Roger Corman's "The Wasp Woman" (1959)

Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot), the driven head of a struggling cosmetics company, watches her once-thriving business decline as younger rivals dominate the market. Her uneasy executives begin discussing whether the aging but proud founder should step aside as the firm’s public image. Determined to restore both her youth and her authority, Janice secretly consults reclusive scientist Dr. Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark), who claims to have developed an experimental rejuvenation serum derived from enzymes found in queen wasps. Although the treatment is unstable and dangerous, Janice insists on becoming his first human subject.

The early injections seem miraculous. Janice’s wrinkles fade, her vitality returns, and she quickly resumes appearing in advertisements promoting the company’s products. Encouraged by these results, she pressures Zinthrop to continue the treatments despite his growing concern about unpredictable side effects. What neither of them fully anticipates is that each injection also triggers a horrifying mutation. During these episodes Janice briefly transforms into a grotesque human-wasp creature driven by violent instinct.

The transformations grow longer and more difficult to control. When a night watchman encounters the monstrous figure roaming the laboratory, the transformed Janice kills him before reverting to normal with little memory of the attack. Alarmed by the death, Zinthrop realizes the serum is dangerously incomplete and begs Janice to stop before the mutation becomes permanent. Obsessed with preserving her restored youth and unwilling to lose her authority, she refuses.

Suspicion spreads through the office as Janice’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic. Her loyal employee Mary Dennison (Barboura Morris) begins to worry about her secrecy while Zinthrop works desperately to develop an antidote. Before he can perfect it, Janice demands another injection, triggering a far more violent transformation.

Now fully changed into the savage Wasp Woman, Janice attacks and kills Zinthrop when he tries to stop her. The creature then stalks the darkened office building, terrifying the staff and leaving chaos in its wake. During a desperate confrontation in the laboratory, Janice’s horrified colleagues struggle with the rampaging monster until it crashes through a window and falls to its death below. With Janice gone and the serum’s secret exposed, the survivors reflect on how her desperate attempt to reclaim youth ultimately destroyed her.

A 1959 American Black & White independent science-fiction horror film (aka "Insect Woman") produced & directed by Roger Corman, screenplay by Leo Gordon, story by Kinta Zertuche, cinematography by Harry Neumann, starring Susan Cabot, Fred Eisley, Barboura Morris, William Roerick, Michael Mark, Frank Gerstle, Bruno VeSota, Roy Gordon, Carolyn Hughes, Lynn Cartwright, Frank Wolff, Lani Mars, and Philip Barry. Released by The Filmgroup.

This was the third film released by Filmgroup.

Produced for an estimated budget of $50,000, and shot in less than two weeks.

The final feature film appearance of Susan Cabot (1927--1986), although she continued acting on television for many years. Cabot's character plays a woman who takes wasp "royal jelly enzyme" to stay younger. In real life, Cabot suffered from mental illness. She reportedly tried to treat it with human growth hormone, which her son took for dwarfism, but it may have exacerbated her illness. Her son later killed her, reportedly in self-defense after she attacked him during a mental breakdown.

Corman liked the idea of a wasp serum because it sounded more exciting than using the royal jelly from bees.

Roger Corman makes an uncredited cameo appearance as a Hospital Doctor.

Barboura Morris co-starred indirector Roger Corman's "A Bucket of Blood "(1959), where she also played the good girl.

Screen writer, Leo Gordon, was married to Lynn Cartwright, who plays the receptionist.

The car seen in the "Ambulance Entrance" segment is a 1963 impala

The musical score, written by Fred Katz, was originally composed for the film "A Bucket of Blood" (1959). Each time Katz was called upon to write music for Corman, he sold the same score as if it were new music. The score was used in a total of seven films, including "The Little Shop of Horrors" (1960) and "Creature from the Haunted Sea" (1961).

In 1962, director Jack Hill added 11 minutes to the film for its eventual television syndication release.

In 1995, Corman oversaw a television remake, produced for broadcast by Showtime Cable Network, starring Jennifer Rubin, directed by Jim Wynorski.

This B-Movie is one of a wave of "cheap teen movies" released for the drive-in market, and one of Roger Corman's better directorial efforts. Like other 50s sci-fi horror films it distills horror down to a basic fact - that humans are afraid of their bodies getting out of control either by the aging process or by disease. Recommended to admirers of classic science fiction.

Видео Roger Corman's "The Wasp Woman" (1959) канала Donald P. Borchers