OVERLOOKED MOVIE: THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS (1961)

 Let us sinbg the praises of Tor Johnson, the bald-pated, bullet-headed,thickly accented, bulky villain of so many bad movies.  The Swedish-born Johnson (1903-1971) was a professional wrestle and most of his early acting roles wereuncredited as a "strongman" or "wrestler," often as a villain.  He had a small parts in The Lemon Drop Kid, Angels in the Outfield, The Canterville Ghost, Shadow of the Thin Man, Ghost Catchers, The Road to Rio, and Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion.  In Mighty Joe Young, he was one of the hulking strongmen (along with Primo Carnera, Ivan Rasputin, Man Mountain Dean, Sammy Stein, Sammy Menacker, Henry Kulky, "Killer" Davis, and "Wee Willie" Davis) to vie their strength against the giant ape, and lose.  Audiences were well familiar with Johnson, although mjost did not know his name.

Later in his career, he appeared in several (very) low-budget movies from Edward D. Wood, Jr. -- Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls,  and, most notoriously, Plan 9 from Outer Space.  He revived his character from Bride of the Monster in 1957's The Unearthly.  His featured "guest starring" role in The Beast of Yucca Flats reportedly killed off his movie career.  He continued, howe3ver, to make appearances on scripted and unscripted television shows, as well as a few commercials.  He gained some notoriety in the 1990s when a comic book, Tor Loves Betty appeared -- the Betty being Betty Page; both Tor and betty remain cult icons to this day, although not necessarily together.

By all accounts, Tor Johnson belied his public persona by being a kind, gentle, gracious, and learned man.  He became very good friends with Bela Lugosi and reportedly once talked him out of committing suicide.   HGe had a strong and heal;thy marriage to a woman who was noted for providing magnifient meals for their guests.

The Beast of Yucca Flats.. how does one describe how bad it was?   First off, the film budget was around $34,000.  to avoid extensive editing work, the film was shot without sound.  A long and boring narration was added post-production, as was the speaking parts; actors would turn from the camer when their voices were dubbed, and they would cover their mouth when they were suposedly shouting.   Both sound efects and cheesy music were added in post.  Producer Anthony Cardoza was a good friend of Ed Wood, and Wood lived in an apartment on Yucca Street,  often referred to as "Yucca Flats" -- guess where the title of this flick came from?  The film was sort -- less than an hour -- but had enopugh plot holes to fill a year's worth of films from a m jor studio.

We begin with a young girl going to bed.  Most copies of the film cut out the shot of her bare breasts, but not this one -- I apologize for that, possibly more so for the fact that it not erotic than for the fact that it is there..  Hands come out of nowhere and strangle her.  Why? Who?  It couldn't be the Beast because the film later establishes that he was nowhere near where the killing took place.  (It's times like there that you really need someone handling continuity.)

As could be expected, The Beast of Yucca Flats got an amazing reception by the MST3K gang.

Tor plays noted scientist Joseph Javorsky, who has escaped from behind the Iron Curtain after his wife and children were killed in Hungary.  He carries with him secret data on the Russian moon shot, and is to meet "top brass" at the A-Bomb testing ground in Yucca Flats.  The Kremlin has sent two of their -- **ahen** -- "most dangerous" agents to kill Tor and regain the secret data.  There is a laughable shoot-out.

After much film silliness, Tor gets exposed to nuclear radiation, turning him into the Beast, whoi is basically Tor because heavy makeup would have been too expensive.  Tor manages to kill a young coule who were dumb enough not to realize he was there.  Then he comes across a father changing a tire while his two bnoys are running around, playing.  Tor chases the boys.  Some lawmen show up and begin shooting, first the tire-chaging father (oops!) and then Tor.  As Tor dies a rabbit hops up and nuzzles the dying Swedish Hungarian.  The rabbit's role, by the way, was not scripted -- it just happened to be there, and the director kept it in the film.  Good thing, because the rabbit had the best part in the movie.

This was writer/director Coleman Francis's first film.  He went on to write and direct two additional movies, Red Zone Cuba and The Skydivers -- both of thoe films also got the MST3K treatment.   He was also an actor; IMDb list 39 credits (many uncredited) but he appeared in such films as Motorpsycho! and The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters.  His acting ability can be summed up by noting that he provided the narration to The Beast of Yucca Flats.

Tor is the only name in the cast that I recognize, although a number of them were evidently Ed Wood cohorts.

My feeling is that, if you start the new year off with a movie such as this, 2024 can only get better.

Here it is, complete with foreign subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ96wcqAf08

And, to cleanse your palate, here is the MST3K version (preceded by a short educational film about money and a brief plug from the Economic Devlopemt Administration of Puerto Rico):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOBI-wiisG4