget for the production was $27,000 (some reports say $34,000). Excerpt from Wikipedia located HERE