The Savage Bees

'Somebody's poisoned mah dawg' wails Sheriff Ben Johnson, only to discover that the mutt's been stung to death by a swarm of killer bees up from South America (pause for lecture) for the New Orleans Mardi Gras. This made-for-TV movie, unwarrantedly exposed on the big screen, is so weakly plotted that efforts to generate suspense never appear more than mechanical. The bees look real enough, but attention wanders long before Horst Buchholz gets himself killed trying to capture the queen bee in a hot-dog stand. For the protracted finale, the bees obligingly settle on the heroine's VW, only to succumb without a murmur.