''Invasion of the Bee Girls'' (UK video title: ''Graveyard Tramps'') is a 1973 American science fiction film. The first film venture for writer Nicholas Meyer, it was directed by

Denis Sanders Denis Sanders (January 21, 1929 – December 10, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer who directed the debut performances of Robert Redford and Tom Skerritt in the 1962 film '' War Hunt''. He won two Academy Awards, ...

and stars William Smith, Anitra Ford and Victoria Vetri. The premise of the movie is that a

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...

(Ford) is using radiation-mutated bee serum to create an army of female beauties who seduce men to death. One by one, the male victims are killed before the local police catch on to the plans of the infected females. The script was altered while Meyer was visiting his parents. When he saw the new script, he wanted to take his name off of the project, but was convinced by his manager that he needed a credit.

Plot

Neil Agar, a special agent with the State Department's Office of Security (the predecessor of the

Diplomatic Security Service The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS or DS) is a security and law enforcement agency that acts as the operational division of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is a branch of the United States Department of State. Its primary mission is ...

), is dispatched to Peckham,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to investigate the death of John Grubowsky, a

bacteriologist A bacteriologist is a microbiologist, or similarly trained professional, in bacteriology -- a subdivision of microbiology that studies bacteria, typically pathogenic ones. Bacteriologists are interested in studying and learning about bacteria, ...

working at the government-sponsored Brandt Research. Quickly making the acquaintance of the laboratory's head librarian, Julie Zorn, he begins interviewing the firm's leading scientists, many of whom have reputations as sexual players. His investigation is soon complicated by a growing number of deaths, all men who died of

congestive heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...

caused by sexual exhaustion. Faced with a rapidly escalating body count, the local sheriff, Captain Peters, holds a town meeting at which the laboratory's leading sex researcher, Henry Murger, urges the town populace to practice

sexual abstinence Sexual abstinence or sexual restraint is the practice of refraining from some or all aspects of sexual activity for medical, psychological, legal, social, financial, philosophical, moral, or religious reasons. Sexual abstinence is distinct from ...

– an idea greeted with derision by the locals. Neil and Julie arrange a meeting with Murger afterwards to discuss his theories as to the cause of his deaths, only to see him chased down and run over by a car with an unseen driver. While Agar is telephoning the agency, Julie is attacked and sexually assaulted by a group of local thugs, who are then beaten up by Agar on his return. During his investigation of Murger's home in search of clues, Neil discovers a secret room concealing sexual paraphernalia and Murger's gay lover, Joe, who informs Neil that he saw Murger driving off with an unknown woman prior to his death. Despite a curfew and the establishment of a military

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

, the scientists continue playing their sex games. One of them, Herb Kline, is approached by Susan Harris, a beautiful entomologist working on bees. Though described by the men as an "iceberg", she flirts with Kline and invites him over for dinner. That night, as they engage in sex, Kline suffers a fatal

thrombosis Thrombosis (from Ancient Greek "clotting") is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (t ...

and Harris reveals black

compound eyes A compound eye is a visual organ found in arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. It may consist of thousands of ommatidia, which are tiny independent photoreception units that consist of a cornea, lens, and photoreceptor cells which distin ...

, suggesting that she is more than she seems to be. Meanwhile, convinced there is a similar pattern at work, Neil begins studying the sexual patterns of insects. Seeking information about the mating habits of

honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...

s, he interrogates Dr. Harris at her lab; when he departs, she resumes her project – the transformation of Kline's wife Nora into a Bee Girl through a process of controlled

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA replication, DNA or viral repl ...

. With the aid of other previously mutated women, she cocoons Nora and places her in a chamber where she is swarmed by mutated honey bees; when she emerges, she is bombarded with radiation and awakens with the same black compound eyes and drive to mate that the other transformed women possess. The next morning, Herb Kline's body is discovered; when Captain Peters goes to inform Nora, she attempts unsuccessfully to seduce him. Having worked out much of what has taken place, Neil summons the remaining department chairs and presents his theory. Though the

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes ...

, Stan Williams, scorns the idea, the head of the diagnostics department, Aldo Ferrara, is more receptive. At Grubowsky's funeral, Neil and Julie bring a

radiation detector In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nuc ...

, which picks up the gamma radiation coming from the women in attendance who have been subjected to the treatment. Aware that they have been detected, the transformed women move to eliminate the remaining scientists; Williams is nearly killed by his now-mutated wife and Ferrara dies during a visit by Dr. Harris, who then lures Julie to her lab to be transformed. When Neil discovers Ferrara's body, he realizes what the women are up to. Racing to the lab, he interrupts the women as they begin the process of turning Julie into one of them. With Harris threatening to kill Julie unless he leaves, he moves to depart, but pulls out a revolver instead and shoots the machinery. Neil then rescues Julie and bars the door, leaving the mutated women to die amidst a cascade of exploding machinery.

Cast

* William Smith as Neil Agar * Anitra Ford as Dr. Susan Harris * Victoria Vetri as Julie Zorn *

Cliff Osmond Cliff Osmond (born Clifford Osman Ebrahim; February 26, 1937 – December 22, 2012) was an American character actor and television screenwriter. A parallel career as an acting teacher coincided with his other activities. Early life Osmond wa ...

as Captain Peters *

Wright King Wright Thornburgh King (January 11, 1923 – November 25, 2018) was an American stage, film and television actor whose career lasted for over forty years.1930 US Federal Census for Wright T. King, retrieved froAncestry.com/ref>1940 US Federal Cen ...

as Dr. Henry Murger * Ben Hammer as Herb Kline * Anna Aries as Nora Kline *

Andre Philippe Andre Philippe (November 3, 1927 – April 29, 2007) was an American film and television actor. He was best known for playing the role of Mr. Everett Johns in the American drama television series ''Mr. Novak'', and the role of Paul in '' Hawaii ...

as Aldo Ferrara * Sid Kaiser as Stan Williams * Katie Saylor as Gretchen Grubowsky * Beverly Powers as Harriet Williams *

Cliff Emmich Clifford Joseph Emmich (December 13, 1936 – November 28, 2022) was an American film, stage and television actor. He appeared in over 90 films and television programs, and is perhaps best known for playing the character of Chicago in the 1973 fi ...

as Coroner * Jack Perkins as Barney

Sequel

A semi-sequel to the movie, the play ''Beyond the Invasion of the Bee Girls'' was produced by House of Dames in 1998 in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

Home media releases

The movie was released on DVD as ''Graveyard Tramps'' and featured on the compilation ''Stephen Romano Presents Shock Festival''. ''Invasion of the Bee Girls'' was also released on DVD as part of a four-movie package called ''Four Cult Movie Marathon Volume 1''. Scream Factory released the movie on Blu-ray on April 4, 2017.

References

External links