Invasion of the Bee Girls

Okay, here's another strong contender for winning the award of sleaziest and absolute most insane B-movie of the 1970's! The human race, and particularly the male species, is threatened with extinction because of … ordinary women turned into life-sized bee monsters! How it is possible for anyone to think of such a plot, I do not know, but this movie honestly handles about a continuously expanding community of women that completely cover the newest members in honey until the pupils of their eyes turn pitch-black and then, subsequently, they celebrate by caressing their own breasts for five whole minutes! God bless 70's cinema… In the small Californian town of Peckham, which is famous for being the hometown of the pharmaceutical Brandt factory, the lifeless bodies of several men are discovered. The cause of death in all cases appears to be sexual exhaustion and, since some of their own eminent scientists were involved, the Brandt Company sends over government inspector Neil Agar over to investigate. The deaths started since the gorgeous Dr. Susan Harris, who's always wearing thick sunglasses and gets invited for lunch by all her male colleagues, launched a bizarre new series of experiments involving radiation. The plot of "Invasion of the Bee Girls" is totally ridiculous and cheesy nonsense, yet the film is very entertaining and spawns an irresistible sense of humor. Multiple sequences are downright hilarious, for example, when during a town's meeting, some doctor suggests a period of total sexual abstention, and the build-up towards each new male victim is a portrayal of pure and gold girl power! Nearly every guy in this town is a horny weakling, ready to cheat on his wife at all times. The ladies, on the other hand, are elegant and charismatic creatures with a lot more brain capacity than the males…even though they fondle their own breasts for no reason. Needless to say "Invasion of the Bee Girls" features tons of gratuitous nudity and lurid situations that don't make the slightest bit of sense. There's an overlong attempted-rape scene that really adds nothing to the plot, while the grand finale seems rushed and amateurish. With the exception of Anitra Ford as the queen bee, the women aren't really attractive, but they unscrupulously take all their clothes off in front of the camera. Respect, ladies! Another interesting trivia-detail: "Invasion of the Bee Girls" was the writing debut of Nicholas Meyer, who went on to script several acclaimed "Star Trek" movies.

Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Cult classic science fiction film has a bunch of beautiful women killing men with sex. This film has a rather notorious reputation for its camp value and it certainly lives up to those standards. If you're wanting something serious then go check out The Day the Earth Stood Still as you aren't going to find anything serious here. The film is pure exploitation that only a drive-in could deliver and the movie features plenty of sex, naked women and wacky violence. Even better is some insane dialogue that will certainly make you laugh out loud. The actual story gets boring after a while and I'm sure a little editing would have helped.

I was first turned on to this film by Siskel & Ebert a zillion years ago on a program they ran featuring their choices for the best "bad" movies. They were sure right about this one. The plot is so ridiculous it doesn't bear mentioning -- the magic is all in the execution, e.g., Anitra Ford stripping and writhing to the strains of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherezade", a secret laboratory in which women are transformed into seductive automatons by a procedure involving their being bathed in honey and then exposed to bees -- lot's of that kind of thing here. And what's this? The film has the US government sending out an agent to investigate the death of a guy who suffered a heart attack during strenuous sex. Is that where our intelligence agencies put their energies? No wonder they were so clueless about 9/11 and Iraq. Now for some inane reason, this film got reissued on DVD under the tile "Graveyard Tramps". It's true, there is at least one scene in a cemetery, and as to the female characters being tramps . . . no argument. Nevertheless, what kind of moron would throw away a great title like "Bee Girls" for something so prosaic? Oh, and the DVD cover for some reason identifies the female lead as the late Claudia Jennings, who is not even in the film (the lead is her fellow Playmate Victoria Vetri). Go figure. Here's another thing I love about this film -- although it is completely about sex, albeit sex in the context of some loony incomprehensible plot involving a world takeover, and although there is plenty of nudity and seduction, this film from the early 70's is rated PG. Teens could see it without a chaperone. Yep, back when I was a boy, we didn't suffer from the same neurotic fears we now have about adolescents being permanently damaged by the sight of a female breast. Seems we were relatively hardy in those days, although on the other hand, we didn't have to deal with news reports of beheadings and the like. But I digress. There will always be a special place in my heart for Invasion of the Bee Girls, the sine qua non of its genre. And a heck of a lot of fun.

Invasion of the bee girls is a unique little movie purely because of its premise: Sexy women, er, loving guys to death to take over the world. Sounds great, huh? The fact that these deadly babes are "bee" girls really isn't that important. They could be just about anything and the premise would still sell tickets. Is this premise well used, though? The answer is, not entirely. For a movie that focuses on sex, there is a surprising absence of sex in the movie. In fact there are only 3 "love" scenes in the whole movie. This wouldn't be so bad if they filled in the rest of the movie with something interesting. Instead, the filmmakers filled in the time with a bunch of "officials" just wandering around wondering what killed all the men. There are a few additional nude scenes (not sex scenes though) scattered about that make the more pointless scenes bearable, but the movie would be better if it were played as more of a camp/comedy/action/horror/porn flick rather than a dull mystery yarn. There is a surprising lack of humor in all this as well. The filmmakers even go as far as to put looks of fear and pain on the faces of the bee girls' mates rather than go for the obvious joke of putting smiles on them. This review may sound like I hate this movie but in fact, it is just the opposite. This movie is a real favorite of mine. This is probably due to the premise, which is alone worth the price of admission, the excellent acting, the sex (of course), and the well-done but scarce cheese/humor elements. I give Invasion of the Bee Girls **** out of **** but most viewers would probably rate it a * or ** out of ****.

Yes, this is quintessential 70's B movie stuff that has it all: bad acting, crazy plot strands, a far-out story about girls becoming human bees and killing men with over-exhaustion in the sexual act, and lots of pretty, bosomy girls not afraid to keep you abreast of their physical attributes. Government agent Will Smith goes to Peckham, California, to look into the death of a researcher at Brandt Research. He comes in the midst of a huge death tally as in one day or soon the number of men that have died from over-exhaustion rises to 10. We get to see some of these deaths and there is absolutely nothing scary about them. The whole film seems to have a very campy edge to it. That is a credit to first time screenwriter Nicholas Meyer who wrote The Seven-Percent Solution and the scripts for several Star Trek movies as well as directed many good films later on. Meyer's script is absurd at times but he along with the director are able to keep it not quite real - if you know what I mean. The budget is a bit higher than many films of this era but has obvious constraints. The bee hive room was impressive as are many of the female leads. Anitra Ford is gorgeous with her long legs and playful eyes, but she is nothing next to Victoria Vetri who fills a blouse beautifully. Both women are adequate thespians as well(I'm sure this is of a grave concern for viewers of films like this). Invasion of the Bee Girls is one of those really fun movies from the seventies that mixes just enough sleaze with other elements like science fiction to come up with a viewing pleasure despite its obvious shortcomings.