The Wasp Woman (1959)

Director:

Roger Corman

Writers:

Leo Gordon (screenplay)
Kinta Zertuche (story)

Release Date:

2 November 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Horror Of The Winged Menace !

Plot:

A cosmetics queen develops a youth formula from jelly taken from queen wasps. She fails to anticipate the typical hoary side- effects.

Plot Keywords:

Wasp | Enzyme | Cosmetics | Serum | Injection

Cast

Susan Cabot	...	Janice Starlin
Anthony Eisley	...	Bill Lane (as Fred Eisley)
Barboura Morris	...	Mary Dennison
William Roerick	...	Arthur Cooper
Michael Mark	...	Eric Zinthrop
Frank Gerstle	...	Les Hellman
Bruno VeSota	...	Night Watchman (as Bruno Ve Sota)
Roy Gordon	...	Paul Thompson
Carolyn Hughes	...	Jean Carson
Lynn Cartwright	...	Maureen Reardon
Frank Wolff	...	Man
Lani Mars	...	Secretary
Phillip Barry	...	Man

Also Known As:

Insect Woman
The Bee Girl

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (DVD rating) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2004) | UK:X (original rating)

Company:

Film Group Feature

Trivia:

This was Susan Cabot's final movie.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Although the detectives supposedly are looking for Mr. Zinthrop in Manhattan, their car has California plates, the skyline behind them obviously is that of Los Angeles as it has only low rise buildings and lots of open space rather than the tall and crowded buildings of Manhattan, and they pass at least three date palm trees that could never survive and grow in the cold New York winters.

Quotes:

Bill Lane: You're as bad as she is! Oh, women!
Mary Dennison: Men! Every time you search for an answer, you always come up with women. You're not getting out of this one so easily. I'd like to know why you think Zinthrop really hasn't got something.
Bill Lane: Well, you can call it male intuition if you like... except there's something about this whole business that doesn't smell right... a private laboratory! A secret experiment! Zinthrop himself! The only thing missing is a genie with a lamp!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Svengoolie: The Wasp Woman" (2000)

Dreaming to Become Youth Again

The founder and owner of a cosmetic factory, Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot), is concerned with the dropping sale results of her company. The scientist Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark) offers to her his research with wasp enzymes that makes animals younger, and she immediately accepts to hire him, provided she becomes his human subject. She decides by her own to accelerate the treatment injecting additional serum trying to see earlier results, becoming the lethal "Wasp Woman".

When I saw this B (or Z?) movie available on a double-feature DVD with "Attack of the Giant Leeches", I did not resist and I bought it. This trash low-budget camp movie is a typical product (or sub-product) with the trademark "Roger Corman", but I enjoyed my childhood with many similar movies on TV. The story is silly, the acting is reasonable, the effects are ridiculously cheap and fumy, but I found "The Wasp Woman" an authentic cult-movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Mulher Vespa" ("The Wasp Woman")