''The Beast of Yucca Flats'' (released to television as ''Atomic Monster: The Beast of Yucca Flats'') is a 1961
B-movie
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
written and directed by
Coleman Francis
Coleman Chambers Francis (January 24, 1919 – January 15, 1973) was an American actor, writer, producer and director. He was best known for his film trilogy consisting of ''The Beast of Yucca Flats'' (1961), ''The Skydivers'' (1963) and ''R ...
. It was produced by
Anthony Cardoza
Anthony "Tony" Cardoza (May 26, 1930 – December 7, 2015) was an American actor and film producer. A number of the B-movies that he produced are considered to be among the all-time worst, and were immortalized through ''Mystery Science Theater ...
, Roland Morin and Jim Oliphant.
The film stars Swedish former wrestler
Tor Johnson
Karl Erik Tore Johansson (19 October 1902 or 1903; sources differ – 12 May 1971), better known by the stage name Tor Johnson, was a Swedish professional wrestler and actor. As an actor, Johnson appeared in many B-movies, including some famous ...
as "the Beast". It starred Anthony Cardoza, Coleman Francis and Jim Oliphant in bit parts, as well as
Conrad Brooks
Conrad Brooks (born Conrad Biedrzycki; January 3, 1931 – December 6, 2017) was an American actor.
Career
Brooks moved to Hollywood, California, in 1948 at age 17 to pursue a career in acting. He got his start in movies appearing in Ed Wood film ...
in a very small role. Director Francis cast his two sons (Ronald and Alan Francis) in the film as the two lost boys.
The plot concerns a Soviet scientist named Joseph Jaworsky (Tor Johnson), who
defects and flees to a
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of th ...
called
Yucca Flat
Yucca Flat is a closed desert drainage basin, one of four major nuclear test regions within the Nevada Test Site (NTS), and is divided into nine test sections: Areas 1 through 4 and 6 through 10. Yucca Flat is located at the eastern edge of NTS, ...
s, only to be turned into a mindless monster by atomic radiation, stalking the desert. The film has very little dialogue and most of the speech is done by
omniscient narration.
Plot
A woman (Lanell Cado) steps out of a shower and is attacked and strangled to death by a mysterious man as a clock ticks, then stops.
Later (or possibly before) in Yucca Flats,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
, Soviet scientist Joseph Javorsky (Johnson) has defected from the USSR and arrives in America with a briefcase carrying various military secrets, including the Soviet
moon landing
A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959.
The United St ...
. Javorsky and his American contacts are suddenly attacked by a pair of
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
assassins (Cardoza and John Morrison) killing Javorsky's contacts and bodyguards. Javorsky flees into the desert, walking for a great distance, and the searing heat causes him to discard much of his clothing. When he wanders in range of an American nuclear test, the bewildered Russian is transformed by it into a mindless beast with an uncontrollable urge to kill. He proceeds to murder a couple in their car on a nearby road, prompting pursuit from police officers Jim Archer (Stafford) and Joe Dobson (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 the mutated 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
Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...
later nuzzles his dying body, and using the last of his strength, he caresses it before dying.
Cast
Production
The setting for the film, "Yucca Flats," was based on the real-life
Yucca Flat
Yucca Flat is a closed desert drainage basin, one of four major nuclear test regions within the Nevada Test Site (NTS), and is divided into nine test sections: Areas 1 through 4 and 6 through 10. Yucca Flat is located at the eastern edge of NTS, ...
, which has been called "the most irradiated, nuclear-blasted spot on the face of the earth".
[Gerald H. Clarfield and William M. Wiecek (1984). ''Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States 1940–1980'', Harper & Row, New York, p. 202.] In 1970, nine years after the film was made, 86 workers were exposed to radiation during the Yucca Flat
Baneberry Test. In March 2009, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' identified the accident as one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.
Actual shooting locations for the film were all in California:
Santa Clarita
Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17th ...
(desert scenes),
Saugus (airplane scenes) and
Van Nuys
Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
History
In 1909, t ...
(opening scene interior).
The movie was filmed without a soundtrack. Narration, voice-overs and some sound effects were added in post-production. To avoid having to synchronize the audio to the picture, characters speak only 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. 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. Extensive narration is used in lieu of plot points being conveyed through dialogue.
Film historian Bill Warren stated "The AFI catalog says (the film) may have been reissued in 1964 as "Girl Madness''"
According to producer
Anthony Cardoza
Anthony "Tony" Cardoza (May 26, 1930 – December 7, 2015) was an American actor and film producer. A number of the B-movies that he produced are considered to be among the all-time worst, and were immortalized through ''Mystery Science Theater ...
, the film's closing scene in which Johnson's character, expressing a final bit of humanity, embraces a jackrabbit, was not planned; a wild rabbit entered the shot while the camera was rolling, and Johnson improvised.
The film's total budget was estimated at $34,000.
Opening murder scene
![BeastofYuccaFlatts003](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/BeastofYuccaFlatts003.jpg)
The first scene in the film is the strangulation murder of a woman (played by Lanell Cado) who has just stepped out of a shower, by a man whose face is never shown; it is implied that the killer
raped 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 time and/or place in the film where it could be said to occur.
According to an interview with producer Cardoza by film historian Tom Weaver, the scene was added after the film was complete because director Francis liked
nude scenes
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scen ...
. Some prints (such as the one used for the
''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' episode) were edited to show the woman clothed for the duration of the scene (running 81 seconds), with the only nudity being a brief flash of the breast as she towels herself in front of a mirror. The 2003
Alpha Video
Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ne ...
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
print has a slightly longer version of the scene (running 93 seconds), where the woman is shown naked as she puts on a pair of underwear, with both breasts visible several times before she is shown walking out of the room.
[
]
Reception
''The Beast of Yucca Flats'' was universally panned by critics upon its release, with many considering it one of the worst films ever made.
Author and film critic Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
awarded the film one star, or 'BOMB', calling it "one of the worst films ever made". In his review, Maltin criticized the overuse of voiceover narration, and an opening sequence unrelated to the main story.
Bruce Eder from AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
panned the film, criticizing the film's "pretentious and obtuse narration" and further stating, "The most enjoyable aspect of this movie is its remarkably short running time".
''VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever
MusicHound (sometimes stylized as musicHound) was a compiler of genre-specific music guides published in the United States by Visible Ink Press between 1996 and 2002. After publishing eleven album guides, the MusicHound series was sold to London-ba ...
'' awarded the film their lowest rating, calling it "A really cheap, quasi-nuclear protest film."
On his website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'', Dave Sindelar panned the film's "maddening" voice-over narration, editing, and apparent lack of a real storyline.
''TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' awarded the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "In an honest attempt to make a brief protest picture, the producers apparently didn't have enough money to accord this any sort of production value."
Home media
''The Beast of Yucca Flats'' was first released on DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
by Image Entertainment
RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 340 ...
on September 5, 2000, followed by numerous later DVD releases. It was released by Alpha Video
Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ne ...
on November 18, 2003, and by Image Entertainment on December 30, 2003, as a part of a double feature
The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.
Opera use
Opera ho ...
with ''Mesa of Lost Women
''Mesa of Lost Women'' is a 1953 American low-budget black-and-white science fiction film directed by Herbert Tevos and Ron Ormond from a screenplay by Tevos and Orville H. Hampton who is given on-screen credit only for dialogue supervision.
Pl ...
'' (1953). It was released as a part of a 12-disc "Horror Classics Collection" by Digital 1 Stop on January 20, 2004. Platinum Disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
released the film on June 7, 2005, and again on August 23 as a part of several multi-disc collections; Mill Creek Entertainment released the film on July 5, 2005. In 2006, it was released by Digiview Entertainment and ST Clair Vision on May 9 and October 17, respectively. ST Clair Vision re-released it on June 26, 2007. Releases by Direct Source and Mill Creek Entertainment, as part of multi-film collections, also appeared in 2007. ST Clair Vision re-released the film one more time on May 20, 2008. In 2010, ''The Beast of Yucca Flats'' was released three separate times by TNT Media Group and Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Echo Bridge Entertainment is an American independent distribution company. It acquires and distributes feature films, scripted and non-scripted series, documentaries, and children’s programming for home video, digital and television in the United ...
. On August 20, 2013, Mill Creek released it as part of a 3-disc, 12-film collection, ''The Best of the Worst Film Pack''. The film was last released by Echo Bridge on September 1, 2015.
Legacy
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
Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker,
actor, and pulp novel author.
In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
's legendarily bad ''Plan 9 from Outer Space
''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15 ...
''. In 1995, the television comedy series ''Mystery Science Theater 3000
''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...
'' featured ''The Beast of Yucca Flats'', helping the film develop a cult status.
See also
* List of American films of 1961
A list of American films released in 1961.
__TOC__
Top-grossing films (U.S.)
A–B
C–I
J–R
S–Z
See also
* 1961 in the United States
External links
1961 filmsat the Internet Movie Database
*List of 1961 box office number-one fi ...
* List of films considered the worst
The films listed below have been cited by a variety of notable critics in varying media sources as being among the worst films ever made. Examples of such sources include Metacritic, Roger Ebert's list of most-hated films, ''The Golden Turkey ...
* Yucca Flat
Yucca Flat is a closed desert drainage basin, one of four major nuclear test regions within the Nevada Test Site (NTS), and is divided into nine test sections: Areas 1 through 4 and 6 through 10. Yucca Flat is located at the eastern edge of NTS, ...
References
Sources
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External links
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''The Beast of Yucca Flats'' at Movie-Censorship.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beast of Yucca Flats, The
1961 films
1961 horror films
1960s science fiction horror films
American science fiction horror films
American black-and-white films
Crown International Pictures films
1960s English-language films
American independent films
1960s monster movies
Films set in deserts
Films set in Nevada
American monster movies
1961 directorial debut films
Films directed by Coleman Francis
Cold War films
1960s American films