The Wasp Woman

I've suggested before that there are a lot of science fiction/horror movies from the 1950s and 1960s that really aren't particularly good, but oh boy are they a lot of fun. The latest example of this to show up on TCM is The Wasp Woman, which is airing overnight tonight (or very early tomorrow morning, depending on our point of view) at 3:30 AM.

Susan Cabot stars as Janice Starlin, the head of a cosmetics concern. Unfortunately, business is beginning to take a turn for the worse. That's because the Starlin company has been built upon Janice using herself to advertise their cosmeitcs, and time marches on. Janice isn't getting any younger, and sooner or later, no cosmetics are going to make a 40-year-old look 20.

Or maybe there is. Dr. Zinthrop (Michael Mark) has been working on a rejuvenating substance based on royal jelly, a substance normally used to feed queen bees. Apparently, the good doctor has gotten some favorable results with his animal experiments, and Starlin is unsurprisingly interested in the experiments. In fact, she's more than willing to experiment upon herself!

So, Janice injects herself with the royal jelly, and it seems to make her look younger too. The doctor is continuing his animal experiments, though, and discovers that there are unfortunate side effects with his injections. Before he can warn Janice, however, he gets run over by a car....

Strange things start happening at the company headquarters, and people start mysteriously disappearing. You can probably guess what those things are, but if not, don't worry; the movie will get to it quickly -- it doesn't run much more than an hour.

As I said at the beginning, The Wasp Woman is the sort of movie that will probably have you howling in laughter because parts of it are so screwed up they're funny. Don't worry about the acting; don't worry about the plot which has no basis in reality; and don't worry about the special effects. Just sit back and enjoy.

Just like many other of these not-very-good scifi movies, The Wasp Woman has made its way onto several cheapo DVDs and boxsets.