The Beast of Yucca Flats

Director: Coleman Francis

Overview

"The Beast of Yucca Flats was one of those movies that used to turn up on television stations in smaller cities to the north, like Bridgeport and Hartford, too far out of New York City to be picked up, but never on any New York stations -- thus, it was im

Product Details

Release Date:	09/05/2000
UPC:	0014381969627
Original Release:	1961
Rating:	NR
Source:	Image Entertainment
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[monaural]
Language:	English
Time:	0:54:00
Sales rank:	63,448

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Douglas Mellor	Hank Radcliffe
Barbara Francis	Lois Radcliffe
Bing Stafford	Jim Archer
Tor Johnson	Joseph Javorsky
Larry Aten	Joe Dobson
Linda Bielima	Wife on Vacation
John Morrison	KGB Passenger
Tony Cardoza	KGB Driver
Bob Labansat	Javorsky's Bodyguard
Jim Oliphant	Vacationing Husband
Eric Tomlin	Actor
Linda Beilema	Actor
George Prince	Actor
Alan Francis	Actor
Ronald Francis	Actor
Irwin Nafshun	Composer
Al Remington	Composer

Technical Credits

Coleman Francis

Anthony Cardoza	Producer
Roland Morin	Producer
Coleman Francis	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Side #1 --
0. Side #1 --
0. Chapter Listings
1. The Victim; Main Title [2:54]
2. The Blast [6:08]
3. The Beast [13:52]
4. The Radcliffes [10:49]
5. The Wrong Man [7:32]
6. The Lost Boys [3:23]
7. The Cave [2:57]
8. The Search Narrows [6:27]

Editorial Reviews

Coleman Francis's debut directorial/production/writing effort The Beast of Yucca Flats runs under an hour -- 53 minutes to be exact. But, oh, are those a long 53 minutes, especially if one is trapped in a theater watching it. Francis seems to have had a general idea for a story -- and not a terrible one -- and no talent at all for writing dialogue, directing actors, or working with a crew. The results is a delightfully, almost comically chaotic mess of a movie that feels a lot longer than its under-one-hour running time -- and not in a good way. The grotesque cheapness of the shooting and the overt amateurishness of the technique and technical values on display make this a movie almost an abuse of the audience -- but the shortcomings are so far over-the-line as to set a new standard for ineptitude; where Edward D. Wood, Jr., with whom Francis is frequently compared, would at least make mistakes within an explicable frame-work (that is, one usually could deduce what Wood was trying to do), Francis's movie is filled with impossible-to-explain dialogue, action, plotting, and directorial decisions. The result is that where watching a Wood movie like, say, Night of the Ghouls is akin to looking at a multiple car wreck in slow-motion, watching The Beast of Yucca Flats is closer to looking at an act of random natural disaster -- such as an avalanche -- in slow motion (very, very -- excruciatingly -- slow motion), with little but one's knowledge of natural law and physics to guide one's assumptions and expectations. And, assuming one has the patience, that, in itself, is a kind of achievement, if not the one that Francis was aiming for.

From the book reviews:

“The textbook is aimed as basic support for a graduate course in electromagnetism, which presents the mathematical formulation of important electromagnetic topics and integrates numerical simulation of certain phenomena for better qualitative and quantitative understanding. … This textbook provides a useful graduate-level introduction to mathematical models in electromagnetism. It is suited for students of applied mathematics, physics, or electrical engineering.” (Gunther Schmidt, zbMATH, Vol. 1304, 2015)

From the Publisher