My movie watch earlier today was the 'classic' sci fi/monster/horror movie The Wasp Woman, made in b/w (and which I have on DVD) but also available to view as an excellent colorized version that I watched on YouTube.
Directed by the legendary Roger Corman, and released in 1959 by Allied Artists, The Wasp Woman (aka The Bee Girl and Insect Woman) is a wonderfully silly (and unintentionally comical) low-budget' movie set in Janice Starlin Enterprises, a cosmetic company headed by and named after its founder (played by Susan Cabot in her last movie role).
Moreover, for the past 16 years, Starlin had also been its only face model, becoming the established, trusted symbol of her company in the eyes of the general public buying her products, until age began to catch up with her looks (she was now around 40 years old). So she retired from that role – only for her company's profits to plummet alarmingly after a new, younger face model replaced her.
Desperate to create a revolutionary product that will save her company from bankruptcy, Starlin hires maverick scientist Dr Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark), who claims to have invented a truly incredible, fast-acting rejuvenation serum using royal jelly, but obtained not from queen bees – instead, from queen wasps! Uh-oh!
Yes indeed, for when Starlin secretly injects herself with substantial amounts of Zinthrop's still highly experimental serum in the hope of restoring her fading beauty, she discovers to her horror that although it does indeed rejuvenate her, and very swiftly, it also temporarily transforms her into a humanoid wasp that kills some of her company's unsuspecting staff – until one of them discovers her terrifying secret!
My two favourite scenes from The Wasp Woman are as follows. The first one sees Zinthrop hold up and inject two aged guinea pigs with his rejuvenating serum, and just a few moments later Starlin reacts with astonishment at their dramatic transformation – as well she might, bearing in mind that the creatures now being held up by Zinthrop are not guinea pigs but laboratory rats! Oops.
The second one is when Starlin turns up at her office one morning after having covertly given herself yet another massive injection of the rejuvenation serum and one of her secretaries, Mary Dennison (Barboura Morris), claims that she looks no more than 22-23 years old, when in reality (and as any viewer of this movie can readily see), apart from sporting a different hairstyle and some artfully-applied make-up, Cabot (the actress playing Starlin) looks exactly the same as she did before! Should've gone to Specsavers, Mary!
The wasp woman monster comes complete with insectoid compound eyes, vicious mandibles, and horn-like antennae (not to mention an hourglass figure that would have made Disney's Tinker Bell even more green than usual, but this time with envy!), and certainly looks much better in colour than in b/w. Conversely, the film itself is definitely one to watch with all disbelief not so much suspended as chained up and locked away inside a steel chamber that the light of truth can never penetrate!
Both the original b/w version and the colorized one of The Wasp Woman are currently available to watch free of charge on YouTube. So click here to watch the former, here to watch the latter, and here to watch an official trailer for it.
Also, to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
Finally, it's time for some total trivia: By pure coincidence, a supernatural wasp woman character appeared in a dark fantasy novel that I read (and enjoyed) earlier this year, and which has a back story all of its own. About 20 years ago I saw this book at my hometown's regular Tuesday morning bric-a-brac market, yet although tempted to buy it, I didn't, but I long remembered it afterwards (due in no small way to its very striking dustjacket illustration – see below) and wished that I had done so (it was only 50p !!). What I didn't remember, unfortunately, was either its title or its author, which made seeking it out all but impossible. Some years passed, and then I happened to chance upon another copy of this selfsame book, again priced at 50p, but this time in a charity shop in the nearby town of Darlaston. Yet, bizarrely, I still didn't buy it, nor did I take note of its title and author.
After that, I never saw this tantalising book again – until early July 2022, that is, when at a local Thursday morning car boot sale I saw a copy of it on a stall, priced yet again at just 50p. But, believe it or believe it not, I STILL didn't buy it (why ever not???), strolling away down the next aisle of stalls instead, before I finally came to my senses, walked swiftly back, and purchased it! Third time lucky, as they say. And the book is... a 1995 supernatural/horror-themed hardback novel entitled Daemonic, authored by Stephen Laws, and which would make a superb movie! Film directors take note!
No comments:
Post a Comment