Killer Bees (1974)

Wearing a Sonia Henie wig from the 1940's dyed gray, the legendary Gloria Swanson had her last acting role as a domineering matriarch of a California grape dynasty not obsessed with making the best wine a la Angela Channing of "Falcon Crest", but with the bees that buzz around the vineyard. When grandson Edward Albert shows up with fiancee Kate Jackson, the battle lines are drawn between the two women, especially when Jackson informs her of the living arrangements she had with Albert for the previous two years. Meanwhile, several unrelated accidents in the valley involving the bees create suspicion for Jackson who believes that something more is going on than just random bee attacks.Strange, nonsensical horror nonsense broadcast originally in the family hour as part of the movie of the week, this just gets more bizarre as it goes on. A scene in a church is laughable, and the hints of Swanson using the bees as a tool of her revenge (just watch as they stalk Jackson) is even more ludicrous. Bad special effects of bees suddenly appearing in the sky (obviously blobs of black paint dots) is another element of this film's flaws. Swanson greatly overacts in her one big dramatic scene, made up so ludicrously that I'm surprised that Mel Brooks didn't try to spoof this with Cloris Leachman, or Carol Burnett on her TV show. An absolute travesty in TV movie making.

The invasion of a community by a swarm of deadly bees was, for a time, a popular commodity in genre cinema: this was preceded by Freddie Francis' THE DEADLY BEES (1966) and followed by THE SAVAGE BEES (1976; TV), its sequel TERROR OUT OF THE SKY (1978; TV) and Irwin Allen's inflated all-star fiasco THE SWARM (1978). Frankly, I never understood this situation's appeal, as the sight of people fleeing for their lives from badly-processed insects (as in the film under review) was always prone to elicit laughter as opposed to the intended terror! Anyway, here we get the added – but equally dubious – treat of having the leading family of the locale (after whom it is named!) as the bees' keepers…or, rather as one of them opines, it is the other way round! In fact, matriarch Gloria Swanson (in her much-publicized TV debut) is constantly surrounded by them – until it is time to pass the baton to another, younger woman and, since her direct relations all happen to be male, her successor ends up being one of their number's girlfriend (played by Kate Jackson, later one of TV's CHARLIE'S ANGELS)! Still, the fact that the reason behind the African killer bees' mass migration to the U.S. – apart from the declaration that their particular honey gives the "Van Bohlen" wine an extra sweet taste! – is never properly delineated hurts the overall effort (to say nothing of its credibility quotient).

I had the opportunity to rewatch this film recently. I hadn't seen it since I was a child, and yet, this story always stayed with me.The movie is about a couple, Edward and Victoria, who return to Edward's family home. He wants Victoria to meet his family before they get married. But his family holds a strange, dark secret.The mysterious connection to the bees, it never really gets explained other than that the bees protect the family and the female head of the family can control them.I really liked Kate Jackson in this movie. And they actually used real bees for most of it.It's a really nice, creepy old made for TV movie, well worth the watch. I would love to see it remade some day.

Terrific TV-made vehicle for movie icon Gloria Swanson, a compact and beautifully-shot melodrama-cum-thriller. Gloria plays an outré California oddball living on a vineyard ranch and possessing a strange hold over the bees that hover there. Grandson Edward Albert and girlfriend Kate Jackson (who were dating in real-life at the time) come for a visit and get more than they bargained for. Not "The Swarm", but better; school buses and flower paraders are not interjected, and there is no mass hysteria. Credit director Curtis Harrington with the panache, and Gloria Swanson with the campy kicks--she's mah-vah-loss. It's an atmospheric mood-piece, and the rural locales are refreshing.