SPEAKER_04 0:00

They tested it. An audience was like, no, we don't like the original ending, which had the two main characters dying.

SPEAKER_03 0:06

This was supposed to come out in July. The problem was they lost the footage of the ending. And they had to reshoot this whole other ending with Jim Belushi, who has to explain things a little bit because it didn't really make sense. But he somebody finds the stuff they shot. It's like 22 minutes of the plants taking over the universe.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

You're listening to the O Brother Podcast. Real Brothers, Real Talk. Welcome to the O Brother Podcast. I'm your host, Dan Smith, alongside me as always, my brother from the same other, Mike Smith. How's it going, Dan? It's going good, but I just something happened. Like, why am I down in the corner? I don't know what's going on. So let's I I don't know what's happening. Okay, there we are. I didn't do anything. It says recording. Okay, so we're here as far as I know. This now this is. We're not side by side, though. We are for me now. So maybe it changed for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Yeah. Something's for you.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

So to be clear, we this is not Halloween Fest. We have concluded Halloween Fest. And this is not, I mean, okay, there's you could argue there's horror elements, but Little Shop of Horrors we're reviewing tonight, which is almost celebrating the 40th anniversary, which probably by the time people get this episode uh or get to it, maybe it'll be that. December 19th, 1986. I we were talking about this, and my rip my first recollection or memory of seeing this was a copy that you had on Laserdisc, which is a thing that a lot of people probably aren't familiar with. Cinephiles and old school like think of an album.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Yeah. Right? It's the size of an album only. It's a DVD, but both sides. Like one side has half the movie, and then you gotta flip it over.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

But it was the best picture quality and audio, especially.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

Yeah, if you had laserdisc, you were out ahead of the pack at that time. And uh so yeah, and I remember that that would have been about four years after this film came out in the theaters, you know, when I moved to Florida. And I have not seen it in years. I cannot remember the last time I watched it. And so hopefully it was a treat. It was a treat, yeah. And it was, man, you know, this is a it's a musical. Right. And it's a musical comedy, drama, a little bit of horror in there. There's some intense stuff in terms of you know, man-eating plants and whatnot. But I gotta tell you, I knew Steve Martin's performance in this was legendary. This was vintage Martin at the time. This was him at the pinnacle. At his peak, yeah. He owned that time in the 80s and even into the 90s, but that was his peak. And he it's one of his funniest performances. And he's what, in the film like 10, 15 minutes, maybe?

SPEAKER_03 3:11

At most. At most. When I played this for you, I probably played the Steve Martin section a dozen times, his entrance into the film. Right. Because it's so hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 3:24

And you mimicked it many times in the past. And it's just very, it's so over the top and animated in a way that it just makes it funny. It's so silly. Another similar performance in this that I had forgotten about it and probably didn't know him at the time like I do now. Christopher Guest, his cameo in this is so ridiculous. We're talking about a film directed by the great legendary Frank Oz.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

And if you don't know Frank Oz, you don't know because you do know Frank Oz. If you've ever seen Kermit or The Cookie Monster, Star Wars, anybody? Groucho, you know, Yoda. Right. Miss Piggy. And not only that, he has an impeccable directing resume. And he worked with Martin again. They did uh with Michael Cain.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Steve Martin, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Which we did an episode on that uh quite a while back.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

But a flower shop that's you know got no business, is going under. And Seymour, played by Rick Moranis, and what's Ellen's name? Ellen Green. Audrey. Audrey. And Audrey are trying to figure out ways to drum up business. And Seymour says, Hey, I think maybe we could use this plant. And he's got this little like man-eating plant.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

He doesn't know what it is, really.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

No, it looks like he knows it's like Venus. Yeah, Venus fly trap. Yes. That's what you it looks like at first. He places it in the window, and suddenly they get their first customer, which is Christopher Guest.

SPEAKER_04 5:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

Now he played that straight down.

SPEAKER_04 5:08

Yeah, and it was so is like, why? Hello, what is that plant you have in the front window of your shop? I've never seen it before.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

Like it was so over the top. That came 10 or 12 takes into it. He was doing it normal, and then he's like, he kind of got a feel for the set. And like you said, he's so funny. He's in it less than a minute.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

It's a lot of the SETV crowd in here. John Candy. John Candy is uh is well, you don't see John, and and he was originally offered the role of Mushnick, the the shop owner, but he passed up.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Save that bit.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

That's my bit. You're stealing my bit. Well, no, that's not that's not the who would have played it. It's more because he's still in it. He's just in a different but yeah, so so Frank Oz directs uh written by Charles Griffith, you know, the 1960, because we should say this was a Roger Corman film, right, which has its own interesting story for many reasons. One, he filmed it in the course of like two and a half days. This was 1960. It was Jack Nicholson's first film. Right, which he played the Bill Bill Murray's in it, and he's a patient. This masochistic patient that just gets off on the pain of the dentistry because Steve Martin's character is a dentist.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Now, have you ever seen the original? Did I ever show you?

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Not completely known. Okay. No. Now, is that an extra on the set you held up earlier? Oh, it's not.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

It's one of the few things there is an interview with Roger Corman.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Yes. So you see a couple of scenes. Now that that box, you're holding up that 4K UHD. When did you get that?

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Is that brand new? This is brand new. Okay. And what I didn't even realize was in my collection. This is a digi book, which I love. I love that. Right. I love that. I never watched the director's cut until this week.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Now, which you told me not to. You said, let's just go ahead and watch the theatrical cut. And I guess I understand why, but there is a story to tell, and maybe we can get there in in a few. But let me let me run down real quick. Steve Martin plays a dentist who is dating Audrey. Audrey. Alan Green, who, geez, she was spectacular. And also she played the part on Broadway, off Broadway.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Yeah, she originated the role. That's right. And then she came back to because she wasn't in the film. This is weird because it's a film by Roger Corman that's made into a play that's made into a movie.

SPEAKER_04 7:49

That is, yeah, that is interesting. Note. Vincent Gardinia, who plays Mushnick, the shop owner, great character actor, but what off the top of the head do Deathwish. Deathwish, yeah. He was the cop. Yeah. After after uh Paul Kersey. Now, Seymour names the plant Audrey II. Right. That was originally going to be voiced by somebody else, but it ends up being voiced by Levi Stubbs, who was a singer. And then Christopher Four Tops. Four tops, that's right. Christopher Guest, we mentioned John Candy, has he plays like a radio DJ that you hear at a certain few scenes in Bill Murray.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

He was Mushnick, and then he turned it down. And then he was so disappointed because him and Rick Moranus were buddies by that time.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

So he called Frank Oz and says, Hey, do you have something else? And he said, Sure.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

I do want to say let's just talk about these characters, Mike. So Toshina Arnold, Michelle Weeks, and Tisha Campbell, who a lot of folks would know from like the Martin TV series and so forth. They play these three singers, these like the Ronettes, you know, that you would think of the city.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

And they were not a group. Correct. They were cast individually, but you would think they were a group.

SPEAKER_04 9:09

And Tisha Campbell, I know, at the time, was 19. She was a kid. Yeah. That adds such a great dimension to the film and the way that Oz, Frank Oz uses them and films them and positions them. The staging of this production, this is incredible. I mean, Frank, it's a masterpiece by Frank Oz.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

And this, like, this is up to on the criterion level with the extras. I don't know how deep you got into it. I got all but completely through the commentary. Okay. But it's literally a masterclass of directing.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

Yeah. Because there's very few, there's maybe three special effect shots, and they're not all that great. Yeah, there's no CGI, no green screen. Correct. So this is all and when you hear him explain how he did it, it's so it's so amazing.

SPEAKER_04 10:07

Well, and you see a lot of it in the featurettes. It's it's fascinating how they did it. Especially the segment that ends up in the director's cut, which came out on that Blu-ray release, I think, in 2012 that you held up earlier. Yes. It isn't in the theatrical release because frankly, they screened it, they tested it, and audience was like, no, we don't like the original ending, which had the two main characters dying.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Right. And you would ask me, this was supposed to come out in July. Well, the problem is they lost the footage of the ending. And they had to reshoot this whole other ending with Jim Belushi who has to explain things a little bit because it didn't really make sense. But he f somebody finds the stuff they shot, and it it's like 22 minutes of the plants taking over the universe.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

So there's a sci-fi element, which is what you're getting at with the three singers. They can kind of pop in and out of any place because they're kind of mystical.

SPEAKER_04 11:18

Yeah, and it also serves as a nice transitional device, like you would see uh in the in a play, for example, because I they're in the play, right? The the those characters, but the way what Frank Oz can do with it in a film versus the limits that you might find in a in a play production. It's it's it's really fascinating.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Like early on, I think the song Skid Row. Skid Row.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

It's a that's a fantastic performance. The choreography is unreal.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

And the woman who looks to be singing it never she didn't sing it. She was just lip-syncing it. It was another singer that sang it.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

Okay, I okay. I don't know if I realized that or not.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

But you start with Skid Row, where she's in this like alleyway, and the sound I remember on the laser disc blew me away because I was all of a sudden transported into that alley.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

And everything is timing. Their steps are going to the beat, and it starts to rain out because it's Skid Row. But the rain doesn't fall on the girls. Like they're dry.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

And he had like a halo over them to cover them from getting wet. So they can move around the scene without getting wet. It's it's an amazing shot.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

Frank Oz said they did actually, in in truth, a little dip. Yeah, they got wet. This is one of those features that just it fires on all cylinders. It's it's just that good. So it definitely was you know very enjoyable to see again. This was filmed on the what they call the 007 stage in at Pinewood in England.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Pinewood, uh Kill View to a Kill was the set they were using, which is a Roger Moore Bond film.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

And it was also another movie filming at the same time. Do you know what it was? I don't recall. Aliens. James Cameron. Okay. This is 86. And Steve Martin, you know, he's introduced and he twists a head off this girl's doll. That girl was Jim Hens's daughter. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

I saw her in the credits, and I knew it had to be a relation because of Frank Oz.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Right. The head wound up in aliens with if you remember, Sigourney Weaver had a daughter in one of the cuts. Yeah. Newt. Newt. And she had the

SPEAKER_04 14:00

a

SPEAKER_03 14:01

budget of $25 million, which is a lot.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

It grossed about $39 million. But you know, it's spoken of as a successful film, but it that I don't know. I mean, is it would that be considered by box office?

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Yeah, back then, $26 million, that was all in.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

Yeah, so $14 million over that. Yeah. Yeah. You're talking 1986. It's uh IMDB met a score of 81, the Rotten Tomato scores. Critics give it a 93, which is where I would land it, and the audience is 79%, so a little bit lukewarm.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

And my my buddies Siskel and Ebert, I I sought out their review. Yeah, two thumbs up. Two thumbs way up.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

Way, way up.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:48

Yeah, it's everybody's everybody's really at their best in this. We always talk about this is like the famous, you know, Mike segment on the Oberther podcast, which is who could have, would have done it, should have, you know, whatever. So there were a couple of I'll say performers that were going to be cast in the Ellen Green role as Audrey. Uh can you tell us who they were?

SPEAKER_03 15:11

Yeah, let me see here. Seymour, dentist. You know, I might not have written down the Audrey ones. I know Barbara Streisand was one of them.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Well, that's why we're a team here at The O'Brother Podcast. So I'll get I can give them to you.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Yeah. Give me your first one, Cindy Lopper, which considered. I have it written somewhere, but my notes are a mess.

SPEAKER_04 15:34

And another 1980s female heavyweight, Madonna.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Madonna, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Now, the other Steve Martin's Steve Martin film six weeks. That'll give you in this film, film for six months.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

Yeah, and he hurt himself on the production, which you see it when he's the outtakes. Yeah, he's throwing open these two doors, and the glass in the window of the door shatters and he cuts in. And you can see him reacting to it. You can see it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

And he's the boyfriend of Audrey, and he he's a like. He's abusive. So he kicks the door open when he's going into her place and punches the windows and they break. But, anyways, who else was considered for this? I can't even imagine. But there's the names. Travolta.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

Orin Scrivello is the name of the character.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Right, the dentist. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:34

So John Travolta. Okay. John Travolta. Interesting. Robin Williams.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Of course I could see that. Gene Wilder. Interesting. Dan Aykroyd. Okay. Billy Joel. Billy Joel? Yeah. Where does that come from?

SPEAKER_04 16:56

Now I mean. Frank Oz actually talked to him. Billy Joel is on the bridge tour at this point. Great album, folks. If you never listened to it. He could have never taken six months away. No, I mean he was at his peak at that point, too. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Mickey Dolans, do you know who died for the monkeys?

SPEAKER_04 17:15

The monkeys. Of course. So those were the dentists. He was also in Rob Zombie's Halloween. Little Halloween fest plug. Right. Yeah. Seymour.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

Matthew Broderick, who's a big Broadway guy. Absolutely. Yeah, I could see that. Michael J. Fox. Wow. Charlie Sheen. Okay. Tom Hanks, who's up for everything. These are a long list.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

Billy Crystal. Wow. Okay. That's a good list. And those are all, that's basically your top 10 80s heavyweights.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:47

In comedy and everything else.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

And Mushnick. Okay. The original what who Frank Oz wanted, Abe Vagoda, Brando. Brando. David Geffen, who's it was his project. Said no way. He's too difficult.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Well, he had a history, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Mathau. Walter Mathau. Jack Lemon.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Okay. John Candy, obviously. Yes. Don Knotts. They thought he was too silly. The incredible Mr. Limpet. Yeah. And Vincent Gardena. Mm-hmm. He's convinced he was only cast because of his name sounding like Garden. He jokes about it.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

But Christopher Guest was considered.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

For Mushnick, yeah, that wouldn't have worked. Yeah, that wouldn't have worked. My list. It's one of those where seeing it in its final presentation, you can't picture anybody else in the roles but the people that ended up in the roles.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

And especially Steve Martin. I mean I must have watched that a hundred times when it came out. You'll be a dentist.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

It's the wild and crazy guy, the real physical. Like that's a role. Like I could see Jim Carrey doing that.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

No, I I was in this play in California. You played Audrey. Right? I auditioned for the dentist. I wanted to be the dentist. And I knew I wasn't gonna get it. You have to go when you audition for a musical, you have to bring like a piece of sheet music and sing. And I didn't bring anything. I said, but I'll sing some of the dentist song. So the piano, there's a piano player, and he played with me, and they all laughed. But I wind up figuring I'll get Mushnick because he doesn't sing. The director who I had worked with before comes to me and says, I want you to do Seymour. I said, I can't sing suddenly Seymour and those songs. I can't do it.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

That's heavy.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

He says, I got an idea, and he inserted a different, a new character, a narrator.

SPEAKER_04 20:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

Who basically explained, well, Seymour, and then you sing those parts.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

And that was you.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

No, I was Seymour. I have videotape of that performance. I got to see that.

SPEAKER_04 20:14

I don't know if I've ever seen that before. We get in a film here from the 80s, so you got it comes in at a nice one hour and 34 minutes. That's the theatrical version, not the director's cut. I liked it, it was nice to see that director's cut because of that 23-minute segment that was cut out where all these other plants are taking over the universe and all that. You hear the guy Lyle, I think his name is, the production designer or whatever. All this hard work and sweat and tears he put into it for that not to then see the light of day. Right. It's pretty crushing, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

Yeah, you're there's another guy that's he's in the extras that he he it was his. He was responsible for the ending. And he was just like, I can't believe it. I can't believe what happened was the test audiences hated it. Yeah. They literally it came in at a 13.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

There's this thing where you have to get a certain percentage of recommendations from the test audience. And they they got 15. You needed 57% or something. They weren't even close.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Right. They had 13%.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Right. Do you agree with that taking it out? Would you have been in that test audience and said, oh, this is terrible. You can't kill the okay.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

I hate the directors.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

So they made the they made the right for that reason.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Yeah, for that re that was part of it. See, in Broadway, you can kill a character and then they come out at the end and they bow and get, you know what I mean? They're not dead. But in a movie, when you kill somebody, they're gone.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

And that played into what Frank Oz was thinking.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

Now, he was not originally slated to direct. Do you know who Geffen wanted to direct? At first?

SPEAKER_03 22:01

I'm sure I do, but Martin Scorsese. Right. Scorsese. And he wanted Spielberg involved. And Spielberg, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:08

Yeah. They were probably busy doing, I'm sure, some other things at that time. Uh yeah, a couple of little side projects. Yeah, this is an interesting one to see who was all involved. But I now I would say if you're not a fan of musicals typically or whatever, I don't think that matters. This is such an enjoyable film. Visually, the music is good, whether you like, again, musicals or not, and the performances. There's a lot of humor. It's very sweet. It's very funny. It's really a love story about Audrey and Seymour, is really what it is.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

And I think of it as a comedy. I've always thought of it like when I when I gave you the idea, you were like, ah, musical. And in my head, I was like, no, this is a comedy.

unknown 22:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:56

But you're right. It's it's a musical. It's a musical.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

But the comedy is so genius and strong and well performed that, you know. But I love the three women. I love the singers throughout. And and and again, the blocking, the staging, the way that that skid row performance is I would have loved to seen this off Broadway. You have to see it. They can't describe it and do it justice.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

I've seen a bunch of versions, one in Stoneham, which is not far from where I am. And it's always funny the plant, because it's usually a guy wearing some kind of an outfit.

SPEAKER_04 23:35

And that's quite an achievement that they to make that thing. Because the the seam the Audrey II plant goes from this little tiny potted plant in the window of the shop to this huge, huge, man-eating plant.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

Right. 12 foot high. And there's three plants. There's like the little plant, a medium size, and then the giant plant.

SPEAKER_04 24:00

They literally had consulted with engineers and physics, all of these people to because of the design with the stems of the plant, and they needed it to move in a certain way and hold its shape, and it's quite involved.

SPEAKER_03 24:14

There's a lot of songs. Well, a coup a couple of songs, there's duets. He sings with Seymour.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

Right. And they and they wrote one specifically to get consideration for was it the Oscar's best original song, Man Eating Mother from Out of Space or whatever it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

But the way that had to come to fruition is they could only go so fast. There was no special effects. There was like 60 people at one point working the plant.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

And Brian Henson, his son, is in the shot. And I'll I'll you know, but bit money you can't see him because he's dressed up in roots.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

And he's at one point he's manually working them out. But you can't see him. It's it's such an unbelievably sh well well shot.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Yeah, it's I clearly Steve Martin's performance is that's the standout. I think that's the standout, but the the suddenly Seymour's performance is amazing with Ellen Green and and Rick Moranis. And you know, it was nice to see, Chris, we've been talking about Rick Mor Moranes for a while on the podcast because he's coming back out of pretty long hiatus from feature films, and he's gonna be in the Spaceball sequel, as everybody by now knows. Uh so it was nice to see him in this and and and also hear on the extras how he got cast and then in his meeting with Frank Oz and how Yeah, and he just met Steve Martin on the set, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:52

They went on to do four movies together My Blue Heaven.

SPEAKER_04 25:57

Yeah. Yeah it wasn't the best bunch, but Rick Moranis had already been coming off Ghostbusters Fame and Right, you know, Steve Martin, of course, was already a a household name.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

But Parenthood came after this.

SPEAKER_04 26:12

Yeah. Which Honey I Shrunk the Kids, maybe is right around here. No, no, no. But but Rick Moranis, I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

You know what surprised me, what Frank Oz said, is that the scene with the dentist with Bill Murray and Steve Martin, that's their only film together, which kind of surprised me a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 26:38

That is interesting. Yeah, right, right. Interesting. Well, this was a great one. I I we both highly recommend this. Uh we both own it.

SPEAKER_03 26:46

It's really fun for the whole family.

SPEAKER_04 26:48

This really should get the criterion treatment. I can't imagine what else they can add to it.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

Yeah, it's so loaded.

SPEAKER_04 26:55

Right. But just in terms of like a booklet with even more of the history, and I'm sure there's more stories to tell. I mean, there's a whole it sounds like there's a whole conversation to be had about ping pong and its place on the set. That was a big thing.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

But the the amount of takes, like, there's a scene where the plant has to reach around, go into the register in the shop to get a dime to make a phone call. 73 takes it took to get that shot.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Yes, there were there was a lot of the scenes that seemed like they they were multiple takes, so it was, I'm sure, quite exhausting after a while. Play especially when you're performing so physically, and then the singing, and it's it's a lot, even if you're lip syncing, it's a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

Right. The music that you hear is, you know, them in a studio. Right. But they're singing to a track. Yeah. And and Ellen Green is sings everything. Yeah, it was great.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

You know, and it was great to see her in a more recent interview on some of the featurettes. It was nice. Hear her talking about it. Anytime you hear those, them going back with the memories that they have, it's really it's special. But yeah, this was enjoyable to watch.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

Her character reminds me of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the the girl in that that played the soap queen. And her name, I think, is Glenn Headley, right?

SPEAKER_04 28:21

Yeah, Glenn Headley, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:22

Yeah, that's right. She her and Ellen Green kind of mirror images.

SPEAKER_04 28:27

Yeah, well, check this one out if you haven't seen it, folks. Little Shop of Horrors 1986. So again, we're celebrating. We're just uh in ahead of the uh 40th anniversary of this one. So we'd highly recommend you check it out. Uh it's a good one to add to your to your collection, too, if you're a physical media collect uh collector. And if you're fortunate enough to get to this episode of the Yo Brother podcast early enough, you might also still have time, Mike, to go out to your local Barnes and Nobles, even on Amazon, and get yourself some Criterion Collection pickups. Now, I picked up three so far in this year's haul, okay? Right. The first one that I grabbed, and I had to get it to through Amazon, thanks to you, because it was already sold out. It was already sold out on Barnes and Noble's website. Of course, that's K-pop Demon Hunters, this beautiful box set. It's huge. Yeah, it's gorgeous looking. And so I got that one 4K Ultra HD. And then, you know, I went into Barnes and Noble's and was looking around. And when you're in front of the selection, it's like overwhelming. It's overwhelming. I don't know about you. I think you're like me. I look at every single movie on the shelf, right? Because I don't want to miss some little hidden gem that, you know, that's how I got sexalized and videotape not that long ago, was it? Which you're lucky, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Because that's out of print.

SPEAKER_04 29:50

Yeah, it is. And so it was a toss-up. I had a few in my hand. I had you on speed dial, you my consigliary of Criterion. And so I ended up with, I think, two great picks in addition, which is Twelve Angry Men.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

Fantastic film.

SPEAKER_04 30:07

Fantastic Sidney Lumet, who we've talked about on the podcast many times before. And then I went with this one because this is a film I had not I still have not seen, and I think maybe it's one we could cover on the podcast at some point. Malcolm X starring the great Denzel Washington. This is one of his best performances, as I'm told. And so I'll get to see it for myself. But these are I love when it's this. Yeah. As opposed to like 12 angry men, it's this.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

And then they've got so far. I don't know if you can even see it because I can't see. See the red box? Yeah, big red box. That's the crite, that's the uh Kubrick box.

SPEAKER_04 30:44

So you already got it. Yeah. Mike, Mr. Rockefeller over there. Now, Mike won't be paying for his heating bill this winter, but he did the right thing.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

I actually traded for it, so I didn't have to pay for it. Somebody bought it half off, and then they traded with me some video games.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

Mike trying to justify his obsession, but you don't need to justify that on the O'Brother Podcast, is that's what we do. And so this again, we've been, and you've been talking about this because you always try to encourage people. Look, now if you're looking to load up, and especially if you're into these collections where you get all the supplemental features, we're not, there's no no payment, no advertising dollars coming in for for criterion for us.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

You're not being led into the criterion closet.

SPEAKER_04 31:28

We're just fans, as of course anybody that's listening to the podcast knows. And somehow you got me back into the physical media collecting. And um, you know, I got shelves here in the studio now because I need someplace to put them. But I try to be selective about it, and uh, I think I came up with three good ones so far. I'm hoping there's a few more that uh find their way to my doorstep sometime in December, perhaps. But we'll see hand to mouth and perhaps you know, we'll report back on that. But I'm jealous of the Kubrick box. I'm hoping maybe Santa's gonna go out of his way this year and find that uh in my doorstep.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

If you break it down, I would never movie. Yeah. It's six hundred dollars regularly. Right now, you can get it for $300, which is less than $30. It's like $20 a movie.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

Right. You sound like an auctioneer there for a second. But today, folks, I'm gonna make you a special deal and you're gonna get that set for $19.95. It's like throw in an extra booklet. Paint your car for $20. Yeah. Anything else to say about Little Shop of Horrors, Mike, or Criterion. Now, is the Kubrick box, which is more than enough. That's all that's all you've got so far this haul, right? Yeah, that's uh that's plenty.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

But and they announced today February's releases, which none of one of them is Irishman. I'm not gonna buy it again.

SPEAKER_04 32:47

Okay, because you've got so many iterations. Even though you love this.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

Well, I have the Criterion Irishman, but this is the 4K.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

So I will perhaps get that, you know, because we should do an episode on that because I know that you you're a fan of it, and you're always, you know, and I think I have a different take on it, and it's definitely one I need to see again. Yeah. So that that could be a good old brother podcast episode. But anything else about Little Shop of Horror, Steve Martin's performance, uh Rick Moranis, Ellen Green.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

This is a great family film. You'll it is. It gets a little heavy. Musicals or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 33:24

Put that aside, it you know, it tells a great story. It does, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

It's very sweet, tender, it's funny, and if you're gonna have any intention of being a filmmaker, pick this film up to learn how to what force perspective is all about. Yes, how to do special shots without you know needing.

SPEAKER_04 33:45

Blocking the whole bit. It's it's incredible. Practical effects and so forth. This this is a good one, folks. I you know, I had to change the uh the lighting a bit here in the O'Brother Studio South just to kind of fit with the green plant theme. I thought that might fit here. Mike's got a little green there too, with the spike, a little Elvis Costello uh behind you. You're yeah, it's nice. You needed to kind of get step out of the Halloween fest. You were leaning hard into that.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

Yes. And I I figure that's music. Yeah. It's uh he's also a showman.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

I like that. Yeah, it fits. He I could see him, I could have seen him playing uh Seymour, frankly. Yeah, in the film, possibly.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Like the killer is when I did Seymour, I was in my forties, right? And the rest of the cast is 20.

SPEAKER_04 34:35

Yeah, you should have been Mushnik.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

The way they, yeah, the way I I thought that's what was gonna happen, but the way they dressed me, I look like I'm 12.

SPEAKER_04 34:43

Yeah, it's funny. Yeah. Well, you're certainly not 12, but uh in spirit, in mind, what have you. But all right, folks, little shop of horrors, that's your Old Brother Podcast review. Like, that's gonna do it for another episode of the O Brother Podcast. I'll bring your host, Dan Smith, and alongside me as always, my brother from the same mother, Mike Smith. And we will see you next time.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

Bye, everyone.