Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)

While not a good movie, it's an interesting movie. In a California of swinging couples and willing young women, it seems that men started to feel sorry for getting what they'd wished for, and this movie is a result, an anxiety dream that any Freudian psychologist would love to get her hands on. Hot women willing to bed doughy white guys seems good for the guys, right? But then it ends up these women actually want things for themselves in bed, and uh-oh, a guy suddenly has to perform on demand and actually be good at what he does between the sheets, and maybe he doesn't feel like it every minute, and maybe she does, and the sexually awakened women are now seeming like less than a wonderful thing. They're succubi! Who kill you from overuse! And maybe in this swingers' culture they start chatting with each other about which guys are good or bad in bed...just like a colony of buzzing bees. So the fantasy coming true had facets to it the guys never anticipated, and they apparently didn't much like those discoveries. And as a result you have this movie, which turns those male anxieties of the sexual revolution into a muddy s-f story, the women becoming actual bees (who still look like women), the men dropping off from heart attacks during sex (was it something about the sting? Was there a sting? I was never quite sure of this plot point).It's soft porn, really, almost soft-core snuff film porn(though only men die). Lots o' tits, with no erotic moments at all during the heterosexual sex scenes. (or at least I didn't find them so.) A few things are interesting about it. One, there are no body doubles, so you're seeing actual normal women's breasts in their true variety. It'll probably look odd to guys who've seen more naked body-doubles in movies than they've seen naked women in real life. (Women who have been in locker rooms will not be a bit surprised.) The second interesting thing is the very matter-of-fact, not sneering, not joking, not disgusted treatment of gay men. The government investigator seems savvy about gay life and asks matter-of-fact questions of the gay man with respect and seriousness and no anxiety about his own sexuality. Amazing. We don't do this well today, in most cases. And third, the only erotic scene at all is not really about sex--it's the making of the queen scene, an all-woman nude honey extravaganza that seemed to take up a quarter of the film. I wonder what the Freudians would say about that.There's a thesis worth of material here, if you're given to analyzing film within the context of a time and culture. As a movie, it's pretty silly, but as a cultural artifact, it's fascinating.

Inspired 70's b-movie about a colony of bees that manage to infiltrate the minds and bodies of glamorous women, and use them as vessels for a takeover of mankind. Here's the rub, so to speak: they 'sting' their prey during copulation with the male species. Hence the 'R' rating. A bevy of buxom b-movie starlets (and loops, e.g. Rene Bond, Kathy Hilton), work their way around the campus of a university under the watchful eye of the sultry Anitra Ford, as she pilots their take-over of the town of Peckham. Alarmed at the increasing rate of stiffs being wheeled into the morgue, local police captain (Osmond) welcomes Federal agent William Smith (in fine, fighting form) along with bimbo sidekick Victoria Vetri, sent to investigate the strange phenomena.Witty dialogue (courtesy of noted word-smith and director Nicholas Meyer) sets this cult sci-fi apart; Denis Sanders' direction isn't especially taut and momentum does tend to sag, but the constant influx of quirky characters and situations is irresistibly entertaining. Some of the special effects used to depict the bee-vision isn't bad either, considering its vintage. The cast is an interesting assembly of talent, with experience (Smith, Hammer, Osmond, King in particular) offset by rank amateurism. Anitra Ford is a beguiling woman, but her acting talents here are lamentable. Fortunately, her looks do tend to compensate.Don't be mislead by some of the associated press and commentary concerning this film: while it isn't soft porn, nor is it "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in narrative or technical standard. Disbelief aside, if you can appreciate the dry humour and lusty amateurs who adorn the screen (sometimes being smothered in bee wax for good measure) you should enjoy this, one-of-a-kind movie experience.

As a matter of fact, I liked this '70s thriller and I think it deserves its cult—following; INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS is a low—budget horror movie with a twisted Sci—Fi premise, it is, deliberately or not, funny, the pace is good and the flick likable.Electronic music, laboratories, secrets, babes ….For those induced to believe otherwise, do not expect to see loads of bare tits in this movie; there are some, and usually very poorly filmed. Some of the women are good—looking.If there's a sign of coolness to trash this movie, well, then just don't join that club ....

A genetic breakthrough in merging woman and bee has devastating consequences on the male race.."bee girls", with "androgynous" chromosomes, are driven to constantly mate, killing their male targets during the sexual act, due to radiation use causing them to become sterile. I'll spare the scientific mumbo jumbo, but will say that the clever, tongue-in-cheek script from Nicholas Meyer fuses science with fiction, incorporating exploitation elements with witty, sexually frank dialogue that makes this quite a fun little cocktail. Sexy women, some steamy seduction(..or attempted seduction)scenes, and lots of nudity. Really surreal methods in how the female victims are transformed into "bee girls" I won't soon forget anytime soon(..if anything one major transformation sequence, and the sultry Anitra Ford's lengthly seduction of a scientist, will linger in memory for sometime to come). Setting the movie in and around a government research institute means Meyer could explain what was taking place in elaborative detail so that the invasion might contain certain scientific merit. Good cast with the handsome William Smith as a government officer sent down from Washington, Victoria Vetri(..as a stunning woman disguised as a nerd)as a brainy assistant to a scientist whose death was the catalyst for the ongoing investigation, and Cliff Osmond as weary Captain Peters, needing some sort of resolution regarding the growing number of strange heart attacks occurring to men, both young and old. Anitra Ford's mere presence had my heart skipping a beat. With so many beautiful women, this should be an exploitation fan's dream come true, even if the sex isn't explicit, to successfully make a sci-fi flick sexy I consider quite admirable.