User reviews

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!

THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS is a classic "good bad movie." Big Tor Johnson is a Russian scientist who is transformed into a choke-happy maniac after an A-bomb test. With two of the blandest rangers imaginable hot on his trail, the "beast" makes caveman noises, takes a nap, chases after children with a stick and, in an uncontrollable fit of rage, tosses a rock.

While Tor's indescribable performance is enough to fill one bad movie, there are plenty of other "highlights". For one, the film was shot as a silent, with audio (including some incredibly cheesy "suspense" music) added in post-production. The voice-overs are every bit as unconvincing as the acting. It's impossible to watch the characters interact and not picture someone sitting in front of a microphone, indifferently reading from a script.

Secondly, the film has plot holes so big not even Tor's supper could fill them. The opening scene, for instance, depicts someone (presumably the beast) murdering an innocent woman. But it's prior to Johnson's transformation, and the maniac never leaves Yucca Flats. So who did the deed? And why is it so easy for these characters to get so close to an atomic testing site? And why can't the rangers manage to climb a summit so non-challenging that a couple of young boys have no problem? I guess it helps not to be so inquiring.

The absolute best (or worst?) part of this film is the inane "narration" by director Coleman Francis. With so much silence to fill, it often sounds like Francis is just making things up as he goes along, hoping to sound deep, sophisticated and poetic. An example: "Boys from the city, not yet caught by the whirlwind of progress, feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs." Or: "Touch a button, things happen. A scientist becomes a beast." But just reading such quotes don't do them justice. They really have to be heard, in Coleman's serious-toned voice, to be believed.

And what about the "beast"? Despite the title, Johnson isn't much of one. He looks pretty much like the regular Tor Johnson, save for some "puffy burn" makeup. I was expecting some phony-looking rubber monster. Nor does this beast really do beastly things. He just chokes (or tries to choke) people and makes caveman noises. In the personality department, he makes Frankenstein's monster look like Freddy Krueger.

What's most amazing about THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS is that it was a big screen release. People paid money to see this, and in its day, more than a few presumably had to cover their eyes at the sheer horror. The budget was said to be around $34,000, but you'd be hard-pressed to find where even that minute amount went. It looks a group of friends just got together one weekend to have some fun with their new film recorder. Consider the rabbit who hopped onto the set toward the end of filming. Francis just went with the unscripted moment as the rabbit investigated Johnson, who at that point was supposed to be dead but is revived long enough to kiss the animal (what's that about?) before again losing consciousness. It's reminiscent of your family's home videos when the camera suddenly jerks away from little Jimmy roasting marshmallows to an impromptu moment in the background: "Look! A rabbit!"

Love it or hate it, THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS is truly unlike anything we've ever seen or will see again. Though it may take more than one viewing to fully appreciate the ineptness, its ridiculousness will stay with you. Recommended for anyone whose gut hurt after PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.

There is something very Zen-like about "Beast of Yucca Flats". The vast lingering views of the desert Southwest. The odd disconnected dialogue that sounds completely disembodied. The haiku like narration.

It is in the spirit of Coleman Francis' narration that I now give impressions of the film: A clock ticks. A beautiful girl. A hidden killer. The clock stops. There is no connection.

The vast desert. A plane lands. Joseph Javorski, noted scientist. Joseph Javorski, who looks like he could eat whole pigs, has the fate of the world in his briefcase. The Kremlin's best make him a target. The wheels of progress grind on.

A chase. Bullets. Murder. Flag on the Moon...how did it get there? A bomb. More progress. Touch a button, something happens. A scientist becomes a beast.

Figures in a landscape. Who knows how long we really have? Joe and Jim, desert patrolman. They guard freedom and democracy 24/7 in this landscape. A beast is on the loose. Joseph Javorski, once a noted scientist, now...nothing.

There is no progress in the desert. Yet its effects are everywhere. Man's progress. Quench the killer's thirst. A family stops for a rest. The beast appears. A terrible mistake. Policemen with quick guns and the minds of swine. An innocent man dies. Who cares? Two boys feed soda pop to thirsty pigs. It's progress, you know.

Confrontation. A fight that is not a fight. A gun with no bullets fires. Joseph Javorski, noted scientist, becomes rabbit food. The wheels of progress grind on. End.

The viewer's mind becomes nothing. What have we seen? Who believes in flying saucers? Coleman Francis. The name lingers on. The lonely cry of desert winds. I love the movies.

A confusing and mind melting mess of a film. They don't make them like this anymore! Tor Johnson's chance to star! Tor, as you may know, was a professional wrestler who went on to fame in Ed Wood, Jr. films like Bride of the Monster and Plan Nine from Outer Space. His huge build, like a human wall, and his bald head became famous. They still sell Halloween masks with his image!

In this film atrocity, he plays an atomic scientist on the run! Watch how government agents empty their guns shooting at him at close range, but can't hit his huge 400 pound body! If fact people are repeatedly shot in this film without any effect whatsoever. The film is most famous for its near total lack of dialogue, as an off screen narrator tells the audience what is going on and endlessly babbles cryptic philosophical insights on the modern world. Out of nowhere the narrator says things like "Flag on the Moon, how did get there?" "Young boys feed soda to the thirsty pigs."

The "plot" has Tor accidently stumbling into an atomic bomb test (funny how that happens), getting his clothes ripped up in the process, and then becoming a sort of hermit like desert cave dweller with a big stick. He likes to grab women, carry them around, and lick their hair. There are some other plot elements, but they don't make much sense. In fact, nothing in this movie makes much sense. Perhaps its all meant to be "art" and if so, its a lot more fun than any Andy Warhol film ever was. I would love to make serious film students watch and study Beast of Yucca Flats to learn its cinematic techniques and digest its social commentary.

The long version of the movie contains a nude scene at the beginning. Yes, the film drags in places, but its a unique and unforgettable work.

I don't know what it is, but I find this stupifying excuse for a movie almost hypnotic in its sheer badness. I am starting to think it is so bad that it's perhaps the greatest movie ever made! Should I give it a 1 or 10? It's horrible, but not horrible like 'Manos', 'Wild World of Batwoman' or 'Stroker Ace'. Those are completely unwatchable movies. 'Beast' stands up to frequent repeated viewings (much like 'Plan 9'). I have to say that being a BIG Tor Johnson fan may have something to do with it, but I don't feel the same way about 'The Unearthly' & Tor utters perhaps the most memorable line in film history in that one.

Perhaps it's the magical touch of Coleman Francis. This is his 'Kane' & it shows frame by frame. The non-sensical narration, the stellar casting, the existence of the first scene in the movie (why??), the sparse landscape, the light aircraft...

All I know is, I just can't get enough of this movie. Good thing Englewood Entertainment has seen fit to release the film on DVD, although I will also keep the copy Conrad Brooks gave me a few years ago why blowing through town showing Plan 9. I only wish Englewood had released it in 'Letterbox' format with director's commentary & a documentary of the making of 'Beast'. Yes, I know Coleman's dead, but somebody somewhere had to be asking Mr. Francis WHY at the time & got it down on film or tape. At the least, I think Conrad is still around to lend some clues.

I feel an idea for a book coming on, but what I'm trying to convey with this overlong comment is that there is excellence and there is amateurish bafoonery, but with the case of this film, the distinction in my brain has been blurred. Perhaps the rating system is not a straight line, but a circle. And '0' & '10' are the same.

By the way, I love the treatment MST3K gave this stinker (along with the rest of the Coleman Francis trilogy), but even that deadens the effect. Watch that one if you must, but for the full effect buy the DVD/VHS of the standard release & watch it. Not once, but about 12 times will do it. Then you will know what I'm talking about. Judging by some of the '10' ratings out there, I may not be alone in this opinion.

The towering presence of "Swedish Angel" Tor Johnson and laughable narration that sounds at times like some kind of oriental poetry fail to make this film more than barely watchable. There is no real dialogue (presumably the producers couldn't afford a travelling microphone) -- all the dialogue is postdubbed with the actors conveniently turning their heads away when the speak! -- or story, and the only effects are a guy parachuting off a helicopter and Johnson in pancake makeup. Still, a somehow amusing low-budget film filled with friends and associates of the late great Ed Wood.

This Coleman Francis gem is now infamous for its horrible acting, editing, erm, pretty much horrible in every way. A defecting nuclear scientist is being chased by the Reds into the desert, where a nuclear test just happens to be taking place. The scientist (played by Tor Johnston, from other cinematic gems such as The Unearthly and The Atomic Brain) is made into a hideous monster by the radiation from the nuclear blast, and he roams the Arizona desert looking for victims to strangle.

I think the thing I find the most annoying about The Beast of Yucca Flats is the endless prattling by the narrator, who says inane things such as "Push a button, something happens", etc. Huh??? This movie has even more narration than The Creeping Terror. Don't even attempt to watch this movie except maybe the MST3K version. Joel and the bots can ease your pain through it.

Tor Johnson is probably best remembered for his starring in the so-called "worst movie ever made" Plan 9 from Outer Space! Well, the people who voted this obviously never saw The Beast of Yucca Flats! Ed Wood's Plan 9 is an authentic masterpiece compared to Coleman Francis' unendurable work of art. As most of my fellow-reviewers already pointed out: everything that can go possibly wrong in a movie features here…times ten! Even though the story only lasts 54 minutes, it's one of the most tedious experiences I ever had to sit through! Johnson plays a devoted scientist (oh yeah, he really looks like one) chased by cops (why? You tell me…) into a radiation test-area. There, he transforms into some sort of Hulky monster that goes on a lame prowl in the desert. What follows is a hilarious attempt by Francis to create tension and confusion, as he shows cops hunting down the wrong person (for 10 minutes!) and Johnson chasing two young boys that got lost in the wastelands. There's as good as no dialogue in the film, only Francis' own voice-over. And I guarantee you'll be wishing him dead after approximately 15 minutes. He talks the biggest nonsense (example: "Touch a button. Things happen. A scientist becomes a beast") and personally introduces you to even the most meaningless side-character! Argh, the humanity!! The spontaneously improvised ending (featuring Johnson kissing a baby rabbit) just stresses how ingeniously awful this production actually is. Oh well, at least it's bad in a fun way. Most of the time, you can't figure out whether to pity or worship everyone involved in this film. Johnson wisely decided to quit his acting career after this but Coleman Francis ambitiously persisted chasing his dreams and delivered the – even worse – film "Night Train to Munde Fino" in 1966. His cinema career regretfully ended with guest appearances where he got credited as "Fat drunk" or "1st man"… What a damn shame! Believe the public opinion on this one, folks! It really is awful

I had no idea when I started watching this movie what it was about but I was very well surprised by the extremely low quality of the movie.

It consists of no on screen dialog, a speaker-voice reads an pretensious load of crap as Tor Johnson staggers around as a confused Russian scientist harmed by a nuclear-test. Even if someone for some bizarre reason would WANT to make such an insane movie they would not have been able to come up with something like this.

Only a truly deranged mind could make such a movie. A genius in its own world of badness, competing with brilliant filmmakers like Ed Wood and others but Coleman Francis outnumbers them all!!

Coleman Francis. Gadzooks! When people talk about bad directors they always mention Ed Wood or Andy Milligan, some get as far as H.G. Lewis and real devotees of bad movies will mention Bill Rebane but no one, I mean NO ONE talks about Coleman Francis. Even among bad film afficionados he is a forgotten man. Could his movies be THAT bad? Well actually . . .YES! THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS is a movie people remember to-day because it was Tor Johnson's last theatrical film. This movie is the sort of thing drive-in owners lived for. Swedish Tor Johnson, former wrestling superheavyweight champion (in 1935) plays a Russian rocket scientist named Joseph Javorsky. He has defected to America to answer the question of how a flag has been mysteriously planted on the moon. Of course we never find out; in fact that potentially world shaking bit of information is forgotten about 10 minutes into the movie. Tor is chased by a couple of KGB agents into the desert. Notice how these 2 young, healthy guys run and run and run but cannot catch up to the 400lb ex-wrestler. Also notice how they shoot at him from all of 10 meters away and miss! They are all on a nuclear test site but nobody seems to care about that, until the bomb goes off of course. The atom bomb vaporises the 2 bad guys but Tor survives . . .sort of, and mutates into the mad "beast" whom 2 cops spend the rest of the movie tracking down. This picture is also memorable because it is silent. Yes, silent! The soundtrack was either lost or accidentally erased depending on who you talk to (I have heard the same story about THE CREEPING TERROR, 1965) and a narrator tells us what the characters are saying and in some cases even what they are thinking! Is this a classic? Gadzooks no. Is it fun? You bet! It is on video from several sources. Back in 1960 you could have seen this at the drive-in on a double bill with the ultra rare Japanese science fiction thriller SECRET OF THE TELEGIAN. Hmmmm. If I had been around back then that would deffinitely been worth 35cents of my money. Okay now let's talk about that other forgotten director, Joe Mascelli who did THE ATOMIC BRAIN (1965).

Hi, Everyone, You will enjoy this. The music is delightful as Tor Johnson dances into your heart. In some scenes Tor was too busy and could not do the scene so his stand-in, Joan Crawford, wore his snappy woolen pants and off white, short sleeve, expensive but subdued doctor's smock.

Two young kids are lost, they think. The dad is driving a 1950 Dodge. How could they not be lost? Wait... is that a cave? We'll be safe there. Oh no! Monster furniture in the cave! They do get to see a coyote who is a family pet of a lazy guy who charges them $3 for a tankful of gas and a new transmission. The other cars are a Valiant, about 1961, I guess. Those are the bad Russians driving that. The good U.S. Feds have a 1952 Ford two door station wagon. They have a chase scene in which neither car gets out of first gear.

A rabbit does the best acting in the movie. Watch for his scene. Tor is deft with his lines. Tor has always reminded me of Spencer Tracy. No, the rabbit reminds me of Spencer Tracy.

The script was probably one page. The hair dresser was apparently not available for the women in the desert scenes. Actually if you look at the credits, the good guy smartest deputy was the make-up artist. Larry Aten. How was he supposed to remember hairspray when he had to carry the rifle? I know, make-up is not the same as hair. Larry was also producing when he wasn't acting. I would guess that was most of the time he was on camera.

If you like good bad movies, this is one. You can talk to the screen throughout without missing any dialog. There are some pithy things said here and there you will want to write down. Watch it twice.

Other movies you might enjoy using with this for a double feature are, Bride of the Monster or Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! Maybe give the DVD player a break and watch Sound of Music while you imagine two lost kids drinking out of a dirty lake somewhere in the middle of a desert near Yucca Flats.

This movie is definitely worth watching if you get it cheap.

Tom Willett

Forget "Plan Nine from Outer Space" and "Bride of the Monster" this Coleman Francis calamity gives Tor Johnson the role of a lifetime. As a scientist turned atomic desert mutant, Tor gets to stumble over rocks, pet a bunny, and scare two ugly kids with a stick, all without a soundtrack! Arguably the worst film ever made.

Tor Johnson the famed Swedish Angel wrestler and member in good standing of the Ed Wood stock company stars as The Beast Of Yucca Flats. Tor wasn't always a beast, in fact he was a respected defecting Russian nuclear scientist whom the KGB tracked down to the Yucca Flats testing site. The Russians and the FBI shoot it out over possession of Tor, but a nuclear blast settles the issue.

It leaves the FBI and the Russians quite dead, but all Tor has is a nasty skin rash and a nastier disposition. He's now The Beast of Yucca Flats and the rest of the film involves law enforcement tracking him down after he commits a few murders. There's also a couple of stray kids lost on the desert and a suspenseful race to get them before The Beast Of Yucca Flats does.

I just saw another terrible science fiction flick in which the same voice-over technique was used masking the performances of the cast who I'm sure were giving Oscar quality performances. Probably just as well we didn't hear too much banal dialog, but the voice-over wasn't any better.

As for the cinematography most amateur film makers have done better with an old Belle&Howell.

I just finished reading a biography of Bela Lugosi in which Tor Johnson is described as a big, lovable, pussycat of a man. I feel kind of bad for him. His best work might well be in Mighty Joe Young where he was one of the wrestlers challenging the large simian in that tug of war. As for The Beast Of Yucca Flats, no Ed Wood product has anything on this film.

This film is really bad but I would like to point out two things which might redeem it somewhat. First, the many & varied techniques for avoiding lip synched sound are positively breath taking. Just because the production company could not afford a portable recorder doesn't mean they didn't know how to use one (if they could have afforded it). For anyone who has ever been stuck having to save a mis-shot scene the film is a goldmine of clever techniques for avoiding showing people's mouths when they speak a line. Second, this film was made very, very cheap. I would venture to guess that the negative cost was ninety percent or better of the budget with most of the rest for food & motel. Most of the actors were probably paid a token amount. Films like this were made for the second 'feature' on the drive in marquee. The drive in manager was looking for cost effectiveness & he knew his audience well. The couples were into 'heavy petting' by the time the second feature started. The guys in cars were passing around the beer their uncle bought them & loved to laugh & hoot at these films as much as we do today. In short this film was made to fit the rigid economics of it's time & purpose. It is fascinating to watch the film cleverly totter along the edge of coming apart into a melange of unrelated scenes. It never does. It maintains a shaky but believable continuity. This is not an accident. It relates to the core purpose of producing the product at the cheapest possible cost. The first scene is an exception to this. A strange, unrelated shower strangling. Confusing, but it sure does get your attention. I have come to believe that this scene is a cheap ripoff of Psycho which came out a year earlier. Both this scene & the soft porn shots of the sheriff's wife were tailor made for still promos & to slip by the censor. They even get away with a 54 minute run time.

This is where the Last Laugh comes in. This film made money in the most ruthless & cheap part of the film business in it's time frame; & it continues to make money today. Yes, people still buy or rent it to hoot at because it's so bad; Just like we did in the sixty's when it came out (re-named & re-released several times). This classic stinker may not be part of the "Art" of film but it sure is part of the business of film. The producer/director got both your money & the last laugh.

Ridiculous "non-movie" has little, if anything, going for it and survives as a curiosity piece only. Had to have played in the 4:00 AM slot at the "Dusk-to-Dawn" Drive-In show (if it played anywhere at all), and you know what everyone was doing by that time. So, who has seen it, apart from video junkies, like yours truly?

Tor Johnson (former wrestler known as "The Swedish Angel", whose thespic claim to fame was playing a mindless character named Lobo in films such as "Bride of the Monster","The Unearthly" and "Revenge of the Dead", plus other, equally witless parts) stumbles through this mess as "The Beast", a gentle Soviet scientist turned into a savage killer by exposure to an atomic blast. Suffice it to say, an actor he ain't. Then again, neither is anyone else in the cast. In fact, there isn't a professional of any type (unless "buffoon" is a profession) connected with this turkey. Best thing about the flick is it's less than an hour long (although it seems a lot longer).

Print available on DVD (from the "Wade Williams" collection) is excellent,though - crisp, clean; looks like new!! Rent or buy for your next slumber party.

This is hilarious rubbish. A Russian scientist is chased by some government agents into the Yucca Flats atomic test ground. An extremely lame gun battle ensues and this is quickly followed by an enormous nuclear blast. Luckily, the explosion does not appear to result in any radiation whatsoever. But it does set fire to a small briefcase. The Russian scientist, however, does turn into the Beast of Yucca Flats. He terrorises random unfortunates by chasing them extremely slowly and waving a big stick.

This movie is either thoroughly incompetent or the work of a crazed genius. It is impossible to tell. The most striking feature is the lack of real sound. The post production dubbing has to be seen to be believed. Coleman Francis, the auteur behind this movie, decided to shoot the movie in such a way as to avoid the need to dub the actors. Instead, dialogue is delivered either off-screen, with the head turned away from the camera or even with the shot framed so that the characters faces are not in shot. The effect is hypnotically rubbish. Bad in a quite fascinating way. It makes the film seem almost like an experimental work made by people with seriously little talent. Is Coleman Francis a hack or a misunderstood genius. You will really have to decide for yourselves.

Francis himself provides a deranged running commentary throughout the movie which ranges from stating what is blatantly obviously occurring on-screen, to comments about men pressing buttons and flags on the moon. Is it complete nonsense or does he know something we don't? The answer to this question may never be known.

Some people have stated that The Beast of Yucca Flats may be the worst movie ever made. I would guess, at the very least, these people have never witnessed Monster a-Go Go (1965). Beast is not the worst of the worst because there is simply too many funny moments in it - the dubbing, the commentary, the helicopter chase, the rabbit, the gun battle, Tor Johnson. And it has the good grace to be mercifully short - Battlefield Earth (2000) take note.

If you are in any way a serious student of terrible cinema then you simply have to witness The Beast of Yucca Flats. Nothing else is quite like it.

Where does one begin?? This could have been a decent little horror movie in capable hands,but remember,this is a Coleman Francis movie after all.What does the beginning of the movie have to do with the rest of the movie? A girl just got out of the shower and the title character starts choking her.She doesn't put up a struggle nor does she scream.The only sound is a ticking alarm clock and that's it..After that,we get a lot of silly narration("flag on the moon.how did it get there?" huh?),characters talking off screen and so on.A nuclear bomb goes off and Tor Johnson turns into the Beast,which he actually looks like he fell asleep in his oatmeal.Tor kills a man changing a flat on his VW and takes his wife(who he chokes in the backseat of the car)up in this cave.Some cops find the wife and carry her down,but then,in the next shot,you see the cops,but not the wife! How did a dead woman escape from 2 cops in the first place? Then,you have 2 boys wander off while their dad looks for them,while he's being shot at by one of the cops in the helicopter.How does the cop know that the father is the beast?? There's a scene stolen from North by Northwest when the cop is shooting at the father from the helicopter and the father is running like Cary Grant..what else??? The 2 boys hide in the Beast's cave,but escape when the Beast is sleeping..Bad script,bad directing,no acting involved by anyone and bad lighting...If you must see this,then I suggest the MST3K version.Trust me,you'll thank me later!!

**SPOILERS** Hulking 6 foot 4 inch 400 pound Tor Johnson as top Soviet scientist Joesph Joversky defecting to the US is caught by surprise, together with his two CIA contacts, by KGB agents as he's about to hand over a briefcase with top secret photos and information about a secret Soviet space landing on the Moon. Running for his life Big Joe runs right into a US Army atomic blast test in the deserted Yucca Flats, which vaporizes his KGB perusers, and the once kind and caring nuclear physicists is turned into a mindless and murderous kill crazy brute: The Beast of Yucca Flats.

With no soundtrack and a dull sanctimonious and soporific narration we get to see Big Joe lumbering through the desert and getting a hold of a vacationing couple. Big Joe ends up murdering the husband and for some strange reason takes his wife, whom he also strangled, along with him. Being perused by two highway patrolmen, Jim & Joe, Big Joe drops the dead woman in a cave and makes his getaway in the desert. We later see the Radcliff's Hank & Barbara and their two young boys Randy & Art taking a trip where they stop to get some gas. The two boys disappear and the frantic parents go out looking for them only to have Hank run down and shot, but not killed, by Jim from a plane who mistook him for the on the loose killer Big Joe.

Big Joe for his part runs into the two boys whom he chases into a cave and after losing them throws a tantrum, and a rock, sounding more like a baby wanting attention then a hulking murderous monster and then falls sound asleep. With Hank and the two boys now safe and back together with Barbara who was left stranded by the family car while all this was action was taking place. Jim & Joe track down Big Joe who after getting shot, and what seemed like falling to the ground dead, suddenly comes alive and grabs Jim in a choke hold where Jim's partner Joe puts a few more slugs into his massive body killing him.

A tragic ending for a kind sweet gentle and lovable man who was turned into a brutal beast and killing machine by those who used his work, in nuclear physics,in furthering the future of humanity for destructive not useful and life saving purposes.

The movie is done in all seriousness ,as if it were a message against the evils of atomic testing and man's inhumanity to man, comes across like a very badly made home movie with Tor Johnson looking more like like he had a bad case of sunburn instead of surviving the full blast of a nuclear explosion. Johnson chasing the two boys, Art & Andy, looked like he would fall on his head and crack his skull with him having trouble keeping his balance and the stick he was holding, and threatening the boys with, was more to keep him from falling then to whack Art & Andy who easily outran the big guy.

The very touching, sob sob, death scene with Johnson lying on the ground and a cute little rabbit coming to him as if he were offering it some goodies. We see Big Joe gently stroke and cuddled the cute little bunny which was obviously put into the film in order to show the audience that he wasn't really the bad guy that we thought that he was all throughout the movie. In reality Big Joe was a kindly and gentle giant who's brain was so badly damaged by the atomic blast that he couldn't control his actions and just really wasn't himself.

There was also a very strange, as if the movie wasn't strange enough, scene at the beginning of "The Beast of Yucca Flats" where a young emaciated looking women totally topless, unknown in movies monitored and certified for release by the prudish Hayes Commssion back in 1961, is suddenly attacked and, looking like she's totally oblivious and high on downers, strangled to death by what looked to be Big Joe! The strange and confusing scene seemed to have been put into the movie out of sequence by it's not too on the ball film editing department.

Pay no attention to previous posts. I was expecting nothing from this moving picture and was shocked by the creative trickery of its director, Coleman Francis. The opening is terrific: a woman, toweling off and briefly uncovered, moves from the bathroom into a sparsely furnished bedroom. A stuffed tiger rests at the foot of her bed. Symbolism,anyone. The soundtrack is quiet except for a ticking clock. In a matter of seconds a huge pair of hands strangles the life out of her. Too bad--she showed promise. Nonetheless, an impressive beginning. The subsequent musical cue over the rolling credits rattles the teeth and straightens the spine. The movie maker has some how fashioned a silent horror film, circa 1960, with two, count them, two special effects: a mushroom cloud and a burning briefcase. But there are more problems on the horizon: no dubbing, poor story navigation and a narration that seems to have been piped in from another dimension. Nevertheless, the movie has balls. The "Beast" is properly scary and ominous. The questionable police tactics are a hoot. Why does the fellow in the plane go out of his way to shoot an innocent man? The target of this trigger-happy lawman is a father searching for his lost boys. Maybe, as the negatives pile up, I should rethink my initial positive response. But I keep thinking back to the opening scene and what relation it had to rest of the film. My conclusion: the director must have pirated the footage from some discarded art film. Anyway, this movie might not be for everyone--but I dug it.

I gave this stuff 10 out of 10 stars.

I know - most viewers consider it *** crap. And they may well be right.

"flag on the moon - how did it get there." Under future consumer protection acts stuff like this should be banned or taxed 400%. ANYONE can come up with crap like this, and on you-tube, a lot people do. So the guy who made this was kind of the first you-tuber.

This crap movie has for some obscure reason entered the eternal quotation machinery of pop culture. Just like the worst politicians of history - the Bushies - folks must know the worst movies i.e. this.

flag on the moon, flying saucer quote - all complete rubbish. Real cinema lovers like nuclear engineers in Japan must know about worst case screw ups. This movie is the Fukushima of filmmaking.

The movie is not good - in fact it is pure junk. Yet there is something strangely entertaining about this film. IDK how a movie this junky can entertain so well but this movie can do that for certain viewers - including myself.

The movie is less than an hour long. In my opinion, what was missing was a longer movie to finish telling the story. The movie had the potential to be better and all it really needed was more time to complete the story because the story was incomplete.

There is something strangely good about this horrible film... maybe it is simply the fact it had the potential to be better than what it is. I liked the narration, the way the movie was filmed, the odd characters, and even the incomplete story.

If you are looking for a movie that is very odd and is a bad b-rated film that is somewhat entertaining then look no further than this campy flick.

7/10

Produced in 1961, the very first scene surprises: a topless woman is drying off after a shower and retires to her bed when a strange man appears and.... The scene is shot with quick cuts, and seems like a late insert into the film, since "Psycho" was released the prior year, and has nothing to do with the subsequent events. Later a hulking manbeast, exposed to radiation, kidnaps a fainting woman, and carries her around the desert for a long period of time, including hiding out in a cave. Another scene shows a sheriff summoned to locate the missing woman, leaving his wife in the house, featuring lingering shots of this attractive blonde in a silky nightgown, getting up and going back to bed. The sexual suggestiveness of these three scenes is undebatable, going as far as they can in 1961 to illustrate that theme. Some good location work offsets the silly, yet fascinating narration of this basically silent film. Cast of unknowns remained that way, save Tor Johnson as the titular fiend, inadequately made-up, famous for his Ed Wood roles. Another obscure horror picture that has found its way to DVD in a good black-and-white print with an interesting Cold War influence. Weird.