The Wasp Woman (1959) watch online HD

Like none of his other late 50's/early 60's horror & Sci-Fi tryouts (and there were quite a lot of them), "The Wasp Woman" truly proves that Roger Corman was, and still is, a very creative and versatile filmmaker! The plot of his ultra-low budget quickie is mundane and unbelievably predictable, yet the whole film is stuffed with ingenious little twists and elements that make the premise feel fresh and original nevertheless! There are very few directors out there, apart from Corman, able to achieve this! Susan Cabot, who starred in a handful of contemporary Corman productions, plays a businesswoman leading a prominent cosmetics company. She's unable to accept her own natural ageing process and righteously fears that her looks will bring down the monthly profits. When a scientist announces that he developed a rejuvenation liquid by extracting enzymes of ordinary wasps, Janice Starling immediately wants to commercialize it and test it on herself. The miraculous discovery is highly efficient, but when Janice injects herself with too much doses, she transforms into a murderous wasp overnight. "The Wasp Woman" is no more or no less than fun & undemanding Sci-Fi entertainment! The film has a good pace and there's the occasional suspenseful moment to enjoy. The monster-transformations and special effects are really tacky but what else did you expect considering the money that was involved? This charming little movie may not be very appealing to the younger generation of fans, but I warmly recommend it to admirers of classic science fiction. The rating here on IMDb is WAY too low!

THE WASP WOMAN is certainly not a film to be taken very seriously as it details the hideous and unexpected transformation of a woman looking for the fountain of youth into a rather nasty flesh-eating monster instead...an unforeseen side effect of Dr. Zinthrop's wasp enzyme treatments. The common be wary of science theme is certainly in full force here and it does feel comfortable in this low budget environment.

The best thing about this film is it has a great pace as it keeps moving along nicely and is consistently entertaining. The worst is the low budget look of the monster and the awful music.

One of Roger Corman's better directorial efforts about reversing the aging process to sell cosmetics in the early 60's! Susan Cabot, the lead, finished her film career with this one before returning to the theatre in New York after many films in the 50's. Unfortunately, she was bludgeoned to death by her dwarf son sometime in the 80's which ended her promising career. She was a serious actress with a terrible final act.

A definite 6 out of 10. Best performance = Susan Cabot. Worst performance = Anthony (Fred) Eisley - the "actor" who always managed to reach the pinnacle of Blandness in every film he made in the 60's. Dr. Zin in his spotted pajamas reminds me of someone's Uncle Luigi. An under-rated low budget flick which hits a nerve (cosmetics, pshaw). This is on DVD. Seek it out!

That great phrase was spoken by cosmetic magnate Susan Cabot's secretary on the telephone to her deadbeat boyfriend, one of many quirky passages in this electrifying shock-fest. Cabot, in her last film role, worked for director Roger Corman several times, and is amazing as a 40 year old executive seeking youth and beauty to boost her sagging company (and face). She hires an eccentric (Michael Mark), who has discovered that wasp enzymes can bring back youth to animals. Cabot volunteers herself to some periodic injections, and is transformed, but not without ghastly side effects. Taking the idea from "The Fly" (1958), she develops wasp claws and head and becomes a deadly eating machine at times. The jazzy music is riveting, and the editing quick and vicious, just like a buzzing insect's moves. The climax is tense and terrifying. Barboura Morris is good as Cabot's assistant, while Marks is charmingly funny, especially when flirting with the secretaries. Deserves all its accolades.

One of producer & director Roger Cormans' most beloved schlock pictures is great fun, and is seen as a minor camp classic. Corman regular Susan Cabot ("Sorority Girl") stars as Janice Starlin, a 40 year old cosmetics magnate who fears getting old. One day, she makes the acquaintance of mad scientist Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark of the 1931 "Frankenstein"). He's developed a serum, derived from wasp enzymes, that can restore youth to living things. She insists that she be the first human guinea pig, with devastating results: she sometimes turns into a humanoid monster with a wasp head and hands, and which is compelled to kill.

This is actually rather well acted for such a silly B flick, with a cast also including Anthony Eisley ('Hawaiian Eye'), the beautiful Barboura Morris ("A Bucket of Blood"), William Roerick ("Not of This Earth"), Frank Gerstle ("The Atomic Brain"), Roy Gordon ("Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman"), Bruno VeSota ("Attack of the Giant Leeches"), and Frank Wolff ("Beast from Haunted Cave"). Cabot is appealing in the lead and Morris is just luminous as an employee who does some sleuthing into Zinthrops' background.

Corman is wise enough to dole out good "wasp woman" action in little bits and pieces. The effects are utterly tacky (Cabots' head may be covered, but her neck is clearly visible), but in this sort of ultra cheap genre entry, we wouldn't have it any other way. Fortunately, the story (scripted by actor Leo Gordon, another frequent Corman collaborator) surrounding the set pieces is entertaining enough that we don't mind the wait. In the meantime, there's a lively jazz score by Fred Katz to keep us amused.

When the movie was sold to television, Corman had one of his many proteges, Jack Hill ("Coffy"), shoot about nine minutes of new footage.

Be sure to watch for Cormans' unbilled cameo as a hospital doctor.

Seven out of 10.

******SPOILERS***** Decent Roger Corman film about the goings on in a top cosmetic company and the story of it's CEO and founder who hit upon hard times when her looks who were the companies best advertisement began to develop wrinkles as she began to approach middle-age as did the companies, in being cut in half, profits.

Cosmetic Queen Janice Starlin, Susan Cabot, needs something to jump-start her falling business and just then pops in Eric Zinthrop, Michael Mark, an eccentric scientist. Zinthrop's experiments with wasp royal jelly has brought on his subjects, hamsters dogs and cats, miracles in retarding the aging process and bringing them back to their youth. Seeing first hand and being convinced by Zinthrop's experiments Janice eagerly volunteers to be injected with Zinthrop's serum and becomes more youthful looking as the injections continue. But like most women Janice feels that she not youthful enough and starts, against Zinthrop's advice, to take them by herself and in larger and larger dosages. As Janice becomes more youthful she also becomes more waspish and wasps especially a queen wasp are dangerous and deadly creatures.

The acting is much better then you would expect from an early Roger Corman horror movie. Even though you don't see Janice transform into the deadly Wasp Woman until almost in the last third of the movie which makes the horror scenes very limited but their still both shocking as well as effective. The very good acting by all involved in the film keeps you interested in the story up until the horror and action scenes starts.

Even though Janice is both a small and delicate woman, even made up as the Wasp Woman, she's very physical aggressive and frightening in all her action scenes in which all her victims are far bigger then she is.

Zinthrop being more or less the mad scientist type in the movie was anything but mad but very concerned for Janice in his experiments on her and it was Janice who went too far not him in pursuing them. "The Wasp Woman" is one of Roger Corman's better earlier movies with a sound plot and top notch acting By Susan Cabot, Michael Mark, Arthur Cooper Anthony Eisley and the very likable Barboura Morris that rises the film above the B-Horror movie that you would have thought that it would be.

The plot of this film has the head of a cosmetics firm trying out a new formula formed from the jelly of a queen wasp. The make-up actually makes the woman younger, but has the horrible side effect in that it turns the woman into a killer human wasp.

Oh what a silly film this is. Its also a great deal of fun. The story is wildly silly, there's a monster that looks ridiculous, and enough skill behind the camera to produce just the right amount of tension to keep you watching. It all combines to form a perfectly charming little movie.

Good, but far from great, the Wasp Woman gets its classic status from the fact that the film used to be in permanent rotation on late night horror TV. I can't tell you how many times my mind was warped by this little gem over the years. It seemed it was always on and pretty much everyone I knew saw it over and over again. It became a joke of sorts as the quintessential "bad movie", its bug eyed monster in tights was exactly the sort of monster you didn't want to see in a movie.

Highly recommended to those who want to see a what horror films used to be like at the height of the drive- in era, or to those who just want something to keep themselves distract on a dark and stormy night.

Beee-eautiful Janet Starlin doesn't realize that her nerdy glasses and her constipated expression make her look older, and when her "age" beee-gins to interfere with her successful cosmetics company, she takes some never-bee-fore-attempted measures to regain her youth.

Teaming up with a would-bee mad scientist, she allows him to inject her with a serum made from the royal jelly of wasps, and pretty soon she looks 22 again. Unfortunately, it also makes her turn into a wasp monster at certain inopportune moments, like when she gets a tension headache. Needless to say, when she's a wasp, she's a beee-itch.

Some good buzzing bee-woman action in this one, I love the part where Janet/Wasp Woman confronts a mild-mannered nurse and rushes at her, blocking her escape by body-slamming a door closed right in front of her. Lots of fun for campy monster fans, anybody expecting anything really scary or thrilling...well, don't bother this movie and it won't bother you.

This Roger Corman B- horror film isn't bad. It good have been better with a little more action earlier on. When you advertise a film featuring a monster, you don't want to wait for over three-quarters of that film waiting for it. That was the case here with the Wasp Woman who doesn't become that and start killing people until the last 15 minutes of the 72-minute film.

However, it wasn't totally boring up to then. It was still fairly interesting as it showed an eccentric scientist inventing a serum that would reverse the aging process. He finds a willing subject in the head of a cosmetics firm that is falling on hard times. The owner, who was the centerpiece of the company's advertising for so many years, is no longer young and attractive, and sales of their products have fallen off.

But once she begins to take this serum, after being convinced it works because she's seen the effect on rabbits and cats, she slowly begins to look young and prettier again. However, she gets greedy and takes too much. The result: when angry, she turns into a wasp, killing and devouring its prey - whoever is in her way at a particular moment. Worse things happen: the scientist is a victim of a hit-and-run, is in a coma for about a week and our lady exec is just about out of serum. It's panic time. The rest of the select circle of employees, meanwhile, have been suspicious of this whole thing from day one and have spied here and there. One of them was the Wasp Woman's first victim. The guy nosed around too much in the lab. The rest of the crew, however, is still alive and now pretty much knows what's going on as the doctor begins to slowly snap out of it and warn them about "Janice Starlin," aka The Wasp Woman. A confrontation with all of them ensues in a violent, dramatic ending.

Susan Cabot does a nice job playing the cosmetics CEO and ''Michael Mrk" isn't bad as the scientist, "Eric Zinthrop." None of the actors are terrible, actually, which I usually except in these kind of B-films. They aren't Laurence Oliver or Meryl Streep, but they're competent enough.

Corman's goofy music score was very reminiscent of his 1960 hit, "The Little Shop Of Horrors." This movie didn't have that pizazz to it but, as said in the first sentence, wasn't bad. It certainly is worth a look for sci-fi or horror films of the '50s and '60s. With its short running time, even if you don't like it, it didn't take up the whole night.

'The Wasp Woman' is one of Roger Corman's better monster movies (personally I prefer his biker, black comedy, gangster and psychedelic movies, but that's me). Susan Cabot stars as an ambitious head of a cosmetics firm. Being the public face of the company, she takes a downturn in sales as a personal criticism. So when a scientist experimenting with Royal Jelly, not just your average Royal Jelly, but some made from wasps, comes to her attention she hires him to experiment with its alleged anti-aging effects. Initial tests on assorted animal are so successful she begins to try the stuff herself, with impressive results. Only problem is that in her enthusiasm she forgot to see if there are any negative side effects, and by looking at the title of the movie, it's pretty obvious that there are! Herein lies the fun of this goofy movie. Sexy Cabot is good in this her final role. A bizarre footnote to her short career is her death in the mid-80s at the hands of her dwarf son. Amazing but true! But that strange event aside, the movie itself stands on its own merits. Nothing too ambitious, but an effective low budget trashy shocker that makes a great popcorn movie. By no means Corman's best work but very entertaining just the same.

Susan Cabot plays a cosmetic magnate that has begun to show heavy signs of aging and enlists the aid of a scientist, played by lovable Universal veteran Michael Marks, that has found something in the royal jelly of queen wasps that makes the aging process regress. Naturally, the once highly lauded for her looks Cabot eagerly asks to be the first human guinea pig after watching Marks take a guinea pig and inject it, wait a few seconds, and see it turn into a white rat! Okay, Roger Corman either didn't know the difference between guinea pigs or rats or more likely just didn't have the time to find a young guinea pig. Cabot gets a little crazy with her dosage and becomes a terrorizing wasp woman that devours her prey entirely. This is a silly but highly enjoyable film with some pretty good acting all around. Cabot is beautiful and can act. She does a very credible job with her role and gives this film a lot of credibility. The sets are cheap...very cheap, and the special effects are not so special. The wasp woman make-up is pretty effective actually. This Corman film has some black humour injected into it. Even Corman himself plays a very stiff doctor in one scene. Barboura Morris does a fine supporting job playing Cabot's secretary. She looks as lovely as ever. Lots of fun and should keep your mind buzzing with interest.

It's not a bad movie. I found it to be fun and entertaining. It is another low budget B movie production but in my opinion it is slightly under rated and maybe a half step in front of most of it's contemporaries. Being produced and directed by Roger Corman probably has a lot to do with this. The acting isn't bad especially that of the leading lady Susan Cabot, and the plot interesting although in places flawed. The costume for the wasp woman was a big disappointment. I have no doubt that it had a much bigger effect in 1960 but it is pretty poor. When you see the design on the box for the DVD or VCR tape remember, never judge a book by it's cover. The wasp woman's appearance is nothing like the artist's conception. It's still well worth watching and I have done so several times over the years. Just remember not to be too critical. Relax and enjoy it.

***** SPOILERS, AS USUAL********

A woman seeks eternal youth through wasp juice and ends up killing all the men she comes in contact with -- she even goes after the lovely secretary (Morris)!

Although promotional materials promised a huge wasp with a woman's face, Corman's film offers, of course, just the opposite. Cabot is one of the best at this stuff -- she really raises the film out of the boredom much of the rest of it wallows in and the screen is much more engaging when she is on it. In fact, whenever she's on screen you want to look at her -- especially when she's tearing into a young executive to drain his life essence!

Good stuff for fans of this type of film. Those looking for real scares will probably know to look elsewhere.

A professor is working on the deadly jelly of a Queen Wasp. Where he learns that this drug his working can slow down the aging cycle and make one look young again. So a boss of a cosmetics company in need to boost her companies falling sales becomes interested in it. So she becomes the first human guinea pig for the drug and soon enough she becomes a youthful beauty again. Though, there are nasty side effects to follow.

I will start off by typing that the DVD I watched it on didn't have such great picture quality, with some scenes being too dark and real grainy, but maybe that's the way it was shot. Since the production would have had a shoestring budget, but anyway it was still viewable.

Roger Corman's The Wasp Woman which I borrowed from a friend is one weird, but mostly a lacklustre thriller. It has a very slow first 50-miutes and it suddenly picks up in the last quarter of the film. I just found it quite a tedious viewing, with two or three moments of sheer excitement and interest in just basically the last 20-minutes of the film.

The film premise was interesting enough, but the discussions and theories leading up to the thrilling last quarter weren't entirely enticing or particularly fun viewing. They were more of a snore fest and a real drag. Well, maybe some scenes early on involving a Professor and his mumbo jumbo have its moments. But saying that, the story was generally unpredictable and it had its amusing situations. Like the fruity Prof. Zenthrop going into a trance and having a scuffle with a cat, the first appearance of the wasp woman and some moments when she decides to feed on some unexpected guests, but most of these humorous scenes come too late in the film.

The wasp costume came as a surprise; it looked ridiculously funny and truly unimaginative. With someone running around in black clothing, black high heels, a fury mask that covers the face with some feelers and beady eyes added on, but what do you expect from a Roger Corman z-grade film. Reading some reviews from fellow IMDb users I see I'm not the only one to feel a bit conned, as the cover art on the DVD box actually had a wasp with a woman's head on it ;). Cheap and shoddy effects were to be expected and are definitely a humorous sight to see.

There are stilted performances, except for the main leads Susan Cabot as the vain boss of a beauty products company during the day and the vicious wasp woman at night and Michael Mark as Professor Eric Zinthrop are pretty good.

The script is fairly corny and at times it will unintentionally cause a snicker. The plot has its usual flaws and inconsistencies. Though, these are the reasons to watch these types of films.

The mostly loud and forceful music score was a bit over-the-top and it kind of got on my nerves. It was just too distracting for me. The dim lighting and cheap sets really added to the atmosphere side of things.

It has an enjoyable and thrilling climax, but the sudden ending just felt forced and unconvincing. I wasn't expecting big things or anything grand from this film, but I was hoping for more fun and for me the film sorely lacked that.

Well, maybe I'm being too critical, but I just couldn't get into this film liked I hoped, as I usually enjoy these types of films. It's not awful, I just found it plain dreary… well, most of it.

"American Woman... Mama let me be-hee! ...Don't come hangin' around my door... I don't wanna see your (very ugly black waspy) face no more!"

Sorry, got a little carried away here. For some reason I got this superb THE GUESS WHO song stuck in my head...

Anyway, Roger Corman's THE WASP WOMAN from 1960... That's what I should be talking about, right? Well, there ain't too much to say about, except for the fact that it's a fun little creature feature from a director that I wouldn't exactly call the most versatile film-maker on the planet, but certainly one of the most productive ones and on top of that, one that is always very creative with a low budget. I can already agree with fellow commentators on here, that the IMDb rating for this Corman quickie is shamefully low. Too low, really, because THE WASP WOMAN isn't a bad movie. Okay, I have to admit that the opening scenes (sloppily filmed shots with the bee-doctor and the wasp-doctor and their buzzing little friends in the yard) looked pretty bad and were not very promising for the rest of the movie (I mean, a character - in this case Michael Mark as Dr. Zinthrop - taking to himself and his little wasp friends always looks pretty stupid in a movie). But as soon as the movie makes the switch to the interior sets of the cosmetic company, the movie gets considerably better and the directing becomes tighter.

It seems like Roger Corman saw and enjoyed the 1958 version of THE FLY (of course he did), and was also impressed by how well that one did at the time. THE WASP WOMAN, to me at least, showed a lot of similarities with the basic premise of THE FLY. This time, a cosmetic magnate (Janice Starlin) gets transformed into a man-sized wasp, instead of a dedicated scientist being transformed into a man with the over-sized head of a fly. Corman just switched the whole "scientist discovering the ways of teleportation"-part for a "mankind's desire to unravel the secrets to eternal youth"-angle. Now, THE FLY is a far superior film, of course, but that doesn't mean that THE WASP WOMAN is less enjoyable. The movie isn't too long, so the simple story hums along nicely. There's fun dialogues delivered by capable actors. One of the most remarkable aspects about THE WASP WOMAN, was the musical score. Sometimes it sounds a bit "classic", but over-all I'd say it was heavily influenced by the social-cultural environment of the era this movie was made in. The Beat Generation literary movement had just flourished immensely (converting many people into "Beatniks"), and also influenced (or was associated with) the musical landscape at the time (anybody seen Roger Corman's A BUCKET OF BLOOD?). One genre associated with the "Beatniks", was some sort of experimental, big-band sounding free-style jazz type of music. And you can clearly hear echoes of such music on THE WASP WOMAN's soundtrack, together with attempts at a few comical tunes (which sadly misfire - the scarce little attempts at humor don't work as well as the black humor in A BUCKET OF BLOOD, in my opinion). But all-in-all, because of the musical score being a hectic amalgam of different styles, it provides sort of an enjoyable nervousness (and always remains well-timed, increasing the tension when it's called for), making the movie a tad bit nuttier than your average creature feature from that era.

Now, the one complaint I have - and I owe that to myself - is that I expected just a little bit more from this movie, especially when it comes to the Wasp Woman/Creature itself. Two things basically: I expected the creature design to have a few extra legs, claws or wings even. But it's just just a dude/gal in a black costume, with a weird, black 'waspy' mask and funny looking hands. Nothing wrong with that, really, and considering the budget this was made on, they handled the Wasp Woman well. But the second thing that let me down was... I expected The Wasp Woman at least to do a bit more in this movie (and have a little more screen time while at it). I thought she was going to seduce men, trick them into making love to her and then... devour them in the bedroom. Or something... but nope, none of that. The lack of creature action became a bit annoying even, until the third act. Then the movie picks itself up and becomes a bit more fun. Well, that is... Janice Sterling only transforms into the Wasp Woman three times, and all she does is behave like a vampire: go for the victim's throat and bite him. But still, it's not like you'll have the time to become bored, because of the movie's 73 minutes running time. And after all, when the movie rushed towards its climax and the events came to an abrupt closure, THE WASP WOMAN remained a charming experience to me.

During the early 90's, Roger Corman started producing several re-makes of his own films from the 50's & 60's and THE WASP WOMAN was one of them. I saw the trailer for it, and it seems like the 1995 version of THE WASP WOMAN might even be more cheesy fun than the original, with a bit better make-up effects (of course), a bit of inept use of CGI and... I even saw some sort of seductive bedroom scene in that trailer. Seems like I might get what I wanted to see after all in the 1995 re-make.

"The Wasp Women", a routine low-budget horror outing by Roger Corman, finds aging makeup mogul Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) experimenting with wasp royal-jelly as a rejuvenating agent. Unfortunately, the potion does not turn her into a giant wasp with a woman's head hovering over a pile of skulls (as promised by the poster), but rather a women with a vaguely insectoid mask wearing claw-like oven mitts. Various secondary characters are dispatched before the mad boffin who provided her with the elixir, realizing the evil that he has unleashed, throws acid into her face causing the wasp woman to fall to her death (a fate she would have avoided if she had the wasp-wings promised by the poster). The film includes an unconvincing attack by a psychotic cat and lots of stock footage of bees while wasps are being discussed, but very little of the 'lust' promised in the poster. Standard Corman shtick – not great by any stretch of the imagination, but short and entertaining enough to watch 60 years later (and to make some quick cash for the auteur and his crew at the time of production).

Did Roger Corman do the original "Little Shop of Horrors"? I'll have to check. As predictable as a soap opera. A bumbling (not quite mad) scientist invents a youth serum that turns test animals and people into giant fuzzy mutant wasps that buzz. Cabot wears a hairy fright mask with curly "antennae" and sucks several victims dry. It's supposed to eat 'em too which saves a ton on special effects.A shameless steal from "The Fly". A human with an unintentionally funny face. Giant claws like a lobster. It could have been much more horrible if the results had been shown on camera. A flattened dead body in a web or rolled up like old toothpaste. It evokes memories of every awful-stupid horror movie from Gabor's "Queen of Outer Space" to the more recent "Cat Woman". Women seeking the fountain of youth always turn left at the wrong exit. Fun but not really that wonderful. Hardly worth viewing twice. When I was a kid, this actually scared me to death on the big screen. Remade at least twice by other studios and many variations on TV as well. (Remember the "Outer Limits" episode where a pretty girl is actually a transformed queen bee and wants to "mate" with a human male?)

Long before Olivia de Havilland warned us that a swarm of killer bees were coming our way, and a few years after the public at large fled from "The Deadly Mantis", the staff of a beauty supply company must deal with "The Wasp Woman", unknowingly their big boss, who has been surprising them recently with her sudden youth-creating beauty. Actress Susan Cabot is made to look "old" (sans make-up and with large framed glasses) as the creator of a line of beauty products which no longer work for her. She decides to be the human experiment of a scientist obsessed with wasp jelly which makes an old lab mouse young and turns an old cat back into a kitten. Unfortuanately, thanks to the sudden attack of the no longer friendly kitty, the scientist learns that his wasp jelly has serious side effects, turning the creature who takes it into a wasp-like creature, attacking the nearest victim and literally eating them from inside out. But before he can warn Cabot, he is hit by a car, and pretty soon, she is having flashes of the demon inside her, all the while desperate to take more youth-creating jelly in order to remain youthful.

A combination of genuine horror and camp, this is also a very moralistic tale of how the obsession with youth can literally destroy one's soul. Cabot's loveliness in real life isn't hidden by the dowdy way she is clothed and made up in the open scenes (it's funny how lack of make-up and ugly glasses are always used in movies and on T.V. to indicate plainness), and she is publicly humiliated in a meeting with fellow executives and her secretary of how by remaining cover girl for her own product, she has caused the sales of the product to go down. It doesn't help that she's surrounded by younger secretaries and clerks who are quite voluptuous and often comment behind her back (which she somehow manages to overhear) on her looks.

While it is insinuated by the bee keepers in the very first scene that scientist Michael Mark is quite mad, he never really shows serious signs of that, although his obsession with angry wasps over the usually man friendly bees is quite odd. His performance is basically very subtle, especially in the scenes following his accident. Other good performances come from William Roerick as one of Cabot's executives, Anthony Eisley as another employee and Barboura Morris as Cabot's devoted secretary. The film really doesn't explode into horror until the final quarter, but it is still interesting to see how it develops.

The Wasp Woman is directed by Jack Hill and Roger Corman and written by Leo Gordon and Kinta Zertuche. A Roger Corman production, it stars Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley, Michael Mark and Barboura Morris. Music is by Fred Katz and photography by Harry Neumann.

Janice Starlin (Cabot) is the owner of a large cosmetics company, once a successful operation, the company is starting to lose customers who can see that Starlin is beginning to show her aged years. But hope may be at hand form scientist Eric Zinthrop (Mark), who has been experimenting with the royal jelly from a queen wasp, creating a serum that reverses the aging process. She strikes a deal with Zinthrop to fund his research as long as she can be his first human subject...

Schlockmeister Corman obviously took notice of the success of Kurt Neumann's The Fly from the previous year, for here he tries to bring us the female variant on the sci-fi mix up movie for half the budget. It marks the last time that Susan Cabot would appear in film, this also being the last of six films she made with Corman. For a low budget schlocker it's not half bad, the berserker insect/human science is good fun and there's potent thematics within involving the search for eternal youth, drug addiction and the cautionary warning about man pushing science too far. Even the effects, whilst cheap and rightly kept in the shadows for the most part, have an antiquated charm about them. If only the film wasn't so static, so ordinary, for two thirds of its relatively short running time, then this would be talked about as one of Corman's better offerings, especially since the cast are actually fine, particularly the pretty and stoic Cabot.

Most of the film is played out from the offices of a high-rise office complex, this is unusual but gives the film a little uniqueness, with Neumann and his directors managing to set the ambiance at uneasy. But it's mostly talky stuff, meaning mood is built up to the point that when the picture does shift into creature feature gear-budget restrictions mean expectations can't possibly be met; even if what little horror is in the picture is actually pretty spicy: though the makers do miss a trick because it's explained to us early in the piece that the Queen Wasp eats her mate! But Janice has no love interest here, shame that! Fred Katz's music is deliciously mad, at times sounding like Wacky Races on LSD, at others some gentle jazz beat fusion, it's in the right movie, just not used at the right times! The accompanying buzzing sound affect for a Wasp Woman attack, though, is most agreeable. Corman would use the score again for Little Shop of Horrors the following year.

Nobody, you would like to think, would be viewing The Wasp Woman expecting a sci-fi classic, but it's a frustrating watch in many ways, even to the fans of cheapo B movie schlockers. 5/10

The Baron of B, Roger Corman, released this classy low-budget sci-fi horror film in 1960. Susan Cabot plays a successful business woman who owns a cosmetics firm. The key to her success has been her own face, but she is aging and her sales are beginning to fall. She soon meets a scientist who may have a solution - but is he a charlatan? A con-artist? a madman? Surprisingly - apparently not.

The story is basically a morality play about vanity, greed, and the usual science gone-awry, but the film is much less heavy-handed than many contemporary sci-fi movies.

Wasp Woman does a number of things very well:

* The acting is all good - especially Susan Cabot and Barboura Morris

* (uncharacteristic of Corman): Not a scene is wasted - everything is relevant and there are no long pan shots.

* (characteristic of Corman): the sets are well chosen, detailed and remarkably good given the very low budget.

* The story is developed slowly and in detail - the main character is treated sympathetically and the story incorporates elements of tragedy rare for the genre.

Despite it's classiness, even those who see films like this for their humor value will find a few things to be amused about - with or without MST3K.

Recommended for genre fans and Cormanites.

It might surprise people who aren't familiar with horror and science fiction movies to associate great performances with them. But Susan Cabot takes the lead role in this ultra low budget picture, and creates a believable and genuinely tragic character. It's unclear why she never went on to more prestigious films, because her acting in this otherwise silly movie raises it to a much higher level than anyone could ever anticipate. There are many scenes in which the dialogue becomes completely ludicrous ,and the characters either annoying or dumb, or both. It's possible that some of this is intentional, since there seems to be an undercurrent of satire aimed at the whole Fities " organization man" mentality, with the board of directors at Starlin Enterprises muttering vague platitudes at meetings. There's also a hilarious bit at the beginning, in which eccentric genius Zinthrop is let go by a boss who tells him that he's " just not part of the team". One of the most effective scenes SPOILERS AHEAD:is when the impatient Janice Starlin sneaks into the laboratory late at night to give herself a stronger dosage of the wasp enzyme serum. She opens a door and stands with her back to the camera for a moment, heavily shadowed. This brief moment never fails to send a chill down my spine. There's something so uncanny about that simple image, that it suggests a sinister person about to do something really evil. The irony is that she has nothing worse in mind than trying to speed up the anti-aging process, and will be her own victim. In spite of cheesy special effects, unconvincing backdrops, uninspired acting and some pretty dated attitudes about men's and women's relationships, the movie succeeds brilliantly at evoking real suspense. The slow transformation of Janice Starlin from somewhat brusque businesswoman to worried addict to murderous monster, is surprisingly subtle. Susan Cabot had a strange, unique quality of portraying strong women who could be either coldly seductive or oddly vulnerable. This Roger Corman cult classic is a perfect showcase for her unusual talents.

Actually, it's an interesting take on a familiar idea - that women should not try to hold on to youth, that they should grow up and age gracefully. And yet everything in our culture has always told us that path leads to invisibility, loss of affection, and in cosmetics queen Janice Starlin's (Susan Cabot) case, loss of revenue. At age 40, Janice Starlin's cosmetic company is losing ground, and her board tells her that is because she has always been the face of her products, but putting the faces of other models on those products instead has caused women to lose confidence in her products. She replies that her now 40 year old face will not sell products either.

She is then visited by scientist Eric Zinthrop who tells her he believes he has invented a serum from wasps that can rejuvenate the old. He wants only a small percentage of any sales she might make and full credit for the discovery. Starlin in return demands to be the first human that his serum is tested on.

When testing begins on Janice she does begin to lose years - she now looks 35 instead of 40. But she wants the transformation to occur faster. Without Zinthrop's knowledge she takes extra injections, and she now looks 22 years old. But there is an unknown side effect. The cat that Zinthrop was testing has become deranged and attacks him. Before he can tell anyone, he wanders into traffic, is injured badly in an accident, and is transported to a hospital with possible brain damage.

Meanwhile Janice is acting antsy, hearing wasps buzzing in her head, and frantically looking for Zinthrop because she thinks her problem is that she will soon be out of serum when her fate is far worse.

You can tell this is purely poverty row, because every shot is a close up so the art direction can be kept to a minimum. And for Starlin's company to be so big and busy I count about half a dozen people who work at the firm, including two secretaries who seem to constantly be loafing. If not for the really laughable and very cheap special effects, this might have been better. Like other 50s sci-fi horror films it distills horror down to a basic fact - that humans are afraid of their bodies getting out of control either by the aging process or by disease. It is the reason cancer is so scary. I'd mildly recommend this one.

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")

It frustrates me when people refer to The Wasp Woman as a good B-movie or, even more condescendingly, as a good Roger Corman movie. The Wasp Woman is simply an excellent film - no caveat required. This film is well acted, logical within its premise and most impressively, still disturbing. The special effects may have dated but the psychological horror which underpins the action remains as brutal as ever.

The beauty of The Wasp Woman is its simplicity. Dr Zinthrop discovers an anti-ageing antidote in wasp jelly and brings it to the attention of Janice, the owner of a cosmetics company. Janice, faced with the prospect of falling sales and her own fading beauty, agrees to fund the scientist's work on the condition that Dr Zinthrop use her as a guinea pig. Unfortunately, this has the unwanted side effect of turning her into a homicidal wasp/woman hybrid. As with all good genre films, The Wasp Woman defines its premise early and the narrative never strays from these clearly defined plot constraints. The developments in the film might be outrageous but taken within their context, they make perfect sense.

The Wasp Woman is without a doubt one of Roger Corman's best films. I am a big fan of the wonderful crap that he has produced since retiring as a director but this film is a poignant reminder of what Roger Corman is capable of when he takes his subject matter seriously. The Wasp Woman also underlines Corman's considerable skill as a director. The film is taut, cohesive and brilliantly paced. From the moment the film begins, there is a sense of tension and desperation about these characters that is almost palpable. This is due to both the excellent script and some impressive acting.

Susan Cabot has never struck me as the most gifted actress but her turn as Janice is extraordinary. Janice could have easily come across as a vain, ruthless woman. However, Susan's performance is so well calibrated that it is hard not to feel sympathetic to her plight. The scene where Janice realises that the company is failing due to her no longer being a "glamour girl" is devastating. The supporting cast is equally good. Michael Mark is particularly impressive as Dr Zinthrop. Dr Zinthrop's dedication to his research is creepy from the very outset. Anthony Eisley and Barboura Morris are solid as Lane and Mary, the voices of reason in the face of Janice's increasingly demented mindset.

The Wasp Woman would basically be nothing more than a well executed museum piece if it no longer had the capacity to be taken seriously as a thriller. The first glance of Janice, elegantly dressed and wearing a wasp mask, is jolting. My first reaction was to laugh but that quickly subsided. There is something psychologically unsettling about Janice's fate. Here is a woman used to being in charge, slowly but surely being taken over by something evil that is well and truly out of her control. The campy wasp effects are all the most disturbing because Janice is still so recognisable. Furthermore, there is something plain creepy about a killer wearing pearls and a twin set - even if the killer is half wasp.

The Wasp Woman steadily builds momentum until the impressive and satisfying conclusion. The film is psychologically violent and brutal, yet beautiful in a way that only these low budget black and white movies can be. The Wasp Woman is a fine achievement. Modern horror directors could learn a thing or two by watching this.

An entertaining, if not exactly good, quickie from exploitation king Roger Corman at the tail-end of the 1950s, and one which has a nice concept behind it: an anti-ageing serum made from wasp jelly has the unfortunate side-effect of turning its user into a hideous monster periodically. Like a lot of Corman's early efforts, the director cuts corners by using only a couple of sets and redressing them and padding out the fairly minimal action with lots of talk and dialogue. Despite the padding, the movie is well-paced and offers up what fans want on a poverty-row budget: screaming heroines, a (briefly) rampaging monster, and a heroic leading character.

The set-up of the story is quite interesting and features a nice supporting turn from Michael Mark as the eccentric scientist, Eric Zinthrop (gotta love those weird-sounding names in Corman's films). Susan Cabot handles the leading role of the inherently good woman turned bad through the side-effects of the wrinkle cream she uses and gives a commanding turn; in fact most of the cast are pretty good, as per usual for Corman, and put in solid if not remarkable performances. The only exception being the laughable comic-relief janitor and Barboura Morris' irritating secretary-in-distress. Here, the leading man is played by later exploitation stalwart Anthony Eisley, looking very young and fresh-faced compared to ten years later on in his career.

The creature of the title is barely seen and perhaps this is thankful, because Corman's budget obviously didn't stretch to much in the way of make-up effects - the creation is simply a woman with a joke-shop fright mask on! Still, it's pretty funny. Although the themes, fashions, and characters have dated like in pretty much every '50s contemporary-set movie, THE WASP WOMAN is lively and entertaining fare which overcomes its budget limitations and is pretty good, if you view it kindly as I did. A cheesy remake with one-time screen queen Bobbie Bresee in the leading role was made in 1987, called METAMORPHOSIS for its video release in the UK.