Little Shop Of Horrors - 1986 Film

enekosondheim wrote on August 27, 2007

The alternate ending: The film has become legendary for a widely-unseen 23-minute alternate ending that retains the B-movie roots of the original source material. As originally conceived and filmed, the story follows the stage musical's plot: Audrey is attacked by Audrey II and dies in Seymour's arms, begging him to feed her to the plant so that in a way, she will always be with him. Seymour does so, and in the process ironically fulfills Audrey's great wish, that she wants to be "somewhere that's green". After Seymour feeds Audrey to the plant, he attempts to commit suicide by jumping off Audrey's apartment complex. Before he can, Patrick Martin (played by Paul Dooley in this version, and Jim Belushi in the revamped ending) climbs to the roof to persuade Seymour to let him cut samples of the plant so that they can grow into little Audrey IIs and be sold across America. Seymour quickly slides down the ladder and crosses the street to Mushnick's while Martin reminds him that plants are in the public domain and can be sold without his permission. After confronting the plant as it sings "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", the plant eats Seymour. The three chorus girls are enlisted by Patrick Martin to cut shoots from the plant in order to sell them around the world. Soon, Audrey II clones take over the planet as the song "Don't Feed the Plants" warns the audience not to give in to evil temptations.

This version of the stage ending was adapted to film, with some changes: in the film, an extended showdown between Seymour and Audrey II (featuring the new number "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space") takes place in the shop, which Audrey II eventually destroys before overpowering and devouring Seymour. Oz then took the show's apocalyptic finale far beyond the limits of the stage version by actually showing the plants' takeover of Earth (rather than just describing it).

Oz and his special effects team went to great lengths to create this dramatic finale during which Audrey II takes over New York City, attacks the Brooklyn Bridge, fights the U.S. Army, strangles the Statue of Liberty and, in a homage to the 1933 classic monster movie King Kong, scales the Empire State Building. There are also various nods to the 1953 film The War of the Worlds. The sequence cost $5 million to produce. However, preview audiences rejected this ending as too disturbing. Afterwards, director Oz commented: "They hated us when the main characters died. In the play, they're eaten... but you know they're coming out for a curtain call. But the power of movies is different."

Oz scrapped Audrey's and Seymour's grim deaths and the finale rampage, and reshot a happier ending with Jim Belushi replacing Paul Dooley as Patrick Martin. The showdown between Seymour and Audrey II remains intact, but now Seymour wins by electrocuting the plant as Audrey is seen observing through a window. Seymour and Audrey get married and move to the suburbs, where a little Audrey II grows in the garden.

Another cut sequence is seen on the blooper reel on the DVD, in which Seymour is seen running through fog and in the background are white pillars under a black sky. Director Frank Oz, who has a commentary on the reel, says this was a "dream sequence" that never made the final cut of the movie.

The DVD conflict Little Shop of Horrors was the first DVD to be recalled for content.In 1998, Warner Bros. released a special edition DVD of the film. This DVD included approximately 23 minutes of unfinished footage from Oz's original ending, although it was in black and white and was missing sound, visual, and special effects.

David Geffen, the film's producer and owner of the rights, wanted to re-release the film to theaters with the original ending intact. Geffen became angry at Warner Bros. for including this footage on the DVD without his consent, and as a result the studio removed it from shelves in a matter of days and replaced it with a second edition that did not contain the extra material.

Trampyre wrote on May 16, 2009

While normally I don't bootleg items, I actually did in this case- it was for the star of the film, Ellen Greene!!! She had actually NEVER heard her reprise of "Somewhere That's Green" nor seen her death scene!!! She was thrilled, to say the very least!

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