The Wasp Woman

She went a little overboard on the royal jelly, yes she did.

Today’s header comes from the 1959 low-budget horror flick “The Wasp Woman.” Directed by Roger Corman, “The Wasp Woman” was one in a series of B-film horror movies directed at the teen market of the 50’s. In a decade where television was gaining prominence, older viewers were starting to stay home more and heading to the movie theaters less. On the other hand, drive-ins became a destination for teen-aged couples looking for a bit of privacy. In the late 50’s there were over 4,000 outdoor screens catering to this demographic, a group looking for something different than the nostalgic fare that would have appealed to their parents.

It was in this era that the handful of major large motion picture companies that had dominated decades earlier were starting to lose their grip on their Hollywood monopoly. Taking advantage of this shift, in 1954 an enterprising young Roger Corman teamed with Jim Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff to form American Releasing Corp. (ARC), later renamed to American International Pictures (AIP). AIP focused on churning out low-budget films marketed with sensational promotions. Corman was not only producer on these films, but he also frequently directed. His films are known for their one-take style and unpolished, low-budget, sensational feel. He would go on to form his own production and distribution company in the late 1950’s, The Filmgroup, in order to assert more control over his films.

Corman shifted his focus from low-budget westerns and dramas to teen horror and exploitation flics in the mid-50’s, riding the wave of new teen tastes and the greater disposable income of a growing middle-class set of youngsters, an emerging demographic target of movie studios. The movies he would release during this time included B-movie classics like “Not of This Earth,” “It Conquered the World” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters.” Following the success of 20th Century Fox’s “The Fly,” Corman would put his own spin on the insect-human hybrid monster film with “The Wasp Woman.”

“The Wasp Woman” was the third release by Filmgroup and was packaged as part of a double feature set with “Beast from Haunted Cave,” meant for distribution to the drive-in market. The plot is perhaps a tiny bit more nuanced than one might expect from the typical B-grade horror movies of the genre, or at least the monstrous villain is more sympathetic than most. A hard-nosed female CEO (played by Susan Cabot in her final film appearance) finds sales of her cosmetic company products flagging. The mostly-male executive board suggests that the cause of her problems might be her, the aging public face of the corporation. In desperation, she turns to a risky medical procedure; enzymes from queen wasp royal jelly, injected directly into her veins. Of course, a boundary-pushing scientist is involved in extracting the cure (played by Michael Mark), and when he goes missing, our CEO overdoes it on the dosing. The result—uncontrolled wasp transformation—are as predictably horrifying as they are cheesy.

My favorite trivia fact about the filming of “The Wasp Woman” is that Cabot kept chocolate sauce in her mouth to add realism to the wasp monster biting her victims’ necks. The sauce that she’d drool back on to her victims looked like blood on black-and-white film. Certainly, that’s dedication to selling the scene, and I love she was willing to play along. Soon after finishing this movie, Cabot would go on to have a seven-year relationship with King Hussen of Jordan, resulting in a child born out of wedlock. Sadly, things ended badly for them both: after years of isolation and increased problems with mental illness, in 1986 Cabot attacked her son in their Encino, CA home and he bludgeoned her to death with a barbell bar. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter and given probation in 1989, with credit for time served.

Conversely, Corman has gone on to enjoy a very long and successful career in the film industry. This “Pope of Pop Cinema” directed an extensive slate of films—including, notably, a set known as the “Poe cycle” based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe and starring Vincent Price. In the early 1970’s he went on to found New World Pictures studio. After selling New World he set up Millennium Films production company (later renamed to New Horizons) in 1984 and then Concorde Pictures in 1985. He somewhat-recently produced creature films for SyFy channel including “Sharktopus” (2010) and “Piranhaconda” (2012). In 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences awarded him an Academy Honorary Award and in 2018 he received the “Extraordinary Contribution to Film” award at the Austin Film Festival. He has worked with a long list of well-regarded filmmakers and actors that credit him with helping them break into the industry.

---

Sources and More Info:

Wikipedia: The Wasp Woman

TCM: "The Wasp Woman" by Susan Doll, 3/28/11

Filmsite: "The History of Film; The 1950s" by Film Historian Tim Drinks

IMDB: The Wasp Woman

Los Angeles Times (archives): "Son Convicted of Killing Actress Mother : Justice: Because there was no evidence of predmeditation, Timothy Scott Roman was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, not murder." by Patricia Klein Lerner, 10/11/89