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"Killer Bees" (1974)
Director: Curtis Harrington. Cast: Edward Albert, Kate Jackson, Gloria Swanson.
 Filmed in what is now Francis Ford Coppola's house in Rutherford, this made-for-TV movie puts a pretty good twist on biodynamic farming.
The van Bohlen family owns a winery so important that their town near St. Helena is named after them. The family is completely controlled by Swanson, a silent-film diva in her next-to-last film part (she played herself as a passenger in the disaster film "Airport 1975" the following year).
The van Bohlens successfully specialize in sweet wines, a reminder that America's love for dry wines is a relatively recent phenomenon. When Jackson, the fiancee of Swanson's grandson Albert, first tastes one, she says, "It's strangely sweet, as if there were honey ..." And just then a bee goes after her. Don't divulge the trade secrets!
In fact, the van Bohlens have figured out how to deal with the shortage of trained viticultural workers in Napa Valley. Their swarm of Africanized bees follows Swanson's orders, including attacking people who trespass on the vineyard. And they're 100 percent organic.
One of the family's winemaking techniques is novel: Albert's father, explaining why the family reserve Chenin Blanc is so delicious, says, "The very least touch of honey added to wine as it ferments ..." Wonder if anyone other than meadmakers has tried that?
Some scenes in a nondescript diner remind us how Napa culinary culture has changed, but none more than this line from Albert to Jackson: "You think you're going to meet a nice American family -- frozen dinners, bowling on Wednesdays." He then explains that his grandmother is European; hence, no frozen dinners. Damn 1974 Europeans, didn't they understand how food technology had advanced? Set the bees after them.
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