We are watching this classic Frank Oz production and I checked the IMDB and found these notes:
I would like to track down a copy and also share thoughts and memories with anyone else of this movie.
When it came out I was only 20 and still in the service. My friends and I went and saw this a dozen times. It was almost a Rocky Horror light for us. We knew the lines and the lyrics. At late showings in San Diego, audience members would often sing along with the movie.
Rewatching today, I still find it almost as good today as back in 1986.
I did not know an alternate ending had been filmed for the 1986 film adaptation, but I do know the original film and the Broadway musical did not have “happy” endings (though they did have two slightly different endings). Knowing that, the film’s ending (as released to theaters) made me seethe. Hello! The Hays Code was dead before 1970!
Little Shop of Horrors was my #1 favorite movie when I was 9 years old. I watched it EVERY day, and listened to the soundtrack when I did my homework. Other movies have since taken over the title, but LSOH is still in my top 10, and I bought the DVD the day it came out, before I even knew what a collector’s item it would turn into. The alternate ending was presented in black & white, crappy quality. I see somebody youtubed it above.
I love this movie. Every single song is so catchy. And the original ending was a bit of a downer, I thought, so I’m glad they gave it a happy one. I really don’t think the movie would’ve been as popular if it had kept the stage production ending.
GuanoLad, I was watching the extras and Frank Oz said the original ending played terribly to the test audience and they went back and shot the alternate ending.
It is a shame that they don’t just release a special edition DVD with the alternate ending.
I followed pinkfreud’s links. I think the test audience was right, that ending did not fit the direction the movie had gone.
BrainGlutton, funny you mentioned the Hays Code, as I understood it, if the Hays Code was still in effect, Seymour needed to either go to jail or die in the end so he did not profit from his murder.
As the ending was shown to at least one test audience, I am puzzled by only the black and white version being on the DVD. Seems odd, anyone know the back story on this one?
I know I shouldn’t post hearsay, but…
I heard that the reason for the DVD recall was that they didn’t have rights to the additional song, “Don’t Feed the Plants”. Legally, the DVD could contain only the songs that were in the movie as it was shown in theaters, not all of the songs from the stage musical.
The soundtrack album has been released on vinyl, cassette and CD with the song in place. It would be strange indeed for rights issues with the song to affect the DVD but not the soundtrack album.
IANA intellectual property lawyer. Stranger things have happened… For a while, wasn’t the movie Heavy Metal available on VHS, while its soundtrack was in rights-limbo?
I know, but IMDB isn’t a reliable source. (They used to repeat the false “fact” that Vonnegut and Seuss went to school together.)
I’m saying that I heard a different reason for it.