The Beast of Yucca Flats

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Beast of Yucca Flats
A promotional film poster for "The Beast of Yucca Flats."
Directed by	Coleman Francis
Produced by	Anthony Cardoza Coleman Francis Roland Morin Jim Oliphant Larry Aten Bing Stafford
Written by	Coleman Francis
Starring	Tor Johnson Douglas Mellor Barbara Francis Bing Stafford
Music by	Gene Kauer Irwin Nafshun Al Remington
Cinematography	John Cagle Lee Strosnider
Editing by	Coleman Francis Austin McKinney Lee Strosnider Anthony Cardoza
Distributed by	Cinema Associates
Release date(s)	2 May 1961
Running time	54 min
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Beast of Yucca Flats is a B horror film released in 1961. The film starred Swedish former wrestler Tor Johnson and was both written and directed by Coleman Francis. This film was featured on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

1 Plot summary
2 Goofs and mistakes
3 Quotes
4 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A noted Soviet scientist by the name of Joseph Javorsky (played by Tor Johnson) defects to the United States. As he flees from a group of assassins, he stumbles into range of a nuclear test. The radiation transforms Javorsky into a mindless beast. After the beast kills a couple in their car on a nearby road, two police officers named Jim and Joe pursue the killer, thinking him to be a normal human.

Meanwhile, a vacationing family stops along the same road. The family's two young sons wander off into the wastelands where they eventually encounter and escape from the beast. Their father searches for them, and is mistaken for the killer by one of the police officers, searching for the murderer from the air in a small plane. The officer (whose law enforcement philosophy appears to be "shoot first; ask questions later") opens fire on the innocent man, who escapes unharmed.

Eventually the family is reunited and the police shoot and kill the Beast. A wild rabbit appears and nuzzles the Beast's lifeless body.

This film was featured on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

[edit] Goofs and mistakes

The film opens with the murder by strangling of a woman who has just gotten out of the shower and is thus topless. The identity of the murderer is never revealed and the murder is never discussed after that scene. Javorsky is unlikely to be the killer because if the scene takes place before the movie, he is not the Beast yet and thus has no known motivation to kill a woman who he presumably hasn't met; if it is set during the movie, Javorsky still could not be the killer as the Beast never leaves the wastelands. Note: The narration in the movie mentions that Javorsky's wife had been killed in retribution for his defection. This may be the woman in the first scene.

The entire film is shot without sound. Narration and voices were added in post production. To avoid having to synchronize the audio to the video, characters only speak when their faces are either off-screen or not clearly visible due to darkness or distance.

The narrative voice-over (provided by Coleman Francis himself) constantly makes reference to "progress" as though it were the cause of the characters' problems.

[edit] Quotes

Narrator: "Jim Archer, Joe's partner, another man caught in the frantic race for the betterment of mankind. Progress."
Narrator: "Touch a button, things happen. A scientist becomes a beast."
Narrator: "Boys from the city, not yet caught in the whirlwind of progress, feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs."
Narrator: "Joseph Javorsky, respected scientist. Now a fiend prowling the wastelands, a prehistoric beast in a nuclear age. Kill, kill just to be killing."
Narrator: "A man runs, someone shoots at him."
Narrator: "Flag on the moon, how did it get there?"