The film's total budget was estimated at $34,000. Film historian Bill Warren stated "The AFI catalog says (the film) may have been reissued in 1964 as "Girl Madness " Īccording to producer Anthony Cardoza, 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. Extensive narration is used in lieu of plot points being conveyed through dialogue. 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. Likewise, during scenes in which firearms are used, the muzzles of the guns are usually out of shot when the weapons are fired. 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. Narration, voice-overs and some sound effects were added in post-production. The movie was filmed without a soundtrack. Actual shooting locations for the film were all in California: Santa Clarita (desert scenes), Saugus (airplane scenes) and Van Nuys (opening scene interior). In March 2009, Time identified the accident as one of the world's worst nuclear disasters. In 1970, nine years after the film was made, 86 workers were exposed to radiation during the Yucca Flat Baneberry Test. The setting for the film, "Yucca Flats," was based on the real-life Yucca Flat, which has been called "the most irradiated, nuclear-blasted spot on the face of the earth". Coleman Francis as Gas Station Attendant/Newspaper Patron.George Prince as Man Who Reports Murder.Anthony Cardoza as KGB Driver/Helpful Neighbor.Tor Johnson as Joseph Javorsky/The Beast.A jackrabbit later nuzzles his dying body, and using the last of his strength, he caresses it before dying. The officer opens fire with a high-powered rifle on the innocent man, who manages to escape.Įventually, the family is reunited and the police shoot and mortally wound 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. 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. Meanwhile, a vacationing family ventures along the same road. 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). 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. Javorsky flees into the desert, walking for a great distance, and the searing heat causes him to discard much of his clothing. Javorsky and his American contacts are suddenly attacked by a pair of KGB assassins (Cardoza and John Morrison) killing Javorsky's contacts and bodyguards. Later (or possibly before) in Yucca Flats, Nevada, 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. The film has very little dialogue and most of the speech is done by omniscient narration.Ī 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. The plot concerns a Soviet scientist named Joseph Jaworsky (Tor Johnson), who defects and flees to a Nevada Test Site called Yucca Flats, only to be turned into a mindless monster by atomic radiation, stalking the desert. ![]() Director Francis cast his two sons (Ronald and Alan Francis) in the film as the two lost boys. ![]() It starred Anthony Cardoza, Coleman Francis and Jim Oliphant in bit parts, as well as Conrad Brooks in a very small role. The film stars Swedish former wrestler Tor Johnson as "the Beast". It was produced by Anthony Cardoza, Roland Morin and Jim Oliphant. The Beast of Yucca Flats (released to television as Atomic Monster: The Beast of Yucca Flats) is a 1961 B-movie horror film written and directed by Coleman Francis.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |