Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)

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

Director:

Denis Sanders

Writer:

Nicholas Meyer

Stars:

William Smith, Anitra Ford, Victoria Vetri

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
Bill Keller	...	Joe
Cliff Emmich	...	Coroner
Al Bordighi	...	Herm (as Al Bordiggi)

Storyline

In the small town of Peckham, California, many men die for excessive effort during sexual intercourse. When a scientist from the Brandt research laboratory is found dead in a motel, the government sends Agent Neil Agar (William Smith) to investigate the mysterious deaths. He suspects that the deaths may be related to some experiments of Dr. Susan Harris (Anitra Ford), who is researching bees in the Brandt facility.

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Plot Keywords:

female full frontal nudity | bee | breasts | female rear nudity | seduction | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Graveyard Tramps

Filming Locations:

American Theatre, 24527 Spruce Street, Newhall, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sequoia Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Italian censorship visa # 67894 delivered on 5 February 1976.

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Goofs

When Neil Agar and Herb Kline are meeting in Herb's office, the clock on the wall in the background indicates it's 6:55. A few seconds later, Herb makes a call to his wife, a call lasting a few minutes, but when he hangs up the phone and starts talking to Neil again, the clock reads 7:10.

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Quotes

Dr. Susan Harris: Well, I must admit that since the curfew, Peckham has been more boring than usual.

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Alternate Versions

The recent MGM DVD is missing footage. Part of the scene where Beverly Powers (Hills) seduces her man is missing, deleting some of her nudity. This may have been due to damaged materials used to create the DVD, as the scene is intact on the old VHS (and on a couple of budget DVDs that used the VHS for the source). The MGM version looks the best this low-budget film has ever looked, but the missing footage rankles. The same incomplete print runs on pay cable and MGM did not fix the problem and reissue the DVD.

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Connections

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 7 (2002)

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Soundtracks

Also Sprach Zarathustra
(uncredited)
Composed by Richard Strauss
[End title music]

User Reviews

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.