Trivia / The Little Shop of Horrors

• Absurdly Short Production Time: The movie famously shot in just two days to get more use of sets built for A Bucket of Blood before they were demolished.
• Acting for Two: The screenwriter Charles B. Griffith performs as the robber and a screaming patient as well as provides the voice of Audrey Jr.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Jack Nicholson wanted to play Seymour and auditioned for the part, but lost to Jonathan Haze. He was instead cast as Wilbur Force.
• Christmas Rushed: There are competing stories for the reason why the product was so rushed. One legend says that Corman did it to win a bet that he couldn't complete a movie in that time. A more likely story colaborated by actor Mel Welles, is that Corman was trying to squeeze in one more film before a new law on actor residuals would take effect.
• Executive Meddling: If it weren't for The Hays Code, this movie would have been about a chef murdering people and serving them in a restaurant.
• Production Posse: Jonathan Haze (He's a Grimold warrior!) and Dick Miller were Roger Corman regulars. Screenwriter Charles B. Griffin was also a frequent Corman collaborator.
• Recycled Set: Was filmed on leftover sets from A Bucket of Blood.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Corman originally wanted this to be a detective movie. Seymour and his mother were to be called Irish and Iris Eye. Audrey would have been called "Oriole Olive" and Nancy Kulo was the most likely person to play her. Jonathan Haze was set to play a character called "Archie Aroma" and Mel Welle's would have played "Draco Cardala". Jack Nicholson would have played a guy called "Jocko".
  • Charles B. Griffith's first script was about a vampire music critic, but Corman rejected it; he also wrote one about a salad chef who killed people and served them in his restaurant, but the Hays Office nixed this.
• Working Title:
  • Was produced under the title, The Passionate People Eater.
  • The vampire critic script was called Cardula and the murderer chef script was called Gluttony.

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