The Beast of Yucca Flats
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| The Beast of Yucca Flats | |
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 A promotional film poster for "The Beast of Yucca Flats." |
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| 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 |
| Budget | $34,000 (est.) [1] |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| 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. Many have characterized this film as one of the worst sci-fi films of all time, even suggesting that it may be more poorly conceived and executed than Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space. [[2]]
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[edit] Plot summary
A noted Soviet scientist by the name of Joseph Javorsky (played by Tor Johnson) defects to the United States. We first see him as he arrives on a plane in a remote location in the desert. He has a briefcase with him, and it is suggested that this contains Russian military secrets. As Javorsky disembarks from his plane, he and his American contacts are attacked by a group of KGB assassins. While the Americans stay to fight off the KGB agents, Javorsky flees into the desert, walking for (presumably) a great distance, and removing much of his clothing. Too late, it is revealed that he has wandered in range of an American nuclear test. The radiation transforms Javorsky into a mindless beast (the 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 maniac.
Meanwhile, a vacationing family ventures along the same road. After stopping at a service station to feed soda pop to pigs in a pen, 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, but 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.
[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. [[3]]
- The movie was filmed entirely silent. Narration, voiceovers, and some sound effects were added in post production. To avoid having to synchronize the audio to the picture, characters only speak when their faces are either off-screen or not clearly visible due to darkness or distance. Likewise, during scenes in which firearms are used, the muzzles of the guns are usually out-of-shot when the weapons are fired, presumably for similar sound-synching reasons. [[4]]
- The narrative voice-over (provided by Coleman Francis himself) constantly makes reference to "progress" as though it were the cause of the characters' problems.
- During scenes of gunplay, many characters appear at first to have suffered life-threatening bullet wounds, then appear to have inexplicably recovered and show no visible signs of having been wounded.
[edit] Quotes
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- 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?"
[edit] External links
- Illustrated review of the film
- Review at Jabootu's Bad Film Dimension - includes screenshots
