DVD Review

by Mike Corrigan


Praise be to MGM for its "Midnite Movies" series, which pairs, on a single DVD, not one but two horror, science fiction or exploitation flicks from the '60s and '70s, drive-in double feature-style -- all for the mind-blowing retail price of only $9.99. They represent some of the best bargains to be found anywhere in home video land.


New to this ever-expanding series is the curious sci-fi comedy/exploitation pairing of Invasion of the Star Creatures with Invasion of the Bee Girls. In this case, you can largely forget about the DVD's idiotic 1963 B & amp;W A-side (wherein two bumbling soldiers conquer the titular female invaders with... good lovin') and dive right into the infinitely superior Invasion of the Bee Girls, a 1973 full-color exploitation gem about a beautiful but deadly woman scientist building a female race of man-slaying insectoid nymphomaniacs. All of the classic exploitation filmic elements are here: curvy women in skimpy outfits, diabolical scientific experiments gone awry, dead bodies popping up everywhere, and a clueless local police department seemingly always one step behind the killers. The dialogue is awful and the acting, for the most part, is wooden. But no way does that detract from the fun of watching the Bee Girls (all wearing giant sunglasses to hide their black compound eyes) prey on every red-blooded American male in town, seducing them with their obvious -- and I do mean obvious -- charms, only to have the poor devils succumb to heart failure during sexual climax. There's a fair amount of nudity (just T & amp;A) and some of the sex scenes are surprisingly erotic. B-movie character actor William Smith plays rugged, mildly sexist FBI agent Neil Agar. Queen Bee Anitra Ford as Dr. Susan Harris was also one of the original models (from 1972-77) on TV's The Price Is Right.


New to this ever-expanding series is the curious sci-fi comedy/exploitation pairing of Invasion of the Star Creatures with Invasion of the Bee Girls. In this case, you can largely forget about the DVD's idiotic 1963 B & amp;W A-side (wherein two bumbling soldiers conquer the titular female invaders with... good lovin') and dive right into the infinitely superior Invasion of the Bee Girls, a 1973 full-color exploitation gem about a beautiful but deadly woman scientist building a female race of man-slaying insectoid nymphomaniacs. All of the classic exploitation filmic elements are here: curvy women in skimpy outfits, diabolical scientific experiments gone awry, dead bodies popping up everywhere, and a clueless local police department seemingly always one step behind the killers. The dialogue is awful and the acting, for the most part, is wooden. But no way does that detract from the fun of watching the Bee Girls (all wearing giant sunglasses to hide their black compound eyes) prey on every red-blooded American male in town, seducing them with their obvious -- and I do mean obvious -- charms, only to have the poor devils succumb to heart failure during sexual climax. There's a fair amount of nudity (just T & amp;A) and some of the sex scenes are surprisingly erotic. B-movie character actor William Smith plays rugged, mildly sexist FBI agent Neil Agar. Queen Bee Anitra Ford as Dr. Susan Harris was also one of the original models (from 1972-77) on TV's The Price Is Right.


MGM's Midnite Movies wide-screen edition of Bee Girls is the only one currently available (save for a pan-and-scan cheapie I found being hawked last Halloween). The presentation, though not perfect -- I noticed some pixilation during some of the darker scenes -- is by far the best to date. The sound, in glorious mono, is also quite good. So let the Bee Girls love you -- to death.