"ZZZZZ"
| Production Order #21 and Broadcast Order #18 Shooting Days: 15 November-5 December 1963 First Air Date: January 27, 1964 |
| Production Credits: Writer: Meyer Dolinsky Director: John Brahm Assistant Director: Robert H. Justman Director of Photography: Conrad Hall Composer: Dominic Frontiere (stock music with original bits and additional portions from "Stoney Burke") |
| Cast of Characters: Phillip Abbott as Professor Benedict O. Fields Marsha Hunt as Francesca Fields Joanna Frank as Regina, the Queen Bee Booth Coleman as Dr. Howard Warren |
Opening Narration:
"Human life strives ceaselessly to perfect itself,
to gain ascendancy. But what of the lower forms of life? Is it not possible
that they, too, are conducting experiments, and are at this moment on
the threshold of deadly success?"
Plotline:
Professor Fields, entomologist, studies bees and needs
a new assistant to help him in his research. Coming out of nowhere, a
young woman named Regina applies for the job, just after his wife has
placed an ad. The poor scientist doesn't know that human bee(ing) Regina's
goal is to take over the Earth by first copulating with him.
Closing Narration:
"When the yearning to gain ascendancy takes the form
of a soulless, loveless struggle, the contest must end in unlovely defeat.
For without love, drones can never be men, and men can only be drones."
Quote:
"A disorderly mind is usually guilty of something
far more chaotic than disorder."
—Regina (Joanna Frank)
—Regina (Joanna Frank)
Comments:
For Joanna Frank's admirers only which enjoy her sensual
acting a la "Lolita" (with her lock of hair and thick eyelashes
seductive game) and a home matriarchal topic (and the companion piece
to "Don't Open Till Doomsday"). This is a poor one directed
by a great man: John Brahm from a Meyer Dolinsky's failed script, helped
by Conrad Hall's less inspired photography except the soft-focus close-ups
of the voluptuous leading female and with second-rate special effects
(see the cheap bee transformations) and interior sets. First Professor
Fields hires Regina like a love at first sight and then displays a naive
behavior to his wife because of his belief that Regina is an innocent
young girl: "Then why send away a homeless sick child?" The moralistic
outcome of Act IV when Professor Fields chases and sermonizes (the power
of the wedding) Regina is accompagnied with a cue from a "Stoney
Burke" episode: "Point of Entry". As in "The Bellero
Shield", there's a reference to the blood's composition ("Ben,
she's a medical anomaly. I've never seen blood fluid like hers...",
said Dr. Warren). As in "The Zanti Misfits", the distorted high-pitched
voice (of the bees) by Robert Johnson (who also did the over the phone
one of Mr. Lund) is ludicrous and Professor Fields uses a translator device
to understand that bee lingo and even injects an artificial bee to analyze
their behaviors ("Appears like one of us but it's not like one of
us! It's not one of us!", said the bees). In 1973, Denis Sanders directed a low budget film entitled "Invasion of the Bee Girls" that featured the basic premise of "ZZZZZ".
