"Bees in Paradise" might have been a good comic diversion for the Brits during WW II. But these decades later, it's mostly a silly film with no more than a couple of laughs. The hidden island isn't filled with Amazon women of mythology, but a tribe that seems to be up to snuff on the world around it.
This version of a woman's world without men welcomes the occasional wayfarers who happen upon the place. But that's just for one purpose -- you-know-what (come now, people didn't talk about sex way back then, although love-making was okay if a little nebulous). After that, the men had a choice of how to dispose of themselves.
The title fits the setting where the head honcho female is the queen bee, and the rest are all worker bees. It doesn't really play out the biological way of bees because the drones (lost males who come ashore or land from the sky) are for any woman who can first snare one. The queen has to snare a man herself if she wants one.
The funniest thing in the film may be the variety of things around the island shaped like bee hives. The cast are okay but nothing special. It's clearly a film made with Arthur Askey in mind for the comic lead.
I can't imagine anyone other than a fellow die-hard old-time movie fan enjoying this film much, or even sitting through the whole thing. In its day and time, "Bees in Paradise" may have been a crowd pleaser; but it's definitely without much luster or humor well into the 21st century.
I did enjoy a couple of lines - but even these don't conjure up more than a mild chuckle.
Askey's Arthur Tucker says, "I can't go seven days without food. What do you think I am, a musician?"
Max Adler, played by Max Bacon, says to Tucker, "Remember what the skipper says about using your discretion." Tucker replies, "Oh, discretion's a thing that comes to a man too late to do him any good."
