INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS

US, 1973, 85 minutes, Colour.
Victoria Vetri, William Smith, Cliff Osmond.
Directed by Denis Sanders.

Invasion of the Bee Girls is a tongue-in-cheek science fiction spoof with more than a touch of sex. It was directed by Dennis Sanders, maker of a range of interesting films including Warhunt, Time Out of War, Elvis the Way It Is. However, did not develop his film-making talents in the way that many expected.

However, the main reason for interest in the film is that it was written by a young Nicholas Meyer. Meyer was the author of The Seven Percent Solution which was made into a successful film and Meyer then became a writer-director, including such films as Time After Time, The Day After, the second Star Trek film, The Deceivers.

The film is B-budget, takes its cue from the science fiction films of the '50s and '60s. It also pokes fun at scientists, their experiments, the White House and its concern about experiments going awry. It also takes advantage of sending up the permissiveness of the films of the early '70s. It also anticipates AIDS in the '80s and '90s with its focus on a mysterious sexual killer - and the way of coping, investigations, science, abstinence.

1. Send-up of science fiction, sex comedies, conspiracy theories?

2. B-budget, the locations, California and the town, the science centre? The atmosphere of the town? Special effects for the bees? The apparatus of science fiction and laboratories? Musical score?

3. The title and the expectation, tone, science fiction, B budget, send-up, overtones of sex?

4. The basic situation: the dead men, sexuality and heart attacks? Jim Peters and his investigations? The ordinary sheriff of the town? His assistants? Casual, puzzled? The growing death toll? His investigations, discussions with the agent sent from Washington?

5. The Washington agent, sent in to solve the mystery? The scientists and their experiments? Security and the concern of Washington and the State Department? The agent, the encounters with Jim Peters? Meeting Julie, attracted to her? Her help and research? The interviews, the scientists and their attitudes? The public meeting and the plea for abstinence? The laboratory, the dead doctor and his homosexual friend? Dr Harris and the suspicions? The funeral? The investigation of the films, understanding about the bees and the queen bee? The rescue of Julie? The destruction of the bee girls? With Julie and the happy ending? As a character, as a type?

6. Julie, bespectacled researcher, cool, her attitude towards the investigator, the collaboration, getting interested? Research? The film about the bees? Her being taken by Dr Harris, about to be transformed? Rescued?

7. The range of the victims, their sexual encounters with the women? The discussion about permissiveness amongst the scientists? The union man and his rebelling against abstinence? Their deaths and seduction? The wives being transformed into queen bees? Mutants and the control of Dr Harris? Their glamour, dark glasses? (Like the Stepford Wives?) At the funeral? Transforming Julie, their final destruction?

8. The presentation of science, science out of control, experiments, mutations? The morality of this kind of experimentation? Its consequences and destructiveness?

9. The overtones of sex, sexual encounter, seduction - and transferring the laws of nature and bees into the human realm?

10. Entertaining? Camp and tongue-in-cheek? Spoof science fiction? The effectiveness of this kind of parody with point?