azathothpwiggins Poor Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot- WAR OF THE SATELLITES). In spite of being the head of a cosmetics empire, she finds her company's sales plummeting, when she commits the unforgivable sin of getting older! Looking almost forty, Ms. Starlin must face the facts of her own plunge into the abyss of middle age! But wait! It just so happens that a certain beekeeper / scientist, named Dr. Zinthrop has been experimenting w/ the rejuvenating effects of royal jelly from queen wasps. His beekeeping buddies are perplexed to say the least! So much so, that Zinthrop is banished from his bevy of beehives. Serendipity intervenes, and Zinthrop sets up shop in Starlin's building. Soon enough, he's whipped up a batch of his secret formula. In no time, Janice is no longer her old self, but there's something amiss. Something buzz-y and homicidal! THE WASP WOMAN is one of schlock omni-god, Roger Corman's greatest contributions! EXTRA POINTS: For the fuzzy wasp mask and gloves that go w/ whatever Janice wears! Watch for Bruno VeSota (ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES) as the night watchman, Frank Gerstle (THE ATOMIC BRAIN) as a detective, Frank Wolff (BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE) as a delivery man, and Corman himself as a doctor!...

Leofwine_draca 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.

Rainey Dawn Janice Starlin is a cosmetics queen but is about to loose her empire. Her company has been using her face to promote the bee products made from a queen bee serum but Ms. Starlin is getting older. One of the beekeeper (pseudo) scientists believes he has found the fountain of youth through the queen wasps and develops an anti-aging product for the Starlin company but Ms Starlin insists that she is to be the one to test the product first before it is marketed. The new product has a strange effect on Ms Starlin - it causes her to become The Wasp Woman.Not a bad film. Most of the film is about the development of the product and Ms Starlin in human form. Very little do we see Starlin as The Wasp Woman - and I find the film better that way than to constantly see her attacking people which can get old fast.6/10

JoeKarlosi Another silly but fun Roger Corman cheapie. The middle-aged owner of a cosmetics company (Susan Cabot) obsesses over her advancing age, but finds hope in an old scientist's latest experiments utilizing anti-aging enzymes taken from wasps. He has been successful in making cats and guinea pigs younger by injecting them with the extract, so the vain woman eagerly insists on being his first human subject. But as she grows more youthful in appearance, so too does she periodically transform into a bugged-out queen wasp in a Halloween mask and insect mittens, attacking nearby people while buzzzzzing away. There's a little too much padding on display here and there between the good stuff, and some of the other acting is below par, but the very pretty and lively Cabot in the lead does a very good job, and whenever she's affected by the wasp serum, it's a cheesy good time. **1/2 out of ****