Terrific TV-made vehicle for movie icon Gloria Swanson, a compact and beautifully-shot melodrama-cum-thriller. Gloria plays an outré California oddball living on a vineyard ranch and possessing a strange hold over the bees that hover there. Grandson Edward Albert and girlfriend Kate Jackson (who were dating in real-life at the time) come for a visit and get more than they bargained for. Not "The Swarm", but better; school buses and flower paraders are not interjected, and there is no mass hysteria. Credit director Curtis Harrington with the panache, and Gloria Swanson with the campy kicks--she's mah-vah-loss. It's an atmospheric mood-piece, and the rural locales are refreshing.
Review of Killer Bees
