Daily Archives: December 4, 2016

The Wasp Woman
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Leo Gordon; story by Kinta Zertuche
1959/USA
Film Group Feature/Santa Cruz Productions Inc
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Arthur Cooper: 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.[/box]

Kindly, but whacky, old scientist Eric Zinthrop is employed to collect royal jelly from bee hives for use in the cosmetics industry.  Instead, he researches his own theory about uses for royal jelly from wasps and treats the tiny creatures like prized pets.When he is inevitably fired from his beekeeper job, he offers his ideas about wasp royal jelly as a rejuvinating agent to Starlin Cosmetics.

Starlin has been losing market share since it started using new model.  Formerly owner Janice Starlin was the best advertisement for her own products but she has now aged too much to be attractive (indicated by her glasses).Thus Starlin gives Zinthrop carte blanche to do his research and offers herself up as the first human subject.  At first the modest amount of serum Zinthrop injects work wonders.  Then Starlin decides things are going too slowly and surrepticiously ups the dosage and frequency.  I think we can all see where this is going …

Had there been more Wasp Woman and had she resembled the poster, this would have been awesome!  As it is, Corman gets in some digs at the youth culture and it’s an entertaining watch.  Available in several complete versions on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t_B1DcdNQg

The Bat
Directed by Crane Wilbur
Written by Crane Wilbur from a play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood
1959/USA
Liberty Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Cornelia van Gorder: [locking their door] Nothing should get us now, I think, this door seems good and solid.

Lizzie Allen: Like the door to a tomb.[/box]

It was fun to watch Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead combine forces in this “old dark house” mystery story.

The story is a remake of The Bat (1926) and The Bat Whispers (1930) and harkens back to a simpler time.  Mystery writer Cornelia van Gorder (Moorehead) and her maid/companion Lizzie Lane have rented a country mansion for the season.  All her other servants are on the verge of quitting because of rumors that 1) a murderer known as “The Bat” is once again on the loose and 2) The Bat has released rabid real bats in the area.  This fazes Cornelia not at all.

Concurrently, $350,000 in negotiable securities have gone missing from a private vault in the bank.  Later investigation reveals that $1 million has disappeared from the books.  The likely suspect is bank’s president who is also the house’s owner.  The smart money is betting that the cash is hidden somewhere in the house.  The Bat is clearly after that money.  But who is he among the many suspicious characters?  With Price as a local physician and rabies researcher.

Both Price and Moorehead are at their slightly hammy best and this is a short and entertaining ride.  It is about on the quality level of good late 50’s TV.  Multiple complete versions are currently available on YouTube.

The Cosmic Man
Directed by Herbert S. Greene
Written by Arthur C. Pierce
1959/USA
Futura Productions Inc.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] I’ve made some of the greatest films ever made – and a lot of crap, too. — John Carradine[/box]

When your space ship resembles a golf ball and your alien resembles John Carradine in a trench coat and shades, you know you have got a dud.

A strange spherical object drops out of the sky near a nuclear research lab.  Noble scientist Dr. Karl Sorenson (Bruce Bennett) is convinced there is something inside.  The military wants to exploit the UFO’s secrets to build bigger and better weapons.  Sorenson, who helped develop the atom bomb, fights them every step of the way.  Then a mysterious man arrives to seek lodging at the home of a widow and her crippled son.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.

This is more or less a The Day the Earth Stood Still rip-off without any of that film’s merits.  A whole lot of talk transpires before we get to the uninspiring Carradine reveal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo8lkRzoUUQ

Trailer