Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) Centaur/Sci-Fi-Horror RT: 85 minutes Rated R (nudity and sexual content, some violent content including an attempted rape) Director: Denis Sanders Screenplay: Nicholas Meyer Music: Charles Bernstein Cinematography: Gary Graver Release date: June 1, 1973 (US) Cast: William Smith, Anitra Ford, Victoria Vetri, Cliff Osmond, Wright King, Ben Hammer, Anna Aries, Andre Phillippe, Sid Kaiser, Katie A. Saylor, Beverly Powers, Tom Pittman, Bill Keller, Cliff Emmich, Al Bordiggi, Jack Perkins, Susie Player. Box Office: N/A
Rating: *** ½
I don’t think I’ve ever had so much trouble seeing a movie as I did Invasion of the Bee Girls. I tried many times in the years since I first heard of it on a 1981 episode of Sneak Previews devoted to “Guilty Pleasures” (it was one of Roger Ebert’s). It had me at the title. Little did I know getting to see it would be a task as arduous as finding the Holy Grail. It wasn’t available at my local video store. Both times I tried to watch it on the late show on one of the UHF channels (I want to say 17), it was bumped for one of those extended televised solicitations for donations to end world hunger. In the late 90s, I tried to buy it from a video store going out of business only to be told they couldn’t find the tape. I couldn’t win for losing with that movie.
I’m pretty sure I finally saw Invasion of the Bee Girls in the early 2000s, but since I can’t recall any specific details, let’s just say I’m seeing it now for the first time. I stumbled across it on Tubi when I went to watch Invasion of the Blood Farmers last week. It immediately hit me that now would be a great time to review it. What better way to honor its 50th anniversary, right?
Square-jawed government agent Neil Agar (Smith, Conan the Barbarian) comes to the California town of Peckham to investigate a series of mysterious deaths. It seems that men, and only men, are having fatal heart attacks brought on by strenuous sexual activity. Why is Uncle Sam interested? It’s probably because one the victims worked for a scientific research facility funded by the government. Actually, it starts with one scientist. Several more die in the same fashion. Who knew science geeks were such players?
ANYWAY, the mounting death toll has Agar and the local sheriff Peters (Osmond, Hangar 18) stumped. What could be causing this phenomenon? Agar enlists the aid of facility head librarian Julie Zorn (Vetri, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth) to find out. Meanwhile, measures of some kind must be taken to prevent additional fatalities. It’s suggested at a town meeting that everybody abstain from sexual activity until further notice, but the horny locals balk at the idea. Why should they be deprived of the only pleasure they get out of life?
The cause of the deaths is the work of entomologist Dr. Susan Peters (Ford, The Big Bird Cage), described as an “iceberg” by her male colleagues. She’s come up with a way to transform ordinary women into bee girls through a process of controlled mutation involving radiation and bee venom. It leaves them with an insatiable desire to mate. In short, they screw guys to death. It sucks to die, but what a way to go! Now how does one identify a bee girl? Easy, they’re the ones wearing sunglasses, even indoors. It hides their big black compound eyes.
Invasion of the Bee Girls is great trashy fun! That’s the best way to put it. It’s directed by Denis Sanders whose other credits include War Hunt (the debut film of Robert Redford and Tom Skerritt), Shock Treatment (NOT the Rocky Horror sequel!) and the documentary Elvis: That’s the Way It Is. Not many people have heard of Sanders, but I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with the writer. He only directed one of the best original cast Star Trek movies. I’m talking about Nicholas Meyer who breathed new life into a seemingly DOA franchise with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Invasion of the Bee Girls is the first movie he worked on in any capacity. It’s a silly story, but it’s well written, especially for a B-movie (or should I say bee movie?) intended for the grindhouse/drive-in circuit.
Invasion of the Bee Girls is surprisingly light on blood for a so-called horror flick, but it makes up for what it lacks in gore with plenty of gratuitous T&A. It also has some softcore sex like an early scene of a guy and a bee girl frolicking naked in the great outdoors before they get down to business. Minutes later, he dies a happy man if you know what I mean. Seeing all this, I can’t imagine trying to watch Invasion of the Bee Girls on regular TV, especially back in the 80s. They would have cut out all the “good parts”.
It’s interesting seeing William Smith (aka “Big Bill Smith”), one of my favorite character actors, play a hero instead of a heavy. The king of the biker movies, he typically played the leader of the bad motorcycle gang. Although the first movie I saw him in was Any Which Way You Can, Smith first caught my attention as Conan’s wise father in Conan the Barbarian. He would go on to play the Soviet general in Red Dawn and yet another vicious biker baddie in Eye of the Tiger. He does a good job playing against type in Invasion of the Bee Girls and while he may be the good guy for a change, he can still kick some serious ass. He makes short work of a group of rapists who make the mistake of picking Julie the librarian as their victim de la nuit (of the night).
The girls in Invasion of the Bee Girls are sufficiently sexy and seductive, especially Ford as the queen bee of the hive. She might come off as icy to her horny male co-workers, but she can turn it (and them) on when need be. Vetri is pretty hot too. Cliff Osmond is another character actor I like to see in films. He’s good as the atypical town sheriff- i.e. he’s not a complete idiot.
Chalk up another point for Ebert. He got it right with Invasion of the Bee Girls. It’s a fun movie as long as you don’t take it seriously. But why would you take a movie like this seriously? It’s supposed to be goofy. I watched it with a big dopey grin plastered on my face the whole time. It’s that rare exploitation movie that lives up to the promise of its cool title.
