The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961) or, The Mad Doctor Javorsky!

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A long list of names are listed in the service of selling Coleman Francis' The Beast of Yucca Flats on this poster

 

Soviet scientist, Joseph Javorsky, who may be a murderer, (but probably isn't), is on the run in Yucca Flats with a briefcase of military secrets. Hunted by the KGB, he wanders into an American nuclear test site and the radiation alters him into a killing beast! He must be stopped!!!

 
The Beast of Yucca Flats is written, co-produced, directed and co-edited by debuting Coleman Francis (Red Zone Cuba (1966)). It is an extremely poorly put together nuclear scare low-budget indie. It starts with a nude murder scene that doesn't really have any relation to the rest of the film. There's not much dialogue, and what there is gets said by faces unseen, - to make the dubbing easier. Guns also fire off-screen for the same reason. People get shot and are then OK in following shots. And the main dramatic action is either laid in the hands of the exerted, foreign giant, who heaves his way around the dessert landscape, or the narrator, who informs us whenever there is a plot point in the story, and is pretty much there to mysteriously guide us through the entire movie. Another bad indication is that Francis did the narration himself.
The Beast of Yucca Flats is infamous as one of the worst films of all time, and it certainly is almost unbelievably bad.
The film stars Swedish wrestler turned strong man and then monster actor, Tor Johnson (Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)) as staggering nuclear monster Javorsky. The one heart that the film gets here is for Johnson and for the still entertaining bad movie value that the outrageous narration and lines lend to the film. Here's a rather long list of ludicrous lines from it, (but which of these could I really with any justification have left out?...)

 
Narrator: A man runs, someone shoots at him

Narrator: Flag on the moon. How did it get there?

Narrator: Boys from the city. Not yet caught by the whirlwind of Progress. Feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs.

Narrator: Touch a button. Things happen. A scientist becomes a beast.

[after one of the Beast's victims dies:]
Joe Dobson: Well, doctors can't help her. Maybe angels, but not doctors.

[last lines:]
Narrator: Joseph Javorski. Noted scientist.
 

And as for the Swedish-born beast star, here's a collection of some of the many humorous faces of our good pal Johnson:

 

 

 

 

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 34k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain

[The Beast of Yucca Flats was released 2 May (USA) and runs 54 minutes. Shooting took place in 1959 in California, including in Los Angeles. Details on the film's theatrical earnings or scope are regrettably not to be found online. Francis returned with The Skydivers (1963). Johnson returned in The Dick Powell Theatre (1961, TV-series) and theatrically in Head (1968). 12k+ IMDb users have given The Beast of Yucca Flats a 1.8/10 average rating.]

 
 
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