Wasp Woman, The (1959)

The Wasp Woman has all the ingredients required to propel it into the ranks of true cult classic greatness. Indeed, over the years appreciation for the film has steadily grown, to the point where it now stands proudly among the more beloved jewels of classic B-movie schlock.

The premise alone is inspired.

Susan Cabot stars as Janice Starlin, glamorous owner and public face of a hugely successful cosmetics empire whose fortune has been built largely upon her own beauty and image. Unfortunately, time is proving a merciless enemy. During a tense board meeting, grim graphs reveal an alarming decline in company profits, and it soon becomes painfully obvious that customers may be losing faith not merely in the products, but in the ageing face promoting them.

Janice is devastated by the implication.

The company’s fortunes appear tied directly to the cruel reality that their once radiant beauty queen is now drifting dangerously beyond forty. Her board members grow restless, impatient, and increasingly sceptical. Starlin realises she must find a solution quickly if she hopes to rescue both the company and her own fading relevance.

Enter the mysterious and disgraced Dr Zinthrop.

Peddling an experimental rejuvenation serum derived from wasp enzymes, Zinthrop offers Starlin what appears to be a miraculous answer to all her fears. Early demonstrations on elderly hamsters produce astonishing results as the sagging, wrinkled creatures suddenly transform into energetic, youthful little beasts bursting with vitality.

Janice is enthralled.

Throwing caution entirely to the wind, she finances Zinthrop’s dubious research, builds him a laboratory, and gives him complete carte blanche to continue his work without interference.

Finally the great moment arrives.

Janice Starlin receives her first injection of the experimental serum and waits anxiously for the transformation to begin. One day passes, then another, and still nothing happens. Her hopes begin collapsing once again while suspicious employees start noticing strange unexplained expenses piling up in the company accounts. One particularly exorbitant bill for wasp enzymes causes eyebrows to rise considerably.

Desperation soon takes over.

Unable to resist temptation, Starlin sneaks into Zinthrop’s clinic and injects herself with even more serum. The following morning she sweeps dramatically into work looking decades younger, dazzling everyone around her. The transformation is extraordinary. Suddenly Janice is radiant once more, brimming with confidence and announcing ambitious new advertising campaigns with renewed authority.

Not everyone is convinced, however.

Meanwhile, Zinthrop suffers a near-fatal accident, leaving Starlin increasingly terrified about where her precious serum supply will now come from. Worse still, the effects prove horrifyingly temporary. Once the serum begins wearing off, Janice rapidly transforms into a grotesque human-wasp hybrid with murderous instincts and a lethal sting.

And from that point onward, matters become gloriously unhinged.

Susan Cabot is genuinely excellent throughout and gives the film far more conviction than its modest budget perhaps deserved. Cabot herself led a turbulent and tragic life away from the screen, associated over the years with numerous high-profile figures including Hussein of Jordan. Her later years ended in horrifying fashion when she was killed by her deeply troubled son in one of Hollywood’s grimmest real-life tragedies.

Here, however, she absolutely shines.

Janice Starlin may well represent Cabot’s finest hour on screen.

Unfortunately, despite its marvellous premise and flashes of brilliance, the film suffers badly from extremely sluggish pacing. The first half hour crawls by at an almost narcotic speed, and astonishingly more than half the film has elapsed before the Wasp Woman herself properly appears.

That is a serious structural problem in a movie called The Wasp Woman.

The film frequently feels as though it is forever building toward excitement without quite arriving there. By the time the climax finally rolls around, some viewers may well be fighting off sleep alongside the giant mutant insects.

Yet despite these shortcomings, the film undeniably possesses something special.

There are moments — brief but memorable — where the film erupts into genuine cult-movie greatness. The transformation scenes, the wonderfully absurd wasp makeup, Susan Cabot’s increasingly desperate performance, and the sheer audacity of the concept all elevate the picture above ordinary B-movie mediocrity.

One constantly senses the masterpiece of schlock that might have been.

Instead of becoming the exhilarating live wire it should have been, The Wasp Woman too often settles into the rhythms of a damp squib. Still, its inspired premise, strange atmosphere, and Susan Cabot’s committed performance have ensured the film an enduring cult reputation among lovers of vintage horror and classic Roger Corman madness.

And deservedly so.