The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

Touches You

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A scientist transforms into a beast after a nuclear explosion goes off in Yucca Flats. He then terrorises those who step in his way. Tor Johnson is a famous face in the b-movie world, starring in the supposedly worst movie of all time 'Plan 9 From Outer Space'. This was his final starring role as Joseph Javorsky/The Beast, a Russian scientist who knows secrets about the moon landing and is affected by the world's 'progress'.Coleman Francis creates an unintentionally hilarious b-movie which to just say it is incompetent is an understatement. From the non-threatening presence of 'The Beast' to the narration ranging from stating the obvious to just being flat out bizarre, this has all you need for a b-movie of this kind.There's a lot of scenes where you notice it's low budget production such as the guns not having any firing effect and in the nuclear explosion scene there's a shot of a suitcase on fire with Tor's non-flaming hand in shot. But it's not just that- there's this murder scene at the beginning which has no connection to the film whatsoever. Apparently, it's in there because Francis wanted a nude scene- go figure.

A bony, naked woman is killed for no real reason. A clock ticks and ticks and... THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS is underway! Russian scientist Joseph Javorsky (Tor Johnson- PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER) escapes an assassination attempt, only to be blasted by a nuclear explosion. As the titular, irradiated monster, he lumbers slack-jawed through the desert, murdering the unwary. Meanwhile, a droning narrator spouts a series of nonsequiturs. HIGHLIGHTS: Tor's "I-spilled-oatmeal-on-my-face" makeup! The clumsily added, voice-over dialogue, piling an extra layer of fabulous awfulness onto the film! The ultra-dramatic music, which fits in nowhere! The vacationing Radcliffe family, especially mom's cankles! Tor Javorsky chasing the Radcliffe boys, while squawking and shaking his walking stick at them! MOST OUT OF PLACE QUOTE: (Said while the narrator introduces the Radcliffes) "Nothing bothers some people, not even flying saucers!" A treasure trove for the true seeker of quintessential, sub-sludge cinema!... EXTRA SCHLOCK POINTS: For sharp-shooter, Jim Archer and his "washed-in-salad-oil" hair!...

Sometimes, I can't help but wonder what goes into a film such as this. Did anybody involved think that this would be fun or entertaining? Did anybody THINK at all? Or did they charge ahead dutifully? Did the filmmakers have a shooting schedule? Or did they just wing it from Day One? Here was the first attempt by Coleman Francis, potentially THE worst director ever. And THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS has found a place in cult classic history. Clocking in at just over an hour, TBOYF features Tor Johnson (from the monumentally enjoyable bad epic PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) as an escaping Russian scientist. In New Mexico, two guys in suits (Feds, I guess) get into a car chase and shoot out with two guys in hats (KGB spies, I guess). They're attempting to kill the scientist and steal his briefcase filled with sensitive information. But wouldn't ya know it, the area just happens to be a place where the Army's testing a new atom bomb. Wandering out into the desert, the Russian scientist gets horribly scarred, his clothes in tatters, and goes around waving a walking stick. Some other characters come along, doing nonsensical stuff. Tor chases them away, bellowing. And eventually, he dies. Maybe. While a cute little rabbit nibbles at his fingers. Scary, huh? Rumor has it that they had no audio equipment on-set and so they resorted to having stuff recorded in post-production. Hence the odd, slightly disturbing, voice-over musings by Coleman Francis himself. In a weird sort of way, it almost works as an art film. It's certainly got no plot, or coherent story structure. But, even at an hour, it's difficult to watch and sit through. Bravo MST3K, you've got yourselves a winner. To you, I give 8 Mewling Tors out of 10!

Here was me thinking that only Jess Franco had the ability to somehow stretch time beyond its constraints and make a relatively short film seemingly last for about six days, but I after I'd finished watching the Beast of Yucca Flats, I swear I'd aged at least two years.This is a fairly well known bad film, and although I'm the easiest viewer in the world to please, on my first attempt at watching this I could feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness. On the second attempt I'd had a couple of beers and got up the next day thinking that I'd probably missed something at the end, but no. On the third attempt I realised that I hadn't missed anything at all, and that most of the entire last half of the film involves people wandering around a desert looking for each other.The story involves Tor Johnson being a defecting Soviet scientist who gets chased by the FBI into the Yucca Flats and gets caught in the blast from a nuclear test, turning him into a monster. He wanders the Yucca Flats strangling people and two cops go after him. Meanwhile, two kids wander off from their family and their parents go looking for them, and therefore you have a film consisting mainly of the cops looking for the killer, the parents looking for their kids, and the kids wandering around the desert followed by a waddling Tor Johnson in bad make up.I read (on here, I think) that the film was recorded without sound, which adds to the sleepy atmosphere. You've got people wandering around in near silence for ages at a time while a narrator waffles on about anything that comes into his mind. I like my bad films to be delirious and hilarious (like Ninja Terminator, Clash of the Warlords or Fearless Tiger), but if there's one thing I cannot stand in a film it's people wandering around looking for each other endlessly (see Legend of the Mummy 2 or Psycho Cop for examples).There are parts to this film that are funny, from the inexplicable murder at the start, the gunshot wounds that heal themselves over time and the bad acting of everyone involved (Johnson can hardly move at all, let alone chase kids through the desert), there's too much waffle and not enough action on this film. It's more of an endurance test than anything else.