INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973) – Category: More weird than bad, but with a classic premise and execution
This little honey (sorry) is the perfect example of why I prefer bad movies from the 1980s and earlier: because back then they played them straight and weren’t constantly making self-aware jokes to the audience. If this movie had been made more recently it would have been INTENTIONALLY cheesy and goofy, like the Killer Condom flicks or the Gingerdead Man movies.
Invasion of the Bee Girls plays like a sexploitation version of The X-Files long before that show was on the air. The hero of the movie is a State Department investigator played by cult figure William Smith, known from the tv series Laredo and from countless exploitation flicks like Black Samson to the “Hell’s Angels Fighting the Vietnam War” biker movie The Losers. The film’s screenwriter was THE Nicholas Meyer of Star Trek II and The Seven Percent Solution fame. Herb “The Worm Eaters” Robbins also shows up onscreen.
William Smith’s character, Neil Agar, is sent to California to investigate why a scientist involved in top secret government research dropped dead under suspicious circumstances – he died of apparent sexual exhaustion and people nearby swear they heard a sound like bees buzzing at Continue reading
Having obtained the Golden Fleece, Jason, Orpheus and the rest of the Argonauts fled Colchis immediately on board the Argo. King Aeetes’ daughter Medea fled with them because she fell in love with Jason and defied her father to enable the theft of the Golden Fleece.
King Aeetes had to break off pursuit so he and his crew could fish up the various fragments of his son’s corpse for proper funeral rites.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The defending champs – the NORTHWEST INDIAN COLLEGE EAGLES – squared off against the STONE CHILD COLLEGE BEAR PAWS. NWIC may be establishing a dynasty. The Eagles dominated thoroughly on both sides of the ball from start to finish and when the dust finally settled, they had defeated the Bear Paws 90-64.
FIRST SEMIFINAL – The COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN IDAHO GOLDEN EAGLES played the GULF COAST STATE COMMODORES in this game. The Golden Eagles clung to a 38-36 edge come Halftime. After the break, CSI outscored the Commodores 44-34 to win out 82-70. Jalen Lyn led Southern Idaho with 24 points.
SHOWCASE Vol 1 #6 (Feb 1957)
America’s 250th birthday is coming up in July, so over the next few months Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the anniversary years 1826, 1876, 1926 and 1976.
U.S. President: John Quincy Adams Vice President: John C. Calhoun Speaker of the House: John W. Taylor Chief Justice: John Marshall
THE CITY OF SPIDERS (1926) – Short story by H. Warner Munn. This quasi-Creature Feature type tale featured biologist Jabez Pentreat.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – Fighting it out for the crown were the PARKLAND COLLEGE COBRAS and the ELLSWORTH COLLEGE PANTHERS. The Cobras had mustered a 35-28 advantage going into the locker room. After the break, Parkland College eked out a bit more separation from the favored Panthers as they won the game 76-68. Jaiden Martin’s THIRTY-FOUR points led the Cobras.
ELITE EIGHT: FIRST BERTH – The GULF COAST STATE COMMODORES played the INDIAN HILLS COLLEGE WARRIORS in this game. The Commodores put Indian Hills College on Upset Alert at Halftime with their 41-35 lead. From there, the Warriors rallied but fell just short as Gulf Coast State prevailed 72-70. The Commodores were led by Devontes Cobbs with 17 points.
MAZEPPA – No relation to Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazeppa, this blog post refers to comedian, artist and actor Gailard Sartain, who got his start playing the wizard Mazeppa (center left) while hosting Tulsa, Oklahoma’s late Saturday night Bad Movie show called The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting.
In between films came old educational shorts, black & white sci-fi shows, weird cartoons, you name it. It was like a countrified forerunner of Night Flight from later decades.
And let’s quickly address the nice coincidence of Mazeppa and Busey’s character Teddy Jack Eddy hosting campy rock and roll movies like Don’t Knock the Rock, Untamed Youth or Shake, Rattle and Rock only for Busey to go on to play Buddy Holly and Sartain to play the Big Bopper in The Buddy Holly Story.
BORDER PATROL (1959) – Based on actual case files of the United States Border Patrol, this half-hour series ran for 39 episodes and starred Richard Webb of Captain Midnight fame. Webb played Don Jagger, Deputy Chief of the Border Patrol, yet oddly he took part in individual cases. Why not just make him an agent or officer? I guess the creative team felt Deputy Chief sounded cooler.
As the Argo pulled into Colchis, King Aeetes and his family – including his daughter Medea – observed their arrival. The Royal Family was on hand because of a dream that the goddess Hera had sent to Aeetes regarding foreign forces that would take Medea across the seas.