The Wasp Woman (1959)

A lot of fun.

It's one of the most original films you'll likely see all year, which, depending on your threshold for certifiably crazy storylines, could be a rewarding experience or one that frustrates you.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A strange movie. The first part seems to promise a sort of bee/wasp gone wild in the woods catastrophe. But, we're abruptly dropped into the big city, in the middle of cosmetic company politics. The link is the mad doctor, Zinthrop (Michael Mark), with his anti-aging wasp extract/enzyme.The premise justifies the setting change; but I got so involved in the secretary's gossipy subplots that the emergence of Susan Cabot's Janice as a giant wasp was an underwhelming development. The goofiness of the wasp head on a high-heeled body was to be expected for the low-budget 50s sci-fi genre. But why wait until nearly the end of the movie to start the actual sci-fi?Janice is entirely too gullible for a successful business woman. She lets Winthrop have carte blanche without any proof that his enzyme will work on humans. Making herself the 'guinea pig' does make some sense, since it's established that she's obsessed with maintaining a youthful appearance. You would think, though, that since she does begin to look younger soon after starting the injections, she'd be satisfied.As other reviewers have pointed out, her obsession becomes an addiction. That's an interesting tack for a sci-fi movie to take. In a sense, it's the goal of science fiction--to try the impossible. So, either she should turn into a teenager, a child, and end up an infant; or, to follow the creature theme, she should become a wasp woman much sooner.The way the plot plays out though, Wasp Woman is essentially a crime drama. Woman hopped-up on enzyme injections scares co-workers in a bug suit and kills them before plunging to her death. What self-respecting monster would confine his/her mayhem to a claustrophobic high-rise office? What's more expected in this genre is a town, city, or world threatened by a monster or alien. At least let's have an implication of wider danger; some stock footage of army units rolling, civilians fleeing and panicking. I guess there's room for a sort of 'kitchen-sink' sci-fi, if the focus is psychological. That might've worked here, especially with the addiction theme. What happened instead was neither a psychological thriller nor a convincing sci-fi drama.There was an opportunity for a sort of Jekyll (Janice) and Hyde (Wasp Woman) juxtaposition. But we don't the transition from Janice to Wasp Woman in the creepy sort of way done in the Jekyll and Hyde or Wolfman movies. Those sorts of scenes could've added mystery and horror.The movie is a mash-up of disparate elements, which, if combined with more finesse, might've made a much more entertaining movie. As noted in the Goofs section, the drive on the city streets shows several cars (mostly '63 Chevys) that were still on the drawing boards when Wasp Woman was first released. Why even include that sequence anyway?This is worth watching once; but you might need to 'punch-in' since the viewer spends so much time watching office staff at work.

'The Wasp Woman' is another Roger Corman's talky monster movie on low budget and with lousy special effects and lots of (pseudo)scientific talk, but with some good ideas and meaning. The film stars Susan Cabot (in her last film role) as Janice Starlin, a founder and a head of cosmetics company, in search of eternal youth. When a mad scientist Dr. Zinthrop (Michael Mark) contacts with Starlin to introduce her his new scientific breakthrough - a miracle cure against aging. The research reaches to the point where Starlin herself become human guinea pig and tries the new medicine. Results are amazing - Janice Starling starts to look younger. But search for eternal youth always end up with devilish results with Janice turning into bloodsucking wasp (from human guinea pig).The film, although quite fun for all the obvious reasons, is pretty terrible besides acting. The writing is tedious and first part of the film is quite boring actually. Susan Cabot seems too classy and too good of an actress to run around in ludicrous wasp costume that bears no similarities with wasps. Not even with the one portrayed on the poster.

Long before Olivia de Havilland warned us that a swarm of killer bees were coming our way, and a few years after the public at large fled from "The Deadly Mantis", the staff of a beauty supply company must deal with "The Wasp Woman", unknowingly their big boss, who has been surprising them recently with her sudden youth-creating beauty. Actress Susan Cabot is made to look "old" (sans make-up and with large framed glasses) as the creator of a line of beauty products which no longer work for her. She decides to be the human experiment of a scientist obsessed with wasp jelly which makes an old lab mouse young and turns an old cat back into a kitten. Unfortuanately, thanks to the sudden attack of the no longer friendly kitty, the scientist learns that his wasp jelly has serious side effects, turning the creature who takes it into a wasp-like creature, attacking the nearest victim and literally eating them from inside out. But before he can warn Cabot, he is hit by a car, and pretty soon, she is having flashes of the demon inside her, all the while desperate to take more youth-creating jelly in order to remain youthful.A combination of genuine horror and camp, this is also a very moralistic tale of how the obsession with youth can literally destroy one's soul. Cabot's loveliness in real life isn't hidden by the dowdy way she is clothed and made up in the open scenes (it's funny how lack of make-up and ugly glasses are always used in movies and on T.V. to indicate plainness), and she is publicly humiliated in a meeting with fellow executives and her secretary of how by remaining cover girl for her own product, she has caused the sales of the product to go down. It doesn't help that she's surrounded by younger secretaries and clerks who are quite voluptuous and often comment behind her back (which she somehow manages to overhear) on her looks.While it is insinuated by the bee keepers in the very first scene that scientist Michael Mark is quite mad, he never really shows serious signs of that, although his obsession with angry wasps over the usually man friendly bees is quite odd. His performance is basically very subtle, especially in the scenes following his accident. Other good performances come from William Roerick as one of Cabot's executives, Anthony Eisley as another employee and Barboura Morris as Cabot's devoted secretary. The film really doesn't explode into horror until the final quarter, but it is still interesting to see how it develops.

With Echoes of The Fly (1958) still Buzzing at the Box Office, Schlockmeister Roger Corman grabbed a couple of People and took a Week to make this Gloomy Monster Movie. The Cast, some Corman Regulars including B-Movie Babe Susan Cabot who was never Credited with an A-Budget Film but a lot of Bees, did a fine Job. The background Music is also quite Appropriately Uncanny.But the "Star" of the Movie is the Monster and for the few times It/She is on Screen there is some Tension and Gore that looks quite Bizarre. There are some glaring Missteps along the way, the kind that Corman never minded, at least in His Ultra Quickies. Like the Bumble Bees instead of Wasps Iconography, and the Guinea Pigs to Rats Mind Boggler. There are some others but Who cares?Overall, there is much Talk in this Thing and hardly Anyone moves in the Claustrophobic and Drab Sets, but there is enough Drive-In Movie Madness to make it Worth a Watch.