Actress Susan Cabot spent her career in the 1950s playing supporting roles in Westerns, adventures and costume dramas, often as a non-white Native American or other "exotic" character. Increasingly disappointed, she ended her contract with Universal-International and returned to her former home in New York to play on the stage.
The lure of Hollywood brought her back in the mid-50s and she was cast in various films such as SORORITY GIRLS (aka THE BAD ONE), THE VIKING WOMEN AND THE SEA SERPENT, WAR OF THE SATELLITES, and MACHINE GUN KELLY. She finally landed her first lead role in--of all pictures--Roger Corman's THE WASP WOMAN in 1959. It would prove to be her last film, and after that, she retired from Hollywood and--in Norma Desmond style--moved to a secluded life in Encino, California in the San Fernando Valley.
Even though it was moderately entertaining and has an interesting premise, THE WASP WOMAN suffers from the taint of many other 50s horror/sci-fi cheapies and the wasp woman's makeup, mask and costume are over the top and downright laughable for these days. Back then, I don't think audiences cared much about any of it so long as they could spend a Friday or Saturday night at the drive-in, cozying up to their date when a scary scene came along. It was paired with BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE, which made it look like CITIZEN KANE compared to that abominable waste of celluloid.
The actor who plays wasp-keeper Eric Zinthrop may look familiar to monster fans; he was Michael Mark, a character actor who was in a number of horror and sci-fi movies, including many for Universal, a bit part in CASABLANCA, and most notably, as "Little Maria's" father, Ludwig, in FRANKENSTEIN.
Despite the entomological blunder of the queen wasp making royal jelly (only honey bee queens do that), when Corman was made aware of it, in true Corman fashion he said to go with it anyway!
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