The Savage Bees ** (1976, Ben Johnson, Michael Parks, Horst Buchholz) – Classic Movie Review 3102

Director Bruce Geller’s 1976 horror thriller finds that the annual New Orleans Mardi Gras soon gets buzzing in a bad way when it is discovered that a cargo ship has brought in African killer bees. The festive celebration is brought to a screaming halt when a swarm escape from the foreign freighter.

Ben Johnson (as the sheriff), Michael Parks and Horst Buchholz (as doctors) head this daft but nifty TV bee-movie, which packs a fair sting in its tale.

At least it is far better than the similar cinema movies that followed, The Swarm (1978) and The Bees (1978), and it merited a swift sequel, Terror Out of the Sky (1978), with a different cast.

Also in the cast are Gretchen Corbett, Paul Hecht, James Best, Bruce French, David L Gray, Richard Charles Boyle, Eliott Keener, Boardman O’Connor, Danny Barker, Bill Holliday, Carol Sutton and Don Hood. It is written by Guerdon Trueblood.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3102

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