Don't listen to the negative reviews

Absolutely Fantastic

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Wearing a Sonia Henie wig from the 1940's dyed gray, the legendary Gloria Swanson had her last acting role as a domineering matriarch of a California grape dynasty not obsessed with making the best wine a la Angela Channing of "Falcon Crest", but with the bees that buzz around the vineyard. When grandson Edward Albert shows up with fiancee Kate Jackson, the battle lines are drawn between the two women, especially when Jackson informs her of the living arrangements she had with Albert for the previous two years. Meanwhile, several unrelated accidents in the valley involving the bees create suspicion for Jackson who believes that something more is going on than just random bee attacks.Strange, nonsensical horror nonsense broadcast originally in the family hour as part of the movie of the week, this just gets more bizarre as it goes on. A scene in a church is laughable, and the hints of Swanson using the bees as a tool of her revenge (just watch as they stalk Jackson) is even more ludicrous. Bad special effects of bees suddenly appearing in the sky (obviously blobs of black paint dots) is another element of this film's flaws. Swanson greatly overacts in her one big dramatic scene, made up so ludicrously that I'm surprised that Mel Brooks didn't try to spoof this with Cloris Leachman, or Carol Burnett on her TV show. An absolute travesty in TV movie making.

Killer Bees (1974) ** (out of 4) Edward van Bohlen (Edward Albert) brings his friend Victoria (Kate Jackson) back to his family estate years after leaving them behind. Before long the friend begins to realize that some local deaths might have been caused by the bees that Madame Maria von Bohlen (Gloria Swanson) has been raising.KILLER BEES is another made-for-television horror film from director Curtis Harrington but sadly it's not one of his best. I guess you really can't blame him too much because there really hasn't been a good film dealing with killer bees. you can watch THE DEADLY BEES, THE BEES or even THE SWARM and you'll see that they're all pretty bad in their own way. This film here at least has a couple good performances but sadly there's just not enough going on throughout the 73-minute running time.The biggest problem with the film is the fact that it's basically a lot of family drama and too much talking. I lost count of how many scenes had Edward talking about leaving his family and the friend talking about how they must discover the truth. There's just way too much boring melodrama here and none of it really has anything to do with the main plot. There are a couple bee attacks but they're not very good as the special effects are certainly lacking.The one saving grace were the actors. Both Albert and Jackson were good in their roles as was Roger Davis in his role as the family doctor. Then you've got the legend Swanson. I'm not going to say she gave a good performance but it was at least an entertaining one as she certainly sold the role with a somewhat over-the-top performance.

The invasion of a community by a swarm of deadly bees was, for a time, a popular commodity in genre cinema: this was preceded by Freddie Francis' THE DEADLY BEES (1966) and followed by THE SAVAGE BEES (1976; TV), its sequel TERROR OUT OF THE SKY (1978; TV) and Irwin Allen's inflated all-star fiasco THE SWARM (1978). Frankly, I never understood this situation's appeal, as the sight of people fleeing for their lives from badly-processed insects (as in the film under review) was always prone to elicit laughter as opposed to the intended terror! Anyway, here we get the added – but equally dubious – treat of having the leading family of the locale (after whom it is named!) as the bees' keepers…or, rather as one of them opines, it is the other way round! In fact, matriarch Gloria Swanson (in her much-publicized TV debut) is constantly surrounded by them – until it is time to pass the baton to another, younger woman and, since her direct relations all happen to be male, her successor ends up being one of their number's girlfriend (played by Kate Jackson, later one of TV's CHARLIE'S ANGELS)! Still, the fact that the reason behind the African killer bees' mass migration to the U.S. – apart from the declaration that their particular honey gives the "Van Bohlen" wine an extra sweet taste! – is never properly delineated hurts the overall effort (to say nothing of its credibility quotient).

Terrific TV-made vehicle for movie icon Gloria Swanson, a compact and beautifully-shot melodrama-cum-thriller. Gloria plays an outré California oddball living on a vineyard ranch and possessing a strange hold over the bees that hover there. Grandson Edward Albert and girlfriend Kate Jackson (who were dating in real-life at the time) come for a visit and get more than they bargained for. Not "The Swarm", but better; school buses and flower paraders are not interjected, and there is no mass hysteria. Credit director Curtis Harrington with the panache, and Gloria Swanson with the campy kicks--she's mah-vah-loss. It's an atmospheric mood-piece, and the rural locales are refreshing.