The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

A defecting Soviet scientist is hit by a nuclear explosion near Yucca Flats and roams around as a beast.

Director:

Coleman Francis

Writer:

Coleman Francis

Stars:

Douglas Mellor, Barbara Francis, Bing Stafford

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Douglas Mellor	...	Hank Radcliffe
Barbara Francis	...	Lois Radcliffe
Bing Stafford	...	Jim Archer
Larry Aten	...	Joe Dobson
Linda Bielema	...	Wife on Vacation
Ronald Francis	...	Randy Radcliffe
Alan Francis	...	Art Radcliffe
Anthony Cardoza	...	KGB Driver / Helpful Neighbor (as Tony Cardoza)
Bob Labansat	...	Javorsky's Bodyguard
Jim Oliphant	...	Husband on Vacation
John Morrison	...	KGB Passenger
Eric Tomlin	...	Driver Run off Road
Jim Miles	...	Javorsky's Driver
George Prince	...	Man Who Reports Murder (as George Principe)
Conrad Brooks	...	Man at Airfield

Storyline

A defecting Russian scientist is transformed by an atomic test into a hulking monster (Tor Johnson, of course). Not much else except some people are killed, boys get lost, and a rabbit sniffs Tor's corpse. This film was used for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

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Plot Keywords:

flag on the moon | nudity | mutant | z movie | psychotronic film | 

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Taglines:

Commies made him an atomic mutant!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 May 1961 (USA)

Also Known As:

Girl Madness

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$34,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cardoza-Francis Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

54 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

An unofficial sequel, Rerurn to Yucca Flats: Desert Man Beast, was released in 2010.

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Goofs

The Radcliffes get a flat tire and pull over on a desolate desert highway. As the Dad changes the flat tire, the shadow of the film crew vehicle is right behind him, along the side of the road.

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Quotes

Narrator: Twenty hours without rest and still no enemy. In the blistering desert heat, Jim and Joe plan their next attack. Find the Beast and kill him. Kill, or be killed. Man's inhumanity to man.

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Alternate Versions

Some prints contain a pre-title sequence which shows a large man, dressed like Tor Johnson in the film, attacking a topless woman inside a house. The technical quality of this footage is far superior to the rest of the movie which seems to indicate that it was not part of the original production. The topless nudity would not have been permitted on U.S. screens at the time this movie was originally shot.

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Connections

Referenced in I Hate Everything: the Search for the Worst: Troll 2 (2014)

User Reviews

Oh, the inhumanity...

A man. A movie. Mans inhumanity to the movie.

I have watched my share of garbage-amateur-horrible-z-grade horror, but Coleman Francis's: The Beast of Yucca Flats must be the worst ever! I cannot say I wasn't warned by other user comments, but such a warning only sparked my interest. If there ever was a movie, which deserved to be rated 1/10 this must be it.

The Plot: A defecting Russian scientist (Tor Johnson) is chased into atomic testing grounds by KGB agents, and he turns into a monster after he is exposed to a nuclear blast. You can tell he has turned into a monster because his hair is now white! The monster goes on a killing rampage, and two detectives venture out to stop him.

What went wrong: Short answer: Everything!

1. Dubbing. It took a while before I noticed that you never see any of the characters when they speak, so I checked the IMDb trivia section. Apparently the movie was shot without sound and later dubbed and to avoid out of sync problems the characters had their backs to the camera when talking or the camera focused on something else… It is hilarious to watch two people talk when the camera constantly shifts to the character that isn't talking. And then trying to get away with it for a whole hour…

2. The "score". The score is so over the top dramatic that it adds to the fun. A man walks through the desert/prairie and suddenly he sees a Keep Out sign, and you are blasted backwards in your chair by the music. Judging by the music a Keep Out sign is so much scarier than getting stabbed while showering… I guess it is supposed to compensate for the missing suspense/horror/action on all the other fronts!

3. The Narrator. The funniest thing in the movie is the narrator (Coleman Francis himself), who speaks with a calm and intellectual voice. I don't think one word he spoke made any sense – it's pseudo-intellectual dribble from the beginning to the end. We see a man lying in a hammock and the narrator goes: "Nothing bothers some people, not even flying saucers". I have no idea where he got flying saucers from – there are none in the movie nor are they ever mentioned. We see the scientist walking into the testing grounds and the narrator says: "Touch a button. Things happen. A scientist becomes a beast". It's like that during the whole movie.

4. Acting and effects. If the movie was supposed to be scary it would all depend on the monster, but like I already mentioned it consists of Tor Johnson with some white stuff on his face. We see the horrible monster chase a couple of boys, but sadly the monster is so fat it cannot really run, but it can throw rocks and wave a big stick… There are a couple of gunfights in the movie, but the bullets don't make holes or draw blood… Now, this might all sound like it makes some kind of sense, but let me assure you that it does not! There are so many whys and WTFs in this movie!

I will join the 393 out of 527 who rated this movie 1/10, but the fun factor is a lot higher. I didn't end up hating the movie like I did with Troll 2. And hey… it's only 54 minutes!