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"Wasp Woman" (1960) is a rare find for its time, depicting a woman as the misguided executive whose quest to raise flagging sales for her cosmetic company leads to disaster, thanks to a youth serum made from the enzymes of a queen wasp. It works, shaving decades off test subject Janice Starling's appearance, but it has a few nasty side effects, such as the occasional outbreak of fur and murderous behavior.Film critics cite the 1958 Kurt Neumann hit, "The Fly", as an influence of "Wasp Woman". Also released as "Bee Woman" and "Insect Woman", the film was directed by Roger Corman, famous for churning out high quantity B-films. Never one to blow a budget if he could help it, Corman recycled much of the soundtrack of "Wasp Woman" for his version of "The Little Shop of Horrors", released later the same year.
As is often the case with sci-fi from this era, the animals at the core of the story are presented more in the light of fiction than fact. While it's true that female wasps are the ones that sting, they use this ability defensively and never, as does Susan Cabot playing waspy Janice Starling, with chocolate syrup in their mouths.
At least not as far as scientists have yet discerned.
