The Little Shop Of Horrors (1960)
Directed by Roger Corman
“Dragnet with an all gay cast.”
“So…Fagnet.”
“Mike!”
This is the other title in the whole collection that I feel doesn’t really need a comedy commentary, but it’s still a hoot to hear the RiffTrax remarks regardless.
In case you’ve lived in another dimension (or, the black hole of Utah as we learned it is called in the previous RiffTrax entry), you’ve probably at least heard of Roger Corman’s The Little Shop Of Horrors or its hit musical counterpart of the same name (minus the “The” of course). In this dark comedy shot in a record-breaking two days, Jonathan (“But I’m a Grimault warrior!”) Haze plays Seymour Krelboin, an inept and naïve kid from skid row who develops a man-eating plant. Mel Welles is at his overacting best as Seymour’s growling employer Gravis Mushnik and Jackie Joseph plays “Chico Marx… with breasts.”
Several highlights of The Little Shop Of Horrors include an early appearance by Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient (“Wow, it’s possible for Jack Nicholson to be creepier than he is normally”) and the great Dick Miller as a flower-eating customer (“I’m character actor Dick Miller. I’ve been in more crap than corn”). Most of the riffing here goes (deservingly) to Haze’s “comic” performance, causing Bill to refer to him as “Shia LaBeouf, Sr.” and following it up with “Balki owes a huge, huge debt of gratitude to this guy.” Rating: B-
Swing Parade (1946)
Directed by Phil Karlson
“Kids, here it is: the stark warnings about the dangers of eating paste.”
The only title in the entire line-up of feature films here that wasn’t remade or isn’t a remake itself. Throughout the '30s and '40s, Hollywood’s Big Five made many “variety films” like these. The stories usually had people putting on song and dance shows and featured cameos galore of famous comedians, actors, musicians, etc. Swing Parade is Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures’ attempt to jump on the bandwagon, featuring some still well known songs and featuring The Three Stooges in a rare non-Columbia appearance (minus several hundred points to Monogram for re-using gags from A Plumbing We Will Go, though).
The film has Phil Regan (“If Matt LeBlanc and Emerile Lagasse had a love child”) trying to open a swingin’ nightclub, all the while fighting with his bigshot father (Russell Hicks) who is attempting to have the place shut down. Gale Storm is the heroine of the story. Musician Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five cause Mike and the gang to worry incessantly about their mules going blind, B-movie legend Edward Brophy plays the Stooges’ boss Moose (and the butt of many a joke), and a god-awful sound effects “comedian” named Windy Cook only add to the fun. Rating: C+
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Snorticle! I too miss MST3K, and I hadn't realized RiffTrax had covered so many films. Nice work.
I downloaded their audio-only RiffTrax for The Matrix, and I've been sold ever since. Funny, funny stuff.
2 - Luigi Bastardo
Thanks, Phillip. I haven't heard the RiffTrax for The Matrix yet...I can't bring myself to watch that movie again. I did manage to check out their commentary for Twilight a few weeks ago and that movie most assuredly had it coming.
3 - Zack
They recently riffed the sparkly vampire movie Twilight... it's the best they've done thus far, I think.
4 - Luigi Bastardo
My significant other was rather obsessed with Twilight a while back (poor thing) so I jumped at that RiffTrax just to break the monotony if nothing else. The "Benny Hill" moment was wonderful.
5 - Corn Job
I also think that their treatment of the dreadful movie The Happening is extremely funny, and very well deserved. That movie is so incredibly awful that I was already laughing constantly when I originally watched it on it's own, and I knew right away that it would make for an excellent Rifftrax.