The Wasp Woman (1959): watch the full film free, legally

Janice Starlin seeks a younger face

The Wasp Woman is a 1959 American independent science-fiction horror film, produced and directed by Roger Corman. Shot in black and white, it stars Susan Cabot as Janice Starlin, alongside Anthony Eisley, Michael Mark, and Barboura Morris. It was first known as Insect Woman and was also released under the titles The Bee Girl and Insect Woman.

Janice is the founder and owner of a large cosmetics company. When falling sales make clear that her customers see her as aging, she becomes distressed. Her concern brings her to Dr. Eric Zinthrop, a scientist whose work with wasps has already cost him his position at a honey farm.

A serum from the queen wasp

Zinthrop has extracted enzymes from the royal jelly of a queen wasp and believes they can reverse aging. Janice agrees to pay for further research, despite the expense, on the condition that she becomes his human subject. Corman said he suggested a wasp serum to writer Leo Gordon because it sounded more exciting than using royal jelly from bees.

Impatient with the treatment's gradual results, Janice enters Zinthrop's laboratory after hours and injects herself with extra doses. The serum has a dramatic effect: she loses twenty years over a single weekend. At the same time, Zinthrop learns that some test creatures have become violent. He tries to warn Janice, but is struck by a car before he can reach anyone and is temporarily missing.

Janice searches for Zinthrop and eventually takes charge of his care. Meanwhile, her secret use of the serum continues. She discovers that at intervals she changes into a wasp-like creature with murderous impulses. The theatrical poster presented a different image, showing a creature with a woman's head and a wasp's body, whereas the creature in the film is the reverse.

A fast production and altered release

The film was made for an estimated $50,000 in less than two weeks. Corman described the Wasp Woman's prosthetic mask as “rather primitive.” It was the first film he financed and directed for The Filmgroup, his production and distribution company. Filmgroup released it on June 10, 1959, as a double feature with Beast from Haunted Cave, making it the company's third release.

For television syndication, director Jack Hill added 11 minutes in 1962. The material included a prologue in which Zinthrop is fired from the honey farm for his wasp experiments. The film later appeared in Allied Artists' 1963 television package The Exploitables and was re-released in March 2010 as part of the “100th Anniversary of Monster Movies.”

Fred Katz wrote the musical score, although it had originally been composed for A Bucket of Blood. Mark Thomas McGee wrote that Katz sold the same score as new music whenever Corman called on him to provide music. The score was used in seven films, including The Little Shop of Horrors and Creature from the Haunted Sea.

Critical responses varied. Variety said the film had interesting points and looked polished, while finding it slow and not very frightening. Charles Stinson of the Los Angeles Times praised Gordon's script and Cabot's nuanced work. The Monthly Film Bulletin called its later fantasy sequences ludicrous rather than terrifying. Rotten Tomatoes lists a 45% rating from 11 reviews, averaging 4.7 out of 10. Leonard Maltin gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 4; TV Guide gave it 1 out of 4.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “The Wasp Woman”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.