Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Denis Sanders

Writer:

Nicholas Meyer (written by)

Release Date:

1 June 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

They'll Love The Very Life Out Of Your Body!

Plot:

A powerful cosmic force is turning Earth women into queen bees who kill men by wearing them out sexually.

Plot Keywords:

Bee | Small Town | Lesbianism | Lesbian | Transformation

Cast

William Smith	...	Neil Agar
Anitra Ford	...	Dr. Susan Harris
Victoria Vetri	...	Julie Zorn
Cliff Osmond	...	Captain Peters
Wright King	...	Dr. Murger
Ben Hammer	...	Herb Kline
Anna Aries	...	Nora Kline
Andre Philippe	...	Aldo Ferrara (as Andre Phillippe)
Sid Kaiser	...	Stan Williams
Katie Saylor	...	Gretchen Grubowsky (as Katie A. Saylor)
Beverly Powers	...	Harriet Williams
Tom Pittman	...	Harv
William Keller	...	Joe
Cliff Emmich	...	Coroner
Al Bordighi	...	Herm (as Al Bordiggi)

Also Known As:

Graveyard Tramps (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Company:

Sequoia Pictures

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Planet X: (#2.2)" (2006)

The quintessential B movie (Bee movie?)

I was first turned on to this film by Siskel & Ebert a zillion years ago on a program they ran featuring their choices for the best "bad" movies. They were sure right about this one. The plot is so ridiculous it doesn't bear mentioning -- the magic is all in the execution, e.g., Anitra Ford stripping and writhing to the strains of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherezade", a secret laboratory in which women are transformed into seductive automatons by a procedure involving their being bathed in honey and then exposed to bees -- lot's of that kind of thing here. And what's this? The film has the US government sending out an agent to investigate the death of a guy who suffered a heart attack during strenuous sex. Is that where our intelligence agencies put their energies? No wonder they were so clueless about 9/11 and Iraq. Now for some inane reason, this film got reissued on DVD under the tile "Graveyard Tramps". It's true, there is at least one scene in a cemetery, and as to the female characters being tramps . . . no argument. Nevertheless, what kind of moron would throw away a great title like "Bee Girls" for something so prosaic? Oh, and the DVD cover for some reason identifies the female lead as the late Claudia Jennings, who is not even in the film (the lead is her fellow Playmate Victoria Vetri). Go figure. Here's another thing I love about this film -- although it is completely about sex, albeit sex in the context of some loony incomprehensible plot involving a world takeover, and although there is plenty of nudity and seduction, this film from the early 70's is rated PG. Teens could see it without a chaperone. Yep, back when I was a boy, we didn't suffer from the same neurotic fears we now have about adolescents being permanently damaged by the sight of a female breast. Seems we were relatively hardy in those days, although on the other hand, we didn't have to deal with news reports of beheadings and the like. But I digress. There will always be a special place in my heart for Invasion of the Bee Girls, the sine qua non of its genre. And a heck of a lot of fun.