The Wasp Woman (1959)

THE WASP WOMAN A Beautiful Woman by Day—A Lusting Queen Wasp by Night! [ Roger Corman, king of the cult classics, produced and directed this low-budget fear-fest, and even makes an uncredited cameo appearance as a doctor in one of the hospital scenes. Susan Cabot (Sorority Girl) plays Janice Starlin, whose cosmetics company has started to lose sales, because its marketing relies on her own once-impressive but now aging beauty. The eccentric Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark) develops an enzyme extract from royal wasp jelly, which rejuvenates Janice, with one tiny little side effect: it turns her into a monster! Written by frequent Corman collaborator Leo Gordon (The Terror), this co-stars Anthony (aka Fred) Eisley (Dracula Vs. Frankenstein) and Barboura Morris (A Bucket of Blood). Approximately 72 minutes Black and White

Feminist Sci-Fi from 1960?

I was expecting a typical Roger Corman movie when I caught this on an obscure DirecTV channel.

Imagine, in 1960, a movie about a female CEO who clearly wears all the pants at her successful company, plus she is bright as heck. Now there's a fantasy premise for the year 1960!

As the other reviewers have commented, the special effects are weak, and the monster doesn't even become visible until 80% of the way through the movie.

However, the premise is so unique for the time, I was more than willing to stick with it. And I found the protagonist to be an interesting character. You won't see another sci-fi movie with a strong female CEO as the protagonist. April 3, 2008

Do Wasps Molt?

Doctor Eric Zinthrop is a run of the mill mad scientist of vague and indefinable European descent who loves wasps. He gets fired from one job during the rising action (if you can call it that) and appeals to the aging head of a cosmetics company to fund his research. The vain Janice Starlin (played to the hilt by Susan Cabot) agrees to hire him after watching a (very Cormanesque) demonstration in which Zinthrop turns guinea pigs into rats. Later (offscreen) we are supposed to believe that he turns a huge wild cat into a cute gray kitten. (What kind of cat did it start as with that coloration? A puma?) Miss Starlin is sold, hires him, and begins taking the age-reducing injections herself.

After a plotpoint of extremely dubious credibility, Zinthrop gets hit by a car (apparently) and lapses into a coma. Starlin speeds up her own treatments (she has reduced her age from 40 to around 23 we are told via some talky exposition) but there are side effects. We are not a bit surprised, as it's almost an hour into the film before we finally get to gaze upon the wasp woman, who, of course, is Starlin.

I have seen most of Roger Corman's films, and count myself a fan of his brand of camp, but this is one of the mangiest monster costumes in film history. The wasp does not fly (obviously that was not in the budget) and appears more like a psychopathic black ruffed lemur or a marmoset of some sort with fangs and horns. In other words, it looks absolutely nothing at all like a wasp. This is the sole reason I am giving the film three stars. The rest of the movie rates on the two star level, but the appearance of the wasp woman is delightful to bad movie fans of all types.

The movie is fairly slow, and mainly takes place in one office building, so it really isn't visually stunning, but Susan Cabot does a good job in her role, and truthfully most of the other actors are a bit better than this genre normally sees in roles of this ilk. Please do not miss a cameo role by Bruno VeSota as a drunken security guard with his own comic relief theme song. Bruno is looking pretty rough here, actually, but six years later cleaned up nicely in his tour-de-force performance in Jerry Warren's truly stunning "Wild Wild World of Batwoman."

This is a good, though not terribly exciting, example of the giant mutated monster genre so popular in the middle of the last century. As a bonus, please enjoy the hilarious box art (from the original poster) and compare it to the actual wasp woman. I suspect that you will notice an uncanny and total lack of resemblance.

February 15, 2006

Wasp Woman Has no Sting

I have watched some pretty bad science fiction and horror movies, and actually enjoyed them. Some of them were so bad they were funny. "Wasp Woman" is just bad. Even those cheery lads at "Mystery Science Theater 3000" might have had trouble coaxing laughs from this thing.

We see scenes of bees at the start of this movie, and then a scientist-looking character, Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark), captures a wasp nest. The excitement is so intense you can just feel it. Our scientist is fooling around with wasps while he is supposed to be working on royal jelly. Royal jelly is a secreted from the salivary glands of bees and is used to raise young bees. Because people are gullible, many believe royal jelly has all sorts of health benefits. However, except in Roger Corman movies, royal jelly has yet to have any proven health benefits, can cause severe allergic reactions, and in the case of this movie, seems capable of turning some women into cheesy wasps.

After Mr. Zinthrop is fired, he encounters Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot in her last movie role; apparently "Wasp Woman" was the kiss of death for her movie career), the aging head of a cosmetics company. When I say aging, I mean she is in her 40s. She is very attractive, but apparently insufficiently attractive to sell cosmetics. Mr. Zinthrop convinces Janice that he can make her young by making a guinea pig young.

This movie drags along quite a while. We keep seeing bees instead of wasps. Indeed, there is nary a wasp to be found in this movie except for the wasp woman, and she looks like a "professional" wrestler when she is wearing her cheesy wasp woman outfit.

Finally, Mr. Zinthrop is involved in an accident and ends up being stuck in bed. Janice decides to start taking shots of royal jelly a bit quicker than Mr. Zinthrop had been giving them to her. Janice gets young really quick, but occasionally she gains a black face, claws and a nasty buzz in her voice. When this occurs, she tends to kill people and eat them, which most people would likely consider a serious side effect of Mr. Zinthrop's shots.

I would like to tell you that there are redeeming characteristics to this movie, but unless you are a hard-core Roger Corman fan, you should probably avoid this movie. The movie waits too long for the wasp woman to show up. When she does show up, Corman made up for the cheesy costume by using out-of-focus photography and brief flashes of the wasp woman. The ending was unsatisfying also. The wasp woman put up a really poor fight. After the big husky guys she killed and ate, you would have thought she could have put up a bigger fight at the end. Oh well. Just remember, there are lots of other cheesy movies waiting for you to watch.
January 15, 2006

A Corman Classic

I've always had a soft spot for Wasp Woman. The not so special effects are lame and the acting is campy, but you just have to love this thing. The box cover shows a human head on a giant WASPs body. The movie actually shows a human body with a WASP's face. Plus everytime she turns into the WASP be prepared for a very loud buzzzzzzzzz coming from your TV.

I'm not sure how injesting 'Royal WASP Jelly' can stop and reverse the aging process, but you kind of just go along with it. A female president of a cosmetics company is aging and she feels it's bad for business. A mad scientist comes to her and shows his discovery. She is convinced and decides to try it out on herself. Of course you know it all goes bad for her from there. The WASP woman has some great kills in this one. Not too gory, but some great scenes.

The WASP Woman may be the only movie monster to be stopped by hydrochloric acid, a wooden chair, and a closed window.

Enjoy the show. August 22, 2005

Wanna See My Stinger?...

Roger Corman unleashes yet another of his hideous creations in the form of Janice Starling (Susan Cabot), cosmetics company founder and killer-wasp gal. You see, Ms. Starling has committed that ultimate sin of growing older in a business that only recognizes youth and beauty. Desperate to turn back the hands of time, she enlists the help of scientist Eric Zinthrop, who just so happens to be experimenting with a youth-inducing serum, made from the royal jelly of queen wasps. At first, all goes well, as the serum causes 5 years to melt away. However, Ms. Starling's impatience soon gets the better of her and she takes extra injections of the stuff, turning her into a voracious she-beast! Of course, no such film would be complete without a nice murderous rampage! WASP WOMAN delivers with some good ol' fashioned bloodfeasting! Watch it with INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (GRAVEYARD TRAMPS) for a buzzin' good time... July 18, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...