The Wasp Woman (Cinematic Titanic)

Film Year:  1959

Genre:  Horror

Director:  Roger Corman

Starring:  Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley, Michael Mark, Barboura Morris

CT Number:  3

The Movie

It's almost as if Roger Corman saw The Wolf Man and The Fly the same weekend and shouted "I got an idea!"

The Wasp Woman tells the story of a woman with a career, and since that is inherently evil she has to become the villain by the end of the picture.  Susan Cabot plays Janice Starling, the founder of a major cosmetic company.  But as she gets older and her beauty fades she risks losing being the face of her products to the younger generation.  A mad beekeeper offers a solution by injecting her with the royal jelly of a wasp, which returns her to her youthful looks.  But side effects include turning into a wasp monster that kills people (surgeon general warning pending).

In The Wasp Woman Corman mimics classic horror tales while blending with science fiction elements that were popular at the time.  The result is something middling to passable for Corman though poor by traditional standards.  The storyline is fair, though presentation is dry, presenting tongue-in-cheek ideas in a fairly serious manner.

The Wasp Woman at it's heart is just an unimpressive monster movie at a point where the genre was dying out.  It's not really all that fun nor does it do anything interesting or new.  As far as cheap drive-in fare that eventually went public domain goes, it's fine.  Hardly anything to note though.

The Riff

The Wasp Woman was fairly close to being a pulled episode of Cinematic Titanic, since Roger Corman claimed ownership of the film (which was actually in public domain) and threatened legal action.  Fortunately the dust settled and Cinematic Titanic was allowed to keep the show in print and continue live shows of it.  Cinematic Titanic would later be forced to pull Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World, with less success of putting it back in circulation.

Though to be fair The Wasp Woman is one of the weaker riffs in Cinematic Titanic's line-up, so if a riff were to be targeted I'd have preferred it be this one (but mostly none at all).  It's not that I find it particularly poor, it's just that with a film this dry it's hard to deliver.  Though I will say that a lot of good lines have a tendency to pop out during films like this, and Cinematic Titanic delivers even if not at a high hit rate.  There are points where I can laugh at just the right jab at the right time, such as a grumpy 50's pedestrian fretting because he's missing the McCarthy Hearings.  Plus Trace has the winner of a line "Out of work and talking to bugs.  Boy have I been there!"

The host segments are okay at best.  The best is Frank bringing on yet another guest, famed drummer Buddy Rich, who proceeds to be an asshole to all of the Titans.  Mary Jo also calls a board meeting, which is simple and cute, but goes nowhere.  The intro features a tad bit of dark humor as Frank points out the tragic fate of the lead actress, though it could be argued this gets the riff off to an all-to-somber start.

Much like the movie itself, this riff is fine though something that will be glossed over in the larger scheme of film riffing.  I can recommend it on the basis that it has some good comedy interwoven into a mostly bland product, but I feel this one is a lesser offering in Cinematic Titanic's line-up.

Average

The DVD

The Wasp Woman was initially released on DVD exclusively through cinematictitanic.com, though like all of the initial discs this edition is out of print.  Picture was solid, outside of a low resolution version of the film, and audio was great.  There were no bonus features.

It was re-released by Shout Factory in their Complete Collection set.  There were also no special features, though it shares a disc with the following show, Legacy of Blood.