The Little Shop of Horrors Wells story "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid"). Mythology about man-eating plants dates back to at least the 1800s, and probably much earlier. The film stars Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, and Dick Miller, all of whom had worked for Corman on previous films. Produced under the title "The Passionate People Eater", the film employs an original style of humor, combining black comedy with farce and incorporating Jewish humor and elements of spoof. "The Little Shop of Horrors" was shot on a budget of $28,000, with interiors being shot in two days utilizing sets that had been left standing
The Little Shop of Horrors remembers that "When [Welles] and I forgot my lines, I improvised a little, but then I was the writer. I was allowed to." However, Welles states that "Absolutely none of it was ad-libbed [...] every word in "Little Shop" was written by Chuck Griffith, and I did ninety-eight pages of dialogue in two days." According to Nicholson, "we never did shoot the end of the scene. This movie was pre-lit. You'd go in, plug in the lights, roll the camera, and shoot. We did the take outside the office and went inside the office, plugged in, lit and rolled. Jonathan