Copyright 1959 by The Filmgroup/Santa Cruz. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release through The Filmgroup: October 1959. U.K. release through Grand National: March 1960. Banned in Australia. 73 minutes. Censored in the U.K. to 62 minutes. SYNOPSIS: The success of a leading cosmetics film has been built on the personal beauty of the firm's founder, but now that Miss Starlin is approaching forty, sales are falling. In desperation she turns to a scientist who claims to have perfected a formula of youth extracted from wasp enzymes.COMMENT: Although it starts slowly, The Wasp Woman gradually builds up into a suspenseful little shocker. True, the wasp make-up is not always particularly convincing, but otherwise the effects reveal considerable skill. In Miss Cabot's case, this expertise is ably abetted by skilful lighting and brooding camerawork. Katz's waspy music score also rates as a major contribution. Corman capably makes the most of an obviously limited budget. His slow pacing of the earlier scenes reaps its reward in a really stunning climax. Susan Cabot's admirable portrait of an executive under pressure is disarmingly realistic. The other players are suitably supportive, though Corman himself as a silent (at least on the screen) if patient investigator holds up the action.

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

1958 gave us a little movie called "The Fly". Filmed in Cinemascope and color, this movie mixing science and the world's most hated insect (no disrespect to cockroaches) went on to be one of 58's ten top money- making movies. Roger Corman, never one to shy away from riding the coattails of someone else's success, decided to rewrite "The Fly" in the simplest possible terms a year later in 1959. Hoping for some of the money "The Fly" brought in, Corman's solution was to switch out the male protagonist for a female, change the science to suit a woman's vanity, and most importantly, change insects. "Waspish" as a term, is usually aimed at a woman who is remote and has a sharp tongue. Susan Cabot (in her last film appearance) does stinging justice to her character, Janice Starlin, the CEO and founder of a cosmetic corporation.Miss Starlin is getting older and the usual beauty treatments aren't keeping her fresh. Therefore, she aids and abets a scientist working with "royal wasp jelly" as an ingredient for keeping you youthful and wrinkle-free. The gunk works, but has a nasty side effect: Starlin becomes a wasp woman when provoked. She's provoked a number of times in this short movie, "stinging" her provokers to death. We never see this delightful action, unfortunately. People die, and so does the CEO once it's discovered she has an aversion to Raid. "The Wasp Woman" has some interesting ideas for a late 50s drive-in flick. A female corporate head, using insect productivity and raw material from those insects as a profit-making substance. Naturally, Corman has to get in some shocks, but they come too late in the movie to do much good. While the iconic poster for this flick promised much, the budget couldn't give up the gigantic insect-woman stinging a man to death on a pile of skulls. American International called the poster an "artistic representation" knowing full well no such monster appeared on screen. The bug gal when eventually revealed, has drink coasters for eyes, pipe cleaner antennae, and oven mitts for hands. She's kept in the shadows, buzzing her displeasure until doing something to kill her victims.While a bigger budget would have helped the visuals here, the cast of Corman regulars give up respectable acting. There are no wasps seen at all here, the opening titles of swarming insects are bees, stock footage used a few times during this movie's short running time. Originally paired on a double bill with "Beast From Haunted Cave", another poster triumph by AIP's in-house illustrator Albert Kallis which sadly, showed something that the movie didn't have. Enraged patrons flocked to get their money back when the poster come-on didn't appear on screen, but canny Corman kept the monsters hidden until at least half the picture was over. You couldn't get a refund if you stayed too long. Roger, as always, laughed all the way to the bank.

With Echoes of The Fly (1958) still Buzzing at the Box Office, Schlockmeister Roger Corman grabbed a couple of People and took a Week to make this Gloomy Monster Movie. The Cast, some Corman Regulars including B-Movie Babe Susan Cabot who was never Credited with an A-Budget Film but a lot of Bees, did a fine Job. The background Music is also quite Appropriately Uncanny.But the "Star" of the Movie is the Monster and for the few times It/She is on Screen there is some Tension and Gore that looks quite Bizarre. There are some glaring Missteps along the way, the kind that Corman never minded, at least in His Ultra Quickies. Like the Bumble Bees instead of Wasps Iconography, and the Guinea Pigs to Rats Mind Boggler. There are some others but Who cares?Overall, there is much Talk in this Thing and hardly Anyone moves in the Claustrophobic and Drab Sets, but there is enough Drive-In Movie Madness to make it Worth a Watch.