Pretty much a perfect bit of low budget cult movie gold. Infamously shot in 2 1/2 days Roger Corman takes its delicious one-joke premise to absurd heights. Full of throwaway bits, fun cameos (Dick Miller! Jack Nicholson!) and inspired lunacy. Charles B. Griffith's (he also voiced the killer plant) wacky screenplay is essentially a riff on his own BUCKET OF BLOOD, with enough U-Turns and Film Noir touches to stand on its own. Fred Katz' rollicking score is a good touch.
Jonathan Haze plays the ultimate schlub who works for boisterous flower shop owner Mel Welles with Jackie Joseph as his very patient girl. Wally Campo and Jack Warford play the noirish detectives on the beat. I got to work with Welles, and he boasted to me that he 'rehearsed the actors" while Corman took care of the camera and technical specifics. Another Hollywood boast? Sadly, they are both now gone.
Is it a great film? Perhaps not, but, who would have thought that this miniature masterwork would become known not only as possibly Corman's best film as a Director - but, the inspiration for a hugely successful musical play and a big budget Hollywood remake?
Jonathan Haze plays the ultimate schlub who works for boisterous flower shop owner Mel Welles with Jackie Joseph as his very patient girl. Wally Campo and Jack Warford play the noirish detectives on the beat. I got to work with Welles, and he boasted to me that he 'rehearsed the actors" while Corman took care of the camera and technical specifics. Another Hollywood boast? Sadly, they are both now gone.
Is it a great film? Perhaps not, but, who would have thought that this miniature masterwork would become known not only as possibly Corman's best film as a Director - but, the inspiration for a hugely successful musical play and a big budget Hollywood remake?
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