Lame giant insect movie about irradiated wasps that grow to elephantine proportions and wreak havoc in Africa -- even if the title suggests South America. Big Jim Davis and some fellow scientists are testing the effects of cosmic rays on various creatures, which inadvertently results in the giant bees. About half the movie is stock footage, and the rest of the movie has Davis and crew standing around, talking, or walking about. Plus the giant bees just look plain silly, like floats in a parade. The middle of the movie is strictly padding, with Davis and crew trekking 400 miles across "Africa" (clearly California) to reach the giant bees' nest. Also, it's pretty sad when the only female in the movie is played by an actress you pray will keep fully clothed. Mercifully, she does.

I just finished viewing a DVD copy of this film, which was the first sci-fi film I ever saw at 10 years old. For those of us who grew up on black & white movies, and don't demand everything be in color, this is still camp and memorable. I guarantee you'll never forget the wasps!Jim Davis and comrades trek through Africa in search of their missing irradiated wasps, now giants. Stock footage of native attack was perhaps the best ever filmed in black & white.A note about the female lead, Barbara Turner, an accomplished actress who appeared in many TV anthology show dramas, but few movies. She obviously knew this wasn't going to be her best moment from the very beginning. She is cute, however, and was the wife of Vic Morrow and the mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh.The wasp models were created by veteran modeler Wah Chang and could have been better animated by stop-motion animator Gene Warren. Where was Ray Harryhausen when they needed him?

Before Jim Davis got his last and career part as Jock Ewing in Dallas, he had one tortured path to Hollywood success. He had a much publicized debut as Bette Davis's leading man in Winter Meeting which was one of her worst films. His portrayal of a war hero about to enter the priesthood met with a ton of critical guffaws. Still Davis persisted and took any kind of work. The Monster from Green Hell qualifies as any kind of work.A wasp is sent up in space to see the effects. Unfortunately on re-entry the space capsule crashes in the region of West Africa and the wasp has grown to the size of a Panzer tank. To top it all off the geniuses sending up the rocket sent up a pregnant queen so we've got all kinds of those Panzer wasps running around Africa.Jim Davis is sent to clean up the mess and runs into a medical missionary played by Vladimir Sokoloff. Albert Schweitzer was very much alive at the time and running his mission in West Africa. No one in 1958 mistook who Sokoloff was portraying. The wasps set up a colony in the shadow of a volcano. You can figure out the rest.This is typical Fifties science fiction when all kinds of radiation was the explanation for these creatures. In this case it was the radiation from cosmic rays, presumably from the newly discovered Van Allen belt around the earth. Tepid acting and chintzy special effects make The Monster from Green Hell great cult stuff. One thing though that is timely. An Arab character played by Eduardo Ciannelli joins forces with Davis and one of the natives Joel Fluellen to combat the danger the giant wasps present. Amazing how religious differences can suddenly melt away in time of crisis.

My biggest question about this movie is simply: How did the folks at MST-3000 ever miss this one? It simply cries out for the insights of Crow and Tom Servo.Jim Davis ( "Dallas", "Guns Don't Argue" ) stars as the head of a group of scientists who attempt to launch some creatures into space. The rocket misfires and lands somewhere in darkest Africa where a bunch of wasps escape and grow into Sikorskys, thanks - natch - to atomic radiation. Davis then leads his own team of WASPS on an Orkin expedition to take care of the problem. Along the way, they are joined by Eduardo Ciannelli, looking a bit like Sabu's grandfather.Nothing much goes right until the final scene, supposedly filmed in "Lava Vision", during which a giant volcanic eruption takes care of everything. This consists of the surviving crew standing around bathed in a red glow as the volcano - obviously taken from stock footage, as is much of the movie - does it's thing. All harmless fun really, it's only a shame that the MSTYs never got a hold of this one.