Die Wespenfrau (1959)
9KDie Wespenfrau: Directed by Roger Corman. With Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley, Barboura Morris, William Roerick. The head of a major cosmetics company experiments on herself with a youth formula made from royal jelly extracted from wasps, but the formula’s side effects have deadly consequences.
“For many years I had been aware of The Wasp Woman from its iconic poster, which showed a gigantic wasp with a seductive womanu0026#39;s head, attacking an unfortunate man. In keeping the best traditions of 50u0026#39;s exploitation cinema, this poster looks great while reflecting the content of the actual film in no way whatsoever! The wasp woman of the title is, unfortunately, no more than a lady in what amounts to a Halloween mask. So from that perspective The Wasp Woman is a little disappointing. But no matter because, overall, this one actually turns out to be one of the better sci-fi horror cheapies from the late 50u0026#39;s. Its story has a crazed scientist developing an enzyme derived from wasps which when used on a subject, makes them look much more youthful. He sells his idea to a female cosmetics magnate who insists on testing it out on herself first. All begins well but things deteriorate and she turns into the killer creature known as the wasp woman.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat this one has on its side is entertaining and fast-paced direction from Roger Corman and a very good central performance from Susan Cabot. Her character is a little more interesting and believable than you normally get in these types of pics. She is a woman who fears the ageing process and seeks eternal youth; so her concerns are quite universal and it adds a welcome human dimension to a monster movie. As I said before, the make-up really is cheap-jack and unimpressive but the overall production is put together with some care otherwise, with some interesting characters and a decent enough script. Of additional value was the soundtrack, which consisted of some really great, manic music which accompanied proceedings very well. All-in-all, this is a bit of a favourite of mine when it comes to low-budget 50u0026#39;s creature features. Great fun.”
