The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

"Feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs.", 18 October 2007

Yucca – the perfect word to describe the experience that is The Beast of Yucca Flats. As I sit writing this, I cannot think of a single instance where The Beast of Yucca Flats is either entertaining or interesting and I cannot think of a single frame of film that looks as if someone with a shred of movie-making talent filmed it. I cannot understand how Coleman Francis found the funding to make these monstrosities he churned out in the 60s. As far as I'm concerned, Francis has to be in the conversation of worst directors of all-time. His movies are junk. Actually, calling The Beast of Yucca Flats a movie does a disservice to the definition. It's little more than a series of seemingly ugly, random shots of random people with the thinnest of plot threads imaginable holding it all together. The movie's too cheap to include on-screen dialogue. Everything is done either off-screen or through a voice over narration. And what narration it is! It's as random as the images on screen.

"Flag on the moon. How did it get there?"

"Nothing bothers some people, not even flying saucers."

"Twenty hours without rest and still no enemy."

Huh? Did I miss something? What's that gibberish got to do with anything? As bad as Francis was as a director, he may have been even more offensive as a writer.

Call me a masochist, but I have now seen The Beast of Yucca Flats three times. Fortunately for me, I watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version this time. Whether it's The Beast of Yucca Flats, Red Zone Cuba, or The Skydivers, the guys and gals on MST3K did some of their best and funniest work with the Coleman Francis directed movies. Hysterical stuff and worth a 4/5 on my MST3K rating scale.

1/10