The Wasp Woman starts with scientist Dr. Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark) getting fired from his research job, Dr. Zinthrop had been commissioned to examine royal jelly from Bees for it's cosmetic potential but he has instead been focusing on royal jelly from the Queen Wasp which basically means he's out the door & looking for an alternative source of income! Cut to Manhattan, New York & 'Starlin Industries' where the latest sales figures for it's cosmetics are dropping faster than a lead balloon so owner Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) calls a meeting to discuss the situation, Bill lane (Anthony Eisley) suggests that because she, the company's main advertising figure head, has aged people no longer trust Starlin's products & as a result consumer confidence is at an all time low! Desperate to try anything Janice accepts a meeting with Dr. Zinthrop who claims he can reverse the ageing process with enzymes taken from the royal jelly of Wasp's which at first seems to be the case but as Janice becomes more & more desperate to retain her new found youth she injects more of the untested serum into herself, Janice soon discovers that the serum has some very unwelcome, unwanted & unexpected side effects...
Produced & directed by Roger Corman (Jack Hill also directed, uncredited) who also appears uncredited in the film as the Doctor in the Hospital, I thought The Wasp Woman was an OK time waster but nothing especially good. The script by Leo Gordon could have made for a great little 'creature feature' type film but even at only 72 and a half minutes the film drags when it really shouldn't. Amazingly it isn't until the 52 minute mark that the Wasp woman actually appears, that's just far too long when the film is sold on the notion of a half woman half Wasp creature running around killing people, I started to lose interest. It's just too much boring exposition & time padding nonsense to wade through before anything even remotely exciting happens. The character's are basic to say the least & the dialogue is stiff, the film moves along in fits & starts, it can drag badly then it can pick up again but overall it's pretty inconsistent. As a whole I found The Wasp Woman a fairly painless way to pass 73 minutes but it could have & indeed should have been a lot better, this is one of those films which looks & sounds a lot better than it actually ends up being.
Economy conscious director Corman doesn't do anything special & the film is quite drab & dull to watch although to be fair it's competently made throughout. The Wasp woman isn't in it nearly enough as she/it only gets about 3 minutes of screen time throughout the entire film & when she/it finally does make an appearance she/it looks terrible with an awful & cheap looking mask. The filmmakers forgot to do anything with the actors neck which still remain 'human' in appearance. It doesn't even resemble a Wasp particularly, the number of legs is wrong, there's no stinger, no wings & is pretty much humanoid in shape & size so forget about any nice looking monsters on the artwork for DVD/video covers. There aren't really any scares, the entire thing is set in about four offices so there's no atmosphere & because it drags in places there's no tension.
With a supposed budget of about $50,000 The Wasp Woman is quite well made, Wasp creature mask apart. The acting isn't up to much but it's not too bad & isn't as bad as in some of these 50's & 60's monster films.
The Wasp Woman is a decent time filler & I quite liked it but the fact that the monster doesn't show up until past the 50 minute mark means I won't be in any hurry to watch it again & surely the monster is what a film called The Wasp Woman is all about? Worth a watch if you like this type of thing but other's should use more caution.
Produced & directed by Roger Corman (Jack Hill also directed, uncredited) who also appears uncredited in the film as the Doctor in the Hospital, I thought The Wasp Woman was an OK time waster but nothing especially good. The script by Leo Gordon could have made for a great little 'creature feature' type film but even at only 72 and a half minutes the film drags when it really shouldn't. Amazingly it isn't until the 52 minute mark that the Wasp woman actually appears, that's just far too long when the film is sold on the notion of a half woman half Wasp creature running around killing people, I started to lose interest. It's just too much boring exposition & time padding nonsense to wade through before anything even remotely exciting happens. The character's are basic to say the least & the dialogue is stiff, the film moves along in fits & starts, it can drag badly then it can pick up again but overall it's pretty inconsistent. As a whole I found The Wasp Woman a fairly painless way to pass 73 minutes but it could have & indeed should have been a lot better, this is one of those films which looks & sounds a lot better than it actually ends up being.
Economy conscious director Corman doesn't do anything special & the film is quite drab & dull to watch although to be fair it's competently made throughout. The Wasp woman isn't in it nearly enough as she/it only gets about 3 minutes of screen time throughout the entire film & when she/it finally does make an appearance she/it looks terrible with an awful & cheap looking mask. The filmmakers forgot to do anything with the actors neck which still remain 'human' in appearance. It doesn't even resemble a Wasp particularly, the number of legs is wrong, there's no stinger, no wings & is pretty much humanoid in shape & size so forget about any nice looking monsters on the artwork for DVD/video covers. There aren't really any scares, the entire thing is set in about four offices so there's no atmosphere & because it drags in places there's no tension.
With a supposed budget of about $50,000 The Wasp Woman is quite well made, Wasp creature mask apart. The acting isn't up to much but it's not too bad & isn't as bad as in some of these 50's & 60's monster films.
The Wasp Woman is a decent time filler & I quite liked it but the fact that the monster doesn't show up until past the 50 minute mark means I won't be in any hurry to watch it again & surely the monster is what a film called The Wasp Woman is all about? Worth a watch if you like this type of thing but other's should use more caution.