THE WASP WOMAN (1959)

THE WASP WOMAN (1959)

I can’t say I have watched hundreds of black and white films, but I can say I have watched at least 100. This one for some reason has stood out as memorable and admittedly it’s totally ridiculous while retaining a good bit of awesomeness at the same time.

Janice Starlin runs a cosmetics firm and she just feels that she is not young enough looking. This guy Zinthrop shows up and claims to have a serum from the enzymes of wasps that will reverse the aging of her skin basically. She tries the injections which seem to be working, on her face, but they are jacking up her personality. Oddly in order to avoid turning into a wasp, she will need more injections only Zinthrop has had a car accident and now she is all kinds of jacked up.

You would think that a movie called “THE WASP WOMAN” would be more “effects” driven. This movie is more “Halloween mask made out of not much” driven. She doesn’t have wings, she doesn’t have like extra legs coming out of her back… she is just a wasp mask-wearing woman who will make you bleed!!!

There are some pretty bad lulls in this including a driving scene that has almost nothing to do with anything that lasts about 3 minutes. There are some awful attempts at humor as well, but overall we get some really great performances from almost every lead. The actresses and actors in this are all trying which is hard to knock. Especially Susan Cabot best known for WAR OF THE SATELLITES who plays Janice.  

Oddities – The movie is called THE WASP WOMAN but we don’t see anything really resembling a wasp in the movie. We do see a bunch of bees. The soundtrack is all out of whack including dramatic fight scenes with almost roadside carnival-like music playing in the background.

Overall I have to give this movie a 4 out of 7 just for the acting and fun premise, but for most this is not going to be a must-see unless you are doing a Roger Corman marathon. This movie was remade in 1995. 

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