Although not a Corman classic, The Wasp Woman is an under-rated, low budget and entertaining film with good pacing but pretty tacky special effects
Directed by Roger Corman, Jack Hill
Produced by Roger Corman
Screenplay by Leo Gordon
Music by Fred Katz
Cinematography: Harry Neumann
Edited by Carlo Lodato
Distributed by Filmgroup, Allied Artists Pictures Corporation
Running time: 73 minutes
Budget: $50,000 (approx.)
Cast
Susan Cabot as Janice Starlin
Fred Eisley as Bill Lane
Barboura Morris as Mary Dennison
William Roerick as Arthur Cooper
Michael Mark as Dr. Eric Zinthrop
Frank Gerstle as Les Hellman
Bruno VeSota as Night Watchman
Roy Gordon as Paul Thompson
Carolyn Hughes as Jean Carson
Lynn Cartwright as Maureen Reardon
Frank Wolff as Delivery Man
Lani Mars as Secretary
Philip Barry as Delivery Man
Roger Corman as Hospital Doctor (uncredited)
Trailer
The perils of fading beauty!
The promise of anti-aging miracles!
A serum derived from the enzymes of wasps??
The first human trial of the miracle serum!
An unexpected turn of events!
The consequences of vanity…...
The Wasp Woman!
Spoilers follow below.....
“Wasps? You better be careful, they can sting a man to death.”
“Don't worry, we understand each other.”
Shortly after, a car pulls up with a Mr. Barker from the commercial honey company’s “front office.” Barker congratulates Renfro on what a good job he has done for having “turned in over a thousand pounds of orange blossom honey and 400 of beeswax last month” and for having “made the top of the list again.” Success measured in quantifiable, measurable and tangible commercial terms! Good boy!
“I told you he was a crackpot”
But what about this fellow Zinthrop who is “paid to do research on royal jelly” and has not bothered to send in a progress report for a month?
When Barker gets to the Zinthrop’s workshop, the doctor explains that he has “almost perfected a new method of extracting royal jelly from the queen wasp” instead of from bees as he was supposed to do. He claims he can stop ageing and soon will be able to reverse it. By way of demonstration, he draws Barker’s attention to a puppy and a dog. He goes on to explain that the two dogs are in fact exactly the same age but that the puppy has been regularly injected with Zinthrop’s serum.
Barker can only see as far as practical commercial realities allow him to. As far as he is concerned, queen bee royal jelly is “a health food, a cosmetic.” Nor is it in his opinion “a miracle drug or an elixir of youth” as he in line with orthodox thinking believes “that sort of thing is impossible.” Mentally myopic Barker sees no option but to fire Zinthrop. In time-honoured corporate world false consensus parlance, Barker informs the maverick Zinthrop, “you just don't seem to be one of the team.” (I kinda like Zinthrop just on that basis alone!)
“Not even Janice Starlin can remain a glamour girl forever”
Janice holds a somewhat unusual position for a woman in the 1950s as corporate head and owner of a major company. One of the corporate circling sharks at the table by the name of Bill Lane somewhat smugly and cockily informs Janice that he will elaborate on the reasons for the fall, so if the little lady will kindly step aside......
Oh look! A bar-graph chart! That graphic should convince anyone! Lane proceeds to inform Janice bluntly that the responsibility for the sales decline lies with her. It seems that Janice feels that she is succumbing to the ravages of time and can no longer be considered as being suitable as THE face on the company’s beauty products. So, when she took her face off the products, sales took a downward trajectory.
Lane goes on to explain that Janices’s firm became “a multi-million-dollar-a-year business on the strength and appeal of one person, Janice Starlin” and that up “until February of this year, only one woman's face was used to advertise those products: Your face, Miss Starlin.” After 16 years the public see a different face and they don't trust it, “they feel cheated. The simple fact is that Starlin Cosmetics should have Janice Starlin's picture advertising them.”
And so the pressure is on for Janice to live up to public expectations, maintain social acceptance and achieve corporate survival. All that’s needed now are the miraculous means to achieve this unlikely outcome!
Enter Dr. Zinthrop who is now at reception awaiting his appointment with Janice. But first Janice has a quiet word in her office with resident expert Arthur Cooper to discuss the possible therapeutic properties of royal jelly. Arthur cautions Janice that “no two people react in precisely the same way.” When she questions him about royal jelly obtained from a queen wasp and its possible rejuvenating effects, Arthur warns her to steer clear of wasps due to the fact that “socially the queen wasp is on a level with the black widow spider’ in that “they're both carnivorous, they paralyze their victims and then take their time devouring them alive.” In addition, “they kill their mates in the same way too.” As to the “possibilities of using enzyme extracts from royal wasp jelly, commercially,” Arthur tells Janice bluntly to “forget about it.” Yes, you can warn people about the potential dangers of their actions until you’re blue in the face but pride, vanity, stupidity, desperation, self-interest and self-delusion tend to rise to the surface and clog up the smooth workings of fact, truth and reason. From ordinary punters to presidents!
“Such proof you shall get, Madam, and more”
When Arthur departs, Zinthrop enters Janice’s office. She informs him that she cannot give him much time but he replies that it is HE who can give the time – 10 or even 15 years of time. Having hooked her with the bait, Janice tells Zinthrop that she nevertheless must have “absolute proof” of what he claims.
We now move to the laboratory where we see Zinthrop injecting a shaggy rat that looks suspiciously like a guinea pig. Before Janices’s eyes the creature turns into an active young rat. Janice is amazed and Zinthrop conducts the same procedure on a second “rat” with the same result.
A gob-smacked Janice Starlin is completely convinced. Zinthrop is virtually at liberty to dictate his own terms and he informs Janice that he merely wants “a laboratory equipped with everything I need for my research” and if successful, “a little percentage. But I must get full credit for my discovery, that is most important to me.”
Even more surprisingly, he states that he has no need for a formal contract to be drawn up and that Janices’s word will be good enough for him! This is not your typical deranged mad scientist aiming for unlimited wealth and power. All he seems to crave is the opportunity to conduct his research and obtain recognition for his achievements. His lack of interest in obtaining legal protection for himself and his interests shows his naivety. As far as Janice is concerned, he simply tells her, “I know you're a good woman, even if you do not like other people to know it.”
There is, however an important disclaimer that Zinthrop discloses to Janice and this is quite crucial to the film’s plot. Zinthrop’s “formula may not be good for human beings” and that he has not tested it yet. Despite Janice offering herself as a guinea pig, he refuses on the grounds that “there might be danger.” Yes, we know where this is heading!
“There's something about this whole business that doesn't smell right”
At the next staff meeting, Janice introduces MR. Zinthrop to the others. Could it be that there is a question mark concerning his true credentials? At least if he is simply known as MR instead of DR. then there may be less chance of anyone wanting to snoop around for information about the nature of his qualifications.
Janice informs the others that Zinthrop is “working on the final stages of a development that will revolutionize the cosmetics industry” and that “he's to have a free hand in his experiments” and will be answerable only to herself.
She goes on to tell them that she cannot divulge the nature of Mr. Zinthrop's experiments except to assure them that “it will bring world-wide recognition to Janice Starlin Enterprises.”
It’s pretty obvious though that the other staff members are less than impressed with the newcomer and the role he is about to play. Secrecy and lack of information will no doubt lead to an increase in curiosity and the spread of rumours.
In the time-honoured tradition of corporate office political undermining and back-stabbing, but this time in a good cause, Bill and secretary Mary meet and Bill confides to her that he thinks Zinthrop is a conman. While on a dinner date, Bill asks Mary to “keep an eye on what goes on” or to put it simply, to spy on Janice. Arthur then walks in on them and agrees to this proposal. Arthur is concerned that Zinthrop is a quack who unlike a “confidence man” could prove to “be fatal.”
The disconcerting mystery surrounding Zinthrop has made its way through the corporate grapevine as we hear the conversation between two less than overworked secretaries. One of them tells the other that “Morton thinks he's a crackpot” and that she had “heard him telling Cooper so.” It seems that according to their gossip that “old bug eyes really has the execs worried’ but that no one's sure about what?
Well, even two empty-headed nonentities like those pretty secretaries have enough superficial beauty to attract the unwanted attention of an old crackpot geyser like Zinthrop. Don’t worry Janice, even though being a good woman isn’t enough, you’ll soon have Zinthrop’s fountain of youth to ensure you obtain enough superficial beauty to have your face back in its rightful place on all of your products! So let’s see how this miracle will unfold…...
Later on at the lab, Zinthrop shows Janice the test results on a cat. I can safely say that the animal is a bone-fide feline. Not only that, it is now a cute kitten. It appears that the formula is now ready and so it is time to give Janice her first injection…..DA, DA, DAAAAA!!!!
“We must tread lightly, with care”
In the interim, it appears that Zinthrop has been spending money like he’s Mike Bloomberg. For instance, $2,300 has already been spent on enzyme extract. His spendthrift ways, however are covered by Janice who informs accounting to pay whatever he demands. It seems that others in the company have also heard about it on the grapevine….
“My dear, Starlin will be world famous, bringing you to millions”
Three weeks later it can be seen that Janice is becoming impatient about the progress of her anticipated transformation of her appearance, leading Zinthrop to issue a rather complimentary comment,” you look at least five years younger than you looked three weeks ago.” Janice, however wishes to “increase the dosage” to “step up the process.” Zinthrop urges caution pointing out the differences in metabolism between her as a human being and a kitten. He then informs Janice that he has a stronger “concentrated solution of the enzymes... a great deal more powerful than the solution I've been using in your injection’ and that “as an emollient lotion it'll make estrogenic creams and all such products old fashioned.”
Meanwhile, secretary Mary has been busily rifling through Janices’s desk and manages to locate the original letter from Zinthrop. She then meets up with Bill and Arthur and they discover from the letter’s contents that Zinthrop “claims he can stimulate the processes of rejuvenation through the use of enzymes extracted from wasps.”
The conspirators believe they have worked out the whole dilemma involving their boss and Zinthrop who they firmly believe is some kind of a shyster. They figure that Janice is “so intent on holding back time she's ready to fall for the first phony line she hears” and that having “built her whole life on youth and beauty” and the fact “that she's losing them, she's scared to death.”
How ironic that Janice appears to be falling victim to a process upon which the success of companies like hers bases its success on: generating fear of losing both youth and beauty and feeling the need to turn to false and illusory remedies claiming to reclaim that supposedly lost youth and beauty. The only winners are the purveyors of such snake oil nonsense who grow wealthy out of people’s stupidity and desperation. Speaking of desperation……….
We see Janice late one night entering the lab and injecting herself with Zinthrop’s stronger formula!
"Return to youth with Janice Starlin."
After putting her new look on display and outlining the new campaign for her cosmetics, Janice receives an abundance of personal affirmation from the comments and reactions of all those around her such as;
“It's amazing”
“Why, it's wonderful”
“Absolutely amazing”
“You look marvelous”
“It's a miracle, a wonderful, incredible miracle!”
“It's like a dream”
One could almost imagine such words and phrases being incorporated into an advertising campaign for a brand of cosmetics. After all, isn’t that what many advertising campaigns aim for: a sense of personal affirmation, social approval and acceptance?
“Do you think that will happen to Jan?”
Later on Zinthrop enters the lab only to be assaulted by a crazed and demented feline. Zinthrop kills the cat and comes to the realization that the formula is not ready for use on humans. This fact is reinforced by the conspiring trio who discuss an incident where “30 years ago a bunch of quacks were treating people with monkey glands. Seemed to work for a while, then the deterioration set in.” Bill, Mary, and Arthur are determined to save Janice. The answer must lie in Zinthrop’s lab and if Arthur can get in there he’d be able to “run a breakdown on what he's using.”
When Zinthrop leaves his lab in a state of obvious shock, Arthur conducts a bit of breaking and entry and begins snooping around the laboratory. Arthur quickly hides when Janice suddenly enters the lab and resumes his search after she leaves.
Zinthrop, in a zombie-like state, walks across the street oblivious to the traffic and is hit by a car and is badly injured. When he fails to return from lunch, Janice hires PI Les Hellman to find him. Rather meaningfully, Janice points out to Hellman that “time is vital, Mr. Hellman. Every hour he's gone, it means more than you can possibly imagine.” When Janice looks for the letter for Hellman and finds out that it is missing, Mary is brought in for questioning. She soon confesses to stealing the letter for Bill and Arthur. Hellman and his cronies are soon on the job turning the city upside down for Zinthrop who is finally located in the hospital – a John Doe in Central Emergency. The doctor (my God, can that be Roger Corman himself?) declares that Zinthrop has a “head injury, general contusion to the body” and that “he's had a severe injury and there's definite brain damage, just how much we can't tell as yet.” Understandably Janice is determined to spare no expense saving him.
“It's my decision”
It’s been three days and Zinthrop is still in a coma. Janice says that Arthur can take over the lab in 48 hours if Zinthrop doesn’t regain consciousness.
Soon after, Janice goes to the lab and gives herself another injection. When Arthur takes over the lab, he notices that the vials are almost empty. Suddenly, before he can say “qualitative analysis” Arthur is attacked by a black clad female figure sporting a wasp’s head. The Wasp Woman then proceeds to feed on the blood from Arthur’s neck. After returning to normal, Janice injects herself with the serum once more.
“Janice Starlin Enterprises is going to bring the most fantastically sell-able product ever developed by modern cosmetics to the public”
It seems that a line is being crossed from what is considered to be the offer of a harmless cosmetic product to the promise of a medical cure of what he become to be seen as a condition, in this case the natural ageing process! In a burst of hubris, Janice even declares at the next meeting that “I don't intend to be restricted by timidity on the part of my own staff, is that clear?” How many business and political leaders have we witnessed over the years (and quite recently!) who don’t take kindly to criticism and contradiction and seek to ensure compliance from their underlings?
“It's just a little headache, Mary. I'm fine”
By this stage, Janice has the appearance of being like a drug addict. In fact, in a way she is addicted to Zinthrop’s formula along with the personal high she receives from the perceived results and the approval of those around her. We’re familiar with the addictive nature of the beauty industry whereby so many normally sane people spend so much time and money trying to live up to false expectations and concepts of perfect physical youthful beauty. Social media even helps to recruit more and more addicts to seek the means of achieving unrealistic outcomes and the false promise of personal happiness and fulfillment associated with them. For many, the end result is often a sense of frustration and personal dissatisfaction. Just consider those pathetic souls who put themselves through multiple sessions of cosmetic surgery and the grotesque results that are obtained from it!
Janice decides to move Zinthrop into her office to be cared for by a private nurse. The room is fitted out with medical emergency equipment. Meanwhile the night watchman while fiddling with his cranky portable radio is attacked. So now we have two missing people – victims of THE WASP WOMAN! DA, DA, DAAAAA!
Bill is quite worried about Arthur who has been missing for the day, particularly as he is a “conscientious guy” who “if he felt sick or something he'd have called in.” Later on, after breaking into the lab (by now a crime hot spot what with multiple break-ins and murders!) Bill and Mary find Arthur’s pipe, a precious object that any self-professed academic intellectual-type would never be without. As Bill comments to Mary, “he'd sooner go out without his pants than leave that pipe behind.” He must, therefore be somewhere in the building. The plot thickens!
“Something's happening. Something's happening to me, I can't control it”
While Bill and Mary go to Zinthrops’ room, Janice makes her way down to the lab to take the last remaining shot. A distraught Zinthrop warns Bill and Mary “you do not understand, Miss Starlin, she's in danger, I must warn...” Mary then elects to go to Janice’s office to call the police while Bill stays with Zinthrop.
“The enzymes, the enzymes, they're going crazy”
A clearly agitated Zinthrop warns Bill that Mary is in danger and that “Miss Starlin will kill her and tear her body to shreds” because “Miss Starlin is not a human being any longer. The enzymes have changed her. She will destroy the girl as an evil wasp would destroy her enemies, and then devour the remains.”
In the meantime, Janice learns from Mary that Bill had found Zinthrop’s notebook in Arthur’s desk and all that followed from that discovery. Janice then sets out to fulfill Zinthrop’s prophesy on the hapless Mary.
But wait! Here comes Bill flying up the stairs to the lab and adding to the number of steps on his Fitbit while Zinthrop the lazy malingering old bastard takes the elevator. The showdown is on with Zinthrop and Bill double-teaming their opponent….THE WASP WOMAN!
Zinthrop decides to fight dirty by launching an attack on the wasp woman with carbolic acid while Bill uses the old lunge-your-opponent-out-of a-window-with-a-stool-maneuver. Mary is thankfully alive to be one day slapped in the face once again should she ever decide to turn on the female hysterics. Amazing how many times that happened in films back in the day! Explains a lot in terms of gender attitudes over the years in real life unfortunately. The last image is of a close up shot of the wasp woman’s face as it dissolves to an image of a BEE colony.
Points Of Interest
Susan Cabot finished her film career with this film before returning to the theatre in New York. Later in the 1980s, she was reportedly bludgeoned to death by her dwarf son.
The film’s rather manic and hectic musical score seems to consist of Beat-style jazz. It may come across as a tad over-bearing but it does somewhat help to increase the tension.
It appears that some of the film was shot some time later in the 1960s if the cars shown during the search for the missing Zinthrop are any indication.
One central idea of the film is quite relevant in almost any era: the exploitation of people’s (often women’s and often manufactured) need to hold on to their youth, and that in our culture ageing is equated with being invisible and not of much worth. Even someone like Janice Starlin who might be expected to have everything in life feels that her 40 year old face will not sell her own company’s products.
The character of Zinthrop is hardly your usual mad scientist who like in the film, The Head sets about abducting, exploiting and victimizing some hapless female and forcing her against her will to become the subject of his deranged research. It is Janice Starlin who elects herself as the human guinea pig in an experiment that will turn her into a monster. All Zinthrop desires is somewhere to conduct his research unimpeded and a bit of recognition and validation. In fact, it is he who wishes to set limits on how the experiment should proceed. It is Janice who lacks prudence and caution and who rushes headlong toward her fate by her own actions and decisions. Still, we cannot blame her in that she is somewhat a product of a system imbued with skewed values.
And 60 years on? What shape are our society’s values in?
Wasp Fact File
“I'd stay away from wasps if I were you, Mrs. Starlin. Socially the queen wasp is on the level with a Black Widow spider. They're both carnivorous, they paralyze their victims and then take their time devouring them alive. And they kill their mates in the same way, too. Strictly a one-sided romance.”
Is Arthur Cooper correct?
Wasps, known by their scientific name, Hymenoptera are omnivores and are up to 1.5 inches in length.
Wasps live everywhere but the continent of Antarctica.
Most wasps, however are solitary, non-stinging varieties and are quite beneficial by controlling pest insect populations for food or as a host for its parasitic larvae. In fact, the agriculture industry often employs them to protect crops.
Wasps are distinguishable from bees by their pointed lower abdomens and the narrow waist part of their bodies called a “petiole,” that separates the abdomen from the thorax.
Like our friends, the European wasp, the brighter colored species are generally the stinging variety of wasp.
Wasps build nests which they construct from wood fibres such as strips of bark which they scrape with their mandibles and chew into a pulp. Bees, on the other hand secrete a waxy substance to construct their nests.
Wasps are divided into ‘social’ and ‘solitary’ sub-groups. Social wasps form the minority of species and include colony-builders.
A social wasp colony is started each spring by a queen who was fertilized the previous year and has managed to survive the winter by hibernating in a warm place. She then emerges and builds a small nest and rears a starter brood of worker females who begin expanding the nest, building multiple six-sided cells into which the queen continually lays eggs. By late summer, a colony might consist of more than 5,000 individuals, all of whom, including the founding queen, die off at winter. In spring the process begins anew with a fertilized queen that has survived the cold.
Solitary wasps by contrast do not form colonies. Stinging solitary wasps use their venom to hunt whereas the social varieties use their stingers only for defense. Unlike bees, wasps can sting repeatedly.
A social wasp in distress emits a pheromone that sends nearby colony members into a defensive, stinging frenzy. Only females have stingers, which are in fact modified egg-laying organs.
Full Film
©Chris Christopoulos
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