Bees in Paradise

"Bees in Paradise" might have been a good comic diversion for the Brits during WW II. But these decades later, it's mostly a silly film with no more than a couple of laughs. The hidden island isn't filled with Amazon women of mythology, but a tribe that seems to be up to snuff on the world around it.

This version of a woman's world without men welcomes the occasional wayfarers who happen upon the place. But that's just for one purpose -- you-know-what (come now, people didn't talk about sex way back then, although love-making was okay if a little nebulous). After that, the men had a choice of how to dispose of themselves.

The title fits the setting where the head honcho female is the queen bee, and the rest are all worker bees. It doesn't really play out the biological way of bees because the drones (lost males who come ashore or land from the sky) are for any woman who can first snare one. The queen has to snare a man herself if she wants one.

The funniest thing in the film may be the variety of things around the island shaped like bee hives. The cast are okay but nothing special. It's clearly a film made with Arthur Askey in mind for the comic lead.

I can't imagine anyone other than a fellow die-hard old-time movie fan enjoying this film much, or even sitting through the whole thing. In its day and time, "Bees in Paradise" may have been a crowd pleaser; but it's definitely without much luster or humor well into the 21st century.

I did enjoy a couple of lines - but even these don't conjure up more than a mild chuckle.

Askey's Arthur Tucker says, "I can't go seven days without food. What do you think I am, a musician?"

Max Adler, played by Max Bacon, says to Tucker, "Remember what the skipper says about using your discretion." Tucker replies, "Oh, discretion's a thing that comes to a man too late to do him any good."

Bees in Paradise concerns a female society on an uncharted island in the Atlantic Ocean. The Queen (Antoinette Cellier), Rouana (Anne Shelton), and Jani (Jean Kent) run things. Men are scarce because after they marry, the bride and groom have a 60 day honeymoon, and then the man has to fling himself off a cliff and commit suicide).

The women are delighted when a British plane crashes and the four men on board look like sure matrimonial partners. The crewmen are Arthur Tucker (Arthur Askey), Peter Lovell (Peter Graves), Ronald Wild (Ronald Shiner), and Max Adler (Max Bacon). The men like the all female society, but aren't fans of the male's bee-like death after the honeymoon.

This film is a lot of fun with Arthur Askey at his best. The funniest sequence is when he tries to referee a rugby game between two rugged female teams. It's laughing out loud funny. The singing and dancing are well done and are highly entertaining.

Although not listed in her credits, 19-year old Patricia Owens appears in Bees in Paradise. She is one of the guards who carries Arthur around in his chair. She is also the one who selects Max as hers, telling the other girls, "I don't want any arguments. He's mine!" Later, Patricia is one the four girls playing pool. She even sinks a ball in the side pocket. Watch for her if you see this movie.

Bees in Paradise is a very pleasant way to spend 72 minutes. Arthur Askey was always funny and this one will leave you smiling.

The team from Miss London Ltd are back - Arthur Askey as the "four foot nothing" hero, Anne Shelton as the saucy seductress, Peter Graves as the token handsome guy, and Jean Kent as the sweet little thing, with Max Bacon and Ronald Shiner bringing up the rear.

Jean, Anne, and about 2000 other girls are the residents of "Paradise Island", a place which seems to worship bees, to the point of acting like them - women are queens, men are drones. And after marriage, the man is sacrificed two months after the honeymoon, as their tradition goes, either by jumping off a cliff, or sailing off into the ice. So when four pilots parachute out of their dying plane and land on this island, they're immediately in for it. Askey is immediately nabbed by Shelton - for the rest of the film her entourage follows him around with his own special rickshaw. But he's after Kent, who is herself after Graves. The men find out about the death tradition, and are anxious to flee the island, until Shelton marries Askey before he realises it (drinking wine together signifies the betrothal) and suddenly it's a matter of life or death that he escapes!

Movie starts off somewhat dodgy, leaving you thinking "what on EARTH is going on??" but stay with it, it's hilarious, and well worth seeing! There's plenty of songs, and more Bob Hope/Bing Crosby/Dorothy Lamour 'road' references than you can poke a stick at.

Val Guest has a unique and witty sense of humour, which can be hilarious when used to good effect. Bees in Paradise begins promisingly, as most of his comedies do. The idea is a typical piece of Guestian idiocy - a tropical island is inhabited entirely by women; the only means for the women to reproduce is for them to marry shipwrecked sailors who turn up on the island. After the two month honeymoon period, the men are required by law to commit suicide. It's not the greatest of his ideas, but neither is it a bad one. At any rate, the story is a complete dud. Some men turn up on the island after their plane crashes, they are pursued by the eager women, each of whom wants to find a husband without having to wait for the next boatload (or planeload) of arrivals. The men are taken aback by the predatory nature of the women on the island, but one of them is tricked into getting married. Meanwhile, the pilot of the plane has fallen madly in love with a dissident dame who has begun to see the injustice of the island's anti-male laws, and he wants to take her back to England with him. A boring, vacuous and predictable story which requires some pretty excellent comedy to redeem it. Sadly, there is none. Apart from a few mildly amusing lines, including some cheeky cracks about Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, nothing in this film made me laugh.

To make matters worse, the film is punctuated by frequent and extremely forgettable songs, which don't even have decent dance scenes to accompany them. The songs seem to be nothing more than compensation for the fact that the film isn't funny, as well as a means of filling up time, since there is so little story development.

Furthermore, it's difficult to like the characters because they're hardly developed at all. Instead, the film takes the easy way out by using cliched characters that we've all seen a hundred times before - the short, bespectacled bachelor and the balding, accented middle-aged guy being two examples.

To give credit where it's due, the film is directed well by Val Guest in his usual fun and playful style, but this time the material is far too weak to make the film watchable. Watch his excellent 1944 comedy "Give us the Moon" to see what he's capable of when in his element, but don't waste your time with this.

Crazy over the top musical comedy.

An uncharted island of "bee" women who rule over men just to mate with them.

After a 3 month honeymoon, hey are murdered.

In comes a few Afrikaners who crash land.

The women woo them since the men on the island are on strike,

They don't like the murder thing.

Interspersed are poppy musical numbers and scantily clad hot babes.

It's a trifle. Not meant to be taken seriously. A good chunk of the humor has roots in vaudeville.

Lots of legs and fun for all.

Definitely worth the watch.