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The Wasp Woman
[Alpha Video]
1960; b&w
Directed by Roger Corman
Starring: Susan Cabot, Fred Eisley & Barboura Morris
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When the Kommandant first requested I step into the Corman Corner as it's first guest reviewer and offer my thoughts on this film, I asked him why. He said that he thought I might want to comment on the movie's not so unspoken commentary on a woman's worth in society being attached to her age and physical appearance. Fortunately for you all, I don't. However I will take this opportunity to tell you a little about one of my personal favorite Roger Corman directed flicks - and one of the classic examples of early '60s cheesy b-movie cinema - The Wasp Woman. The plot revolves around one Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot), the female forty-something head of Janice Starlin Enterprises, a once hugely successful cosmetics company whose sales are in decline. When Ms. Starlin confronts her all-male executive staff (oddly enough, the only women in the office are her stable of beautiful young secretaries) about said declining sales, they're only too quick to rest the blame squarely on Janice's shoulders. Apparently the gents in her employ have narrowed the problem down to her declining youth - in other words, as she ages more and more, the company sells less and less. You'd think Janice would have responded to that insolence with a profanity filled lecture followed by the delivery of their walking papers (or rather, that's what I would have done) but the fellas obviously hit a weak spot in the poor woman's emotional armor and she starts to believe she must regain her youthful beauty in order to regain her business prowess. In a synergistic twist of fate, she soon meets a scientist, Doctor Zinthrop, who is well on his way to discovering how to slow the aging process using the extracted enzymes of the Queen Bee Wasp. Unfortunately he's only done his testing thus far on animals, not humans, but Starlin is able to use what's left of her feminine wiles and, more importantly, her sizable pocketbook to convince him to work exclusively for her company. She also sweet talks him into letting her be his first human lab rat. Bolstered by his new digs and influx of cash, Doc gets all his ducks in a row & starts shooting Janice up with wee amounts of wasp whatever. She doesn't feel the results are happening quickly enough so one fateful night she lets herself into Zinthrop's lab and fixes herself up Johnny Thunders style with a huge dose. By the next day, Ms. Starlin is looking tight and right; fully ready to reclaim her spokeswoman throne with her "Return To Youth" campaign. (How very Erica Kane.) The people at work are suspicious, naturally, of the Doc's quackery and the boss' sudden change but resign themselves to snoop around somewhat lazily instead of actually calling either of the two out. Of course, Jancie couldn't be any more thrilled - what with her looking twenty years younger overnight and her ad execs now dining on extra large portions of crow. Doctor Zinthrop, on the other hand, isn't having as good of a day. First he has to fight off and kill one of his suddenly feral test kitties. Then, after doing what any good Doctor would do in that situation—hiding the crazy cat's body and leaving the building, telling no one—he walks outside and gets hit by a car causing him to wind up a comatose John Doe in some hospital. Eventually Starlin finds him and is relieved to find him not completely dead. She tries to wait out his recovery but, of course, winds up going back to the lab for another hit of sweet lady wasp enzyme. Before she can sneak back out of the lab this time however, one of her suspicious underlings comes to the lab to do some sneaking of his own and - finally! - we get our first kill and our first view of the Wasp Woman. OK, it's just Susan Cabot in a leotard with some kind of fuzzy bug eyed headpiece contraption but come on, that's what we're here to see. At this point the story picks up significantly and it's nothing but intrigue, suspense and death by wasp woman right up to the film's end. Will the Doctor recover from his injuries in time to save Janice? Will the other suspicious underling, Bill, save his beloved secretary girlfriend Mary and find out what happened to his missing co-worker? Will Janice live to kick her wasp habit and grow old and die like a normal person? I encourage you to find out for yourself.
—Bunny
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