A cosmetics queen develops a youth formula from jelly taken from queen wasps. She fails to anticipate the typical hoary side- effects.

Directors:

, (uncredited)

Writers:

(screenplay), (story)
Reviews
Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4.8/10 X  

Scientists become trapped on a shrinking island with intelligent, murderous giant crabs.

Director: Roger Corman
Stars: Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson
Comedy | Crime | Horror
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

A naive and untalented artist finds acclaim for a plaster-covered dead cat that is mistaken as a skillful statuette. The desire for more praise soon leads to an increasingly deadly series of works.

Director: Roger Corman
Stars: Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone
Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4.9/10 X  

A well meaning scientist guides an alien monster to Earth from Venus, so that he can rid mankind of feelings and emotions - but only death and sorrow results.

Director: Roger Corman
Stars: Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, Lee Van Cleef
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 3.5/10 X  

A backwoods game warden and a local doctor discover that giant leeches are responsible for disappearances and deaths in a local swamp, but the local police don't believe them.

Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Stars: Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, Jan Shepard
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4.8/10 X  

A series of decapitations on a Swiss mountainside appear to be connected to a mysterious radioactive cloud.

Director: Quentin Lawrence
Stars: Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Jennifer Jayne
The Wasp Woman (TV Movie 1995)
Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4/10 X  

In this remake of the 1959 classic,the owner of a cosmetic company works with a Dr. that has been experimenting with a miracle cure for aging. He has extracted an enzyme from queen wasps that eventually change Janice into a giant insect.

Director: Jim Wynorski
Stars: Jennifer Rubin, Doug Wert, Daniel J. Travanti
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X  

An alien agent from the distant planet Davana is sent to Earth via a high-tech matter transporter. There, he terrorizes Southern California in an attempt to acquire blood for his dying race, the result of a devastating nuclear war.

Director: Roger Corman
Stars: Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Morgan Jones
Comedy | Horror
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.3/10 X  

A clumsy young man nurtures a plant and discovers that it's carnivorous, forcing him to kill to feed it.

Directors: Roger Corman, Charles B. Griffith, and 1 more credit »
Stars: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5/10 X  

An "unknown force" declares war against planet Earth when the United Nations disobeys warnings to cease and desist in its attempts at assembling the first satellite in the atmosphere.

Director: Roger Corman
Stars: Dick Miller, Susan Cabot, Richard Devon
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4/10 X  

Teenagers from a rural community and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider.

Director: Bert I. Gordon
Stars: Ed Kemmer, June Kenney, Eugene Persson
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.4/10 X  

In a post-Apocalyptic world after an atomic war seven disparate people find themselves in a protected valley in the home of a survivalist and his beautiful daughter.

Director: Roger Corman
Stars: Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 3.8/10 X  

On an isolated island, a small group of people are terrorized by giant voracious shrews in the midst of a hurricane.

Director: Ray Kellogg
Stars: James Best, Ingrid Goude, Ken Curtis
Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
Bill Lane (as Fred Eisley)
Barboura Morris ...
William Roerick ...
Michael Mark ...
Frank Gerstle ...
Les Hellman
Bruno VeSota ...
Night Watchman (as Bruno Ve Sota)
Roy Gordon ...
Paul Thompson
Carolyn Hughes ...
Jean Carson
Lynn Cartwright ...
Maureen Reardon
Frank Wolff ...
First Delivery Man
Lani Mars ...
Secretary
Philip Barry ...
Second Delivery Man (as Phillip Barry)
Edit

Storyline

Janice Starlin, the owner of a cosmetics firm, sees that her fading beauty is not only causing waves in her personal life but causing some prestige problems for her also-fading business. She becomes an easy mark for a pseudo-scientist, Eric Zinthrop, who claims to have developed a serum from the enzymes of wasps that will turn aging skin to youthful-looking skin. The second-best thing to a time machine. She, without any hesitation, agrees to be the first human to try the Zinthro injections. But, as her beauty returns, her secretary, Mary Dennison, and her advertising executive, Bill Lane, notices she is also having a personality change and it isn't for the better, albeit she was no Miss Congegeniality to begin with. Then, Zinthrop gets hit by an automobile, for plot-development purposes, and is somewhat incapacitated and not in any shape to be whipping up any new batches of Zinthrop's Wasp Enzyme Injection Serum and, without her enzyme injections, Janice turns into a wasp-like woman ... Written by Les Adams <[email protected]>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

Strong men forced to satisfy a passion no human knows. See more »

Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Certificate:

See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

30 October 1959 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Insect Woman  »

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

The role of the Beekeeper played by Aron Kincaid was added after the film's initial release. See more »

Goofs

Despite the use of keys during the whole movie, there is obviously no lock on the lab door. Wrong. After the cat is killed, you can clearly see the old skeleton style keyhole in the lab door. See more »

Quotes

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.
See more »

Connections

Referenced in Cinemassacre's Monster Madness: Godzilla 1985 (2008) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

Very entertaining Roger Corman quickie.
2 December 2002 | by (Perth, Australia) – See all my reviews

'The Wasp Woman' is one of Roger Corman's better monster movies (personally I prefer his biker, black comedy, gangster and psychedelic movies, but that's me). Susan Cabot stars as an ambitious head of a cosmetics firm. Being the public face of the company, she takes a downturn in sales as a personal criticism. So when a scientist experimenting with Royal Jelly, not just your average Royal Jelly, but some made from wasps, comes to her attention she hires him to experiment with its alleged anti-aging effects. Initial tests on assorted animal are so successful she begins to try the stuff herself, with impressive results. Only problem is that in her enthusiasm she forgot to see if there are any negative side effects, and by looking at the title of the movie, it's pretty obvious that there are! Herein lies the fun of this goofy movie. Sexy Cabot is good in this her final role. A bizarre footnote to her short career is her death in the mid-80s at the hands of her dwarf son. Amazing but true! But that strange event aside, the movie itself stands on its own merits. Nothing too ambitious, but an effective low budget trashy shocker that makes a great popcorn movie. By no means Corman's best work but very entertaining just the same.


12 of 16 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
It's a good movie saiai
New Cinematic Titanic release!! SoiledShortz
Run time? cwillis_m
Was Cooper stealing the fomula?? movieperson113
Better production values than typical Corman noname1479
similar scifi Jekyll-Hyde movies? jrpelt
Discuss The Wasp Woman (1959) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?