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The Wasp Woman
The head of a major cosmetics company experiments on herself with a youth formula made from royal jelly extracted from wasps, but the formula's side effects have deadly consequences.
Release : | 1959 |
Rating : | 4.8 |
Studio : | The Filmgroup, Santa Cruz Productions Inc., |
Crew : | Art Direction, Property Master, |
Cast : | Susan Cabot Anthony Eisley Michael Mark Barboura Morris Frank Gerstle |
Genre : | Horror Science Fiction |
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Fresh and Exciting
Best movie ever!
It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
I'm writing this in 2018. I'm a Roger Corman fan but somehow I missed this one. Turner Classics showed it today and I started watching it but missed the opening credits. Partway into the movie I recognized some of the music, it reminded me of the jazz score in Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, and as various things happened in Wasp Woman I started to think that this just had to be a Roger Corman movie. I was too hooked to check then, but after the movie ended I looked it up and, sure enough, Roger Corman directed. I really liked this movie. The acting was very good and convincing, the story was interesting, the suspense mounted, and there just the right amount of humor (another Roger Corman specialty). Sure, the wasp monster was a little hokey, but even that was well done. I felt sorry for the woman trying to save her youth, and her company, the eccentric scientist was perfect, and I enjoyed the two romantic leads, especially Barboura Morris. A very entertaining movie.
Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) is the owner of a cosmetics company whose prices are falling. Executive Bill Lane (Fred Eisley) tells her this is because of her aging looks...because that's how you get a bonus at Christmas, right? Anyhow, at the same time this is going on a scientist named Dr. Eric Zinthrop has been working on a serum which reverses the aging process. Might this be the ideal solution? Janice helps fund Zinthrop's efforts to perfect his work, then uses herself as a human test subject. It works, and she easily sheds 20 years. Unfortunately it has a side effect. It turns her into a woman with a wasp's head...exactly twice. Then she dies after falling out a window. Ironically The Wasp Woman has little or no wasp woman it. This might be excused if the characters or story were interesting, but most of the movie is just executives talking about things that we don't really care about. I don't really recommend it because it's pretty boring and doesn't even get the benefit of enjoyably bad.
Did Roger Corman do the original "Little Shop of Horrors"? I'll have to check. As predictable as a soap opera. A bumbling (not quite mad) scientist invents a youth serum that turns test animals and people into giant fuzzy mutant wasps that buzz. Cabot wears a hairy fright mask with curly "antennae" and sucks several victims dry. It's supposed to eat 'em too which saves a ton on special effects.A shameless steal from "The Fly". A human with an unintentionally funny face. Giant claws like a lobster. It could have been much more horrible if the results had been shown on camera. A flattened dead body in a web or rolled up like old toothpaste. It evokes memories of every awful-stupid horror movie from Gabor's "Queen of Outer Space" to the more recent "Cat Woman". Women seeking the fountain of youth always turn left at the wrong exit. Fun but not really that wonderful. Hardly worth viewing twice. When I was a kid, this actually scared me to death on the big screen. Remade at least twice by other studios and many variations on TV as well. (Remember the "Outer Limits" episode where a pretty girl is actually a transformed queen bee and wants to "mate" with a human male?)
Kooky Dr. Zinthrop (Michael Mark) has created a formula that will reverse the effects of aging using wasp enzymes. Middle-aged cosmetics company owner Janice Starling (Susan Cabot) is anxious to try it and insists on being Zinthrop's first human test subject. Well, it works fine and Janice looks younger but then there's that pesky side effect of turning her into a blood-sucking wasp woman! One of the better low-budget horror flicks Roger Corman made during the era before he struck pay dirt with his Poe movies at AIP. Yes, it's cheesy and campy. Yes, the wasp woman costume is a joke. But it's also a very fun movie. Susan Cabot, in her final and most memorable film role, is excellent. Michael Mark plays the "not quite mad" scientist very well. Anthony (Fred) Eisley and pretty Barboura Morris make rather unlikable protagonists. Particularly Eisley. There are also a couple of cuties playing secretaries who have a funny scene that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie.