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The Wasp Woman

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For the 1995 remake, see The Wasp Woman (1995 film).
The Wasp Woman
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRoger Corman
Jack Hill
Screenplay byLeo Gordon
Story byKinta Zertuche
Produced byRoger Corman
StarringSusan Cabot
Anthony Eisley
Michael Mark
Barboura Morris
CinematographyHarry Neumann
Edited byCarlo Lodato
Music byFred Katz
Distributed byFilmgroup
Release date
  • October 30, 1959 (1959-10-30) (United States)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50,000 (estimated)

The Wasp Woman (aka The Bee Girl and Insect Woman) is an American science fiction film produced and directed by Roger Corman (who also has a cameo role in the film, playing a doctor). The film was completed in 1959, and was originally released as a double feature with Beast from Haunted Cave.[citation needed] To pad out the running time when the film was released to television two years later, a new prologue was added to the film by director Jack Hill.[citation needed]

Plot

In Hill's prologue, a scientist, Dr. Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark), is fired from his job at a honey farm for experimenting with wasps.

The founder and owner of a large cosmetics company, Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot), is disturbed when her firm's sales begin to drop after it becomes apparent to her customer base that she is aging. Zinthrop has been able to extract enzymes from the royal jelly of the queen wasp that can reverse the aging process. Janice agrees to fund further research, at great cost, provided she can serve as his human subject. Displeased with the slowness of the results, she breaks into the scientist's laboratory after hours and injects herself with extra doses of the formula. Zinthrop becomes aware that some of the test creatures are becoming violent and goes to warn Janice, but before he can reach anyone, he gets into a car accident. He is thus temporarily missing and Janice goes through great trouble to find him, eventually taking over his care.

Janice continues her clandestine use of the serum and sheds 20 years in a single weekend, but soon discovers that she is periodically transformed into a murderous, wasp-like creature. Eventually, Zinthrop throws a jar of carbolic acid at her face, and another character uses a chair to push her out of a window, killing her.

Cast

Production

Susan Cabot as the Wasp Woman

The Wasp Woman has the head and hands of a wasp but the body of a woman—exactly the opposite of the creature shown in the film's poster (which does not appear in the film).

The film was made for an estimate budget of $50,000.[1]

Trying to keep ahead of schedule, Corman tried to film the climactic action scene in one take. Whenever The Wasp Woman bit one of her victims, Cabot had to have a mouthful of chocolate syrup to pass for black-and-white blood. When Eric Zinthrop throws a bottle of acid at The Wasp Woman in the final scene, the plan was that Cabot would drop behind a desk and someone would sprinkle some liquid smoke on her mask and then she would come back up. They accidentally put too much liquid smoke on her and by the time she crashed through the window the smoke had gone through the two air holes and into her lungs. Then someone worked out that she could not breathe, so they managed to pull a bit of the mask off, along with some skin.[citation needed]

In 1962,[2] director Hill added 20 minutes to the film for its eventual television syndication release.[3]

Release

According to Tim Dirks, the film was one of a wave of "cheap teen movies" released for the drive-in market. They consisted of "exploitative, cheap fare created especially for them [teens] in a newly-established teen/drive-in genre." [4]

The film was re-released as part of the "100th Anniversary of Monster Movies" in March 2010.[5]

Soundtrack

The film's musical score, written by Fred Katz, was originally composed for A Bucket of Blood. According to Mark Thomas McGee, author of Roger Corman: The Best of the Cheap Acts, each time Katz was called upon to write music for Corman, he sold the same score as if it were new music.[6] The score was used in a total of seven films, including The Little Shop of Horrors and Creature from the Haunted Sea.[7]

Reception

The film has received mixed to negative reviews from critics.

TV Guide gave the film a negative review, awarding it a score of 1 out of 4, and calling the film "laughable".[8] Allmovie gave a negative review, criticizing the film's "ludicrous" monster costume, special effects and low budget.[9] Leonard Maltin gave the film a mostly positive 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.[10]

Parodies

On April 6, 2008, Cinematic Titanic did a live riffing on the film to a theater audience. It was released on DVD on August 7, 2008.[11]

In the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode 'Night of the Were-Mole,' Muriel can be seen watching The Wasp Woman, which she describes as "her favorite show." [12]

Cinema Insomnia

In 2007, The Wasp Woman was shown on the horror hosted television series Cinema Insomnia.[13] Apprehensive Films later released the Cinema Insomnia episode on DVD.[14]

Remake

The film was remade in 1988 as Rejuvenatrix (also known as The Rejuvenator). In 1995, a remake of The Wasp Woman was produced for the Roger Corman Presents series. The remake was directed by Jim Wynorski, and starred Jennifer Rubin as Janice Starlin.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Alan Frank, The Films of Alan Frank: Shooting My Way Out of Trouble, Bath Press, 1998 p 65
  2. ^ Waddell, Calum (2009). Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film. McFarland & Company. p. 11. ISBN 978-0786436095.
  3. ^ Hartl, John (June 20, 1996). "Not Yet Over The Hill -- Director of Campy 'Sisters' in Comeback". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on November 1, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Dirks,Tim. "Citing Website" The History of Film - The 1950s: The Cold War and Post-Classical Era, The Era of Epic Films, and the Threat of Television, Part 1. Accessed March 16, 2015,http://www.filmsite.org/50sintro.html
  5. ^ Monster Movies Celebrate 100th Anniversary With Marathon Webcast
  6. ^ Ray, Fred Olen (1991). The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers As Distributors. McFarland & Company. p. 40. ISBN 0-89950-628-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month=, |chapterurl=, and |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ "Fred Katz filmography". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-10-13. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ "The Wasp Woman Review". TV Guide. TV Guide.com. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  9. ^ "The Wasp Woman (1959) - Roger Corman | Review". Allmovie. AllMovie.com. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  10. ^ Leonard Maltin; Spencer Green; Rob Edelman (January 2010). Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide. Plume. ISBN 978-0-452-29577-3.
  11. ^ Joel Hodgson’s CINEMATIC TITANIC Sets Sail Live And One Of Our Spies Was There! - Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news
  12. ^ "Night of the Were-Mole" Courage the Cowardly Dog Dir. John R. Dilworth, Stretch Films, 1999.
  13. ^ "Cinema Insomnia". Cinema Insomnia. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  14. ^ "Wasp Woman DVD". Apprehensive Films. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  15. ^ The Wasp Woman at IMDb
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