The Beast of Yucca Flats

The Beast of Yucca Flats is a B horror film released in 1961. The film stars Swedish former wrestler Tor Johnson and was both written and directed by Coleman Francis. The plot concerns a Soviet scientist (Johnson), who defects and flees to a Nevada Test Site called Yucca Flats, only to be turned into a monster by radiation that procededs to menace the desert. The film has very little dialogue and most of the speech is done by omniscient narration, provided by writer/director Francis.

Some critics have characterized the film as one of the worst science fiction horror films made, and one of the all-time worst films of any kind, even suggesting that it may be worse than Ed Wood's legendarily bad Plan 9 from Outer Space.[2]



Contents
[hide]  *1 Synopsis  ==Synopsis[ edit] == Tor Johnson as the radiation-poisoned scientist Joseph JavorskyAfter her shower, a woman (Lanell Cado) is strangled by a mysterious man.
 * 2 Production notes
 * 2.1 Opening murder scene
 * 3 Cast
 * 4 Reception
 * 4.1 Critical response
 * 5 See also
 * 6 References
 * 7 External links

Elsewhere in Yucca Flats, Nevada, Soviet scientist Joseph Javorsky (Tor Johnson) defects. Javorsky is carrying a briefcase with various military secrets, including some about a Soviet moon landing. Javorsky and his American contacts are attacked by a pair of KGB assassins (Anthony Cardoza and John Morrison). Javorsky flees into the desert, walking for a great distance, and removing much of his clothing. When he wanders in range of an American nuclear test, the bewildered Russian is transformed by radiation into a mindless beast. He proceeds to kill a couple in their car on a nearby road, prompting pursuit from two police officers named Jim Archer (Bing Stafford) and Joe Dobson (Larry Aten).

Meanwhile, a vacationing family ventures along the same road. After stopping at a service station, the family's two young sons (Ronald and Alan Francis) wander off into the surrounding desert where they eventually encounter and escape from Javorsky. Their father (Douglas Mellor) searches for them, but is mistaken for the killer by one of the police officers, who is searching for the murderer from the air in a small plane. The officer opens fire with a high-powered rifle on the innocent man, who manages to escape.

Eventually the family is reunited and the police shoot and mortally wound Javorsky. A jackrabbit later nuzzles his dying body. ==Production notes[ edit] == The setting for the film, "Yucca Flats" is based on the real-life Yucca Flat, which has been called "the most irradiated, nuclear-blasted spot on the face of the earth."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ger_3-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[3]  In 1970 - nine years after this film - 86 workers were exposed to radiation during the Yucca Flat Baneberry Test. In March 2009, TIME identified the accident as one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bane_4-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[4]  Actual shooting locations for the film were all in California: Santa Clarita (desert scenes), Saugus (airplane scenes) and Van Nuys(opening scene interior).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The movie was filmed without a soundtrack. 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. Extensive narration is used in lieu of plot points being conveyed through dialogue.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[6]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">During scenes of gunplay, many characters appear at first to have suffered life-threatening bullet wounds, only to appear in later scenes fully recovered with no visible signs of having been wounded. ===Opening murder scene<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === A still shot from the opening murder scene<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The first scene in the film is the strangling murder of a woman (Lanell Cado) who has just stepped out of a shower, by a man whose face is never shown; it is implied that the killer molests her corpse. The murderer is dressed like Javorsky after the blast, but the murder is never mentioned during the actual film, nor is there any apparent place in the narrative where it could be said to occur.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">According to an interview by film historian Tom Weaver with the film's producer Anthony Cardoza, the scene was added after the film was complete because director Coleman Francis liked nude scenes. Some prints (such as the one used for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode and the print on YouTube) are edited to show the woman clothed for the duration of the scene (running 00:01:21), with the only nudity being a brief flash of breast as she towels herself in front of a mirror. The 2003 AlphaVideo DVD print has a slightly longer version of the scene (running 00:01:33), where the woman is shown naked as she puts on a pair of underwear, with both breasts visible several times before shown walking out of the room.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[7] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[8] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[9]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Cado had a more substantial role in a later Coleman Francis film, Red Zone Cuba (1966), also released as Night Train to Mundo Fine. ==Cast<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==Reception<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ===Critical response<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The movie was panned by critics at the time of its release and is considered one of the worst films of all time. As of September 2014 the film has no critic rating onRotten Tomatoes but currently holds an 8% percent on the audience rating there. It also holds a 2.5 rating at IMDb.