Entertainment
 

The Dead Talk Back

From MST3K

603 - The Dead Talk Back
Air Date July 30, 1994
Movie Director Merle S. Gould
Year 1957
Cast Aldo Farnese
Short The Selling Wizard
Preceded by 602 - Invasion USA
Followed by 604 - Zombie Nightmare

Contents

The Short

The Selling Wizard

Synopsis

A boring promotional film for grocery-store freezer cases, brought to you by Anheuser-Busch.

Information

This short was included on Shorts Vol 3, released by Rhino Entertainment on VHS in January 2001, and on DVD in August 2004 as an limited time exclusive bonus for ordering MST3K: The Essentials from a specially created Rhino site.

The Movie

Synopsis

"Dragnet" meets "The X-files" in this "little butt of a film" from 1957.

Los Angeles. Night. An unidentified couple neck in a car, then bid each other goodbye. Someone tries to start a car, then a pair of disembodied arms fires a crossbow at a target off-screen.

A narrator informs us that what follows is based on a "true event from a psychic research file". We meet "Doctor" Henry Krasker (Aldo Farnese), a twenty-something private investigator and amateur inventor with a one-of-a-kind hair style and a fascination for the dark side.

Krasker demonstrates questionable inventions he has created in his risible low-tech basement laboratory. They include an "I'm not dead yet" alarm that can be activated from inside a casket and a preposterous-looking "radio" that may or may not be able to communicate with the dead. These devices will turn out to be critical to plot development.

Renee Caldwell is a not so young "Fleet Farm underwear" fashion model and a resident of the boarding house where Krasker lives. After the narrator announces that she is going to die within thirty minutes or so, we observe her final minutes of life - talking to her girlfriend, smoking, lounging on her bed, calling someone on the phone, speaking to other residents of the boarding house. In an effort to create suspense, the narrator periodically counts down her diminishing minutes of life. When she is murdered on schedule on her front porch with a curtain rod fired from a crossbow, the police begin an investigation to apprehend the unknown assailant. Henry has helped solved eight cases for the police before, so he becomes involved.

Two par-boiled detectives, "good cop" Lieutenant Lewis and "bad cop" Harry question the motley occupants of the boarding house. Among them are Mattling, a wild-eyed, unemployed pseudo-Scripture-spouting religious zealot, Raymond Millbrun, a suspicious acting radio dj who is "so not-from-San Francisco", Fritz Krueger, a swivel-eyed German immigrant with a prison record, a twice-divorced music shop clerk, the food-obsessed proprietor of the boarding house and her daughter, a woman with a tick on her face and others.

We observe several listless interrogations and behind-the-scenes slices of "gritty" police life that definitely increase the length of the film. The "excitement" mounts as the cops track down the nebbish owner of a shoe heel that was left at the scene of a crime. Is he the murderer?

Krasker proposes a scheme to unmask the killer. First, he dazzles the credulous dimbulb residents of the boarding house with some pathetic pseudo-scientific woo, then they all retreat to his lab for a melodramatic "seance" utilizing his "radio" in which he pleads with the spirit of dead girl, who is lying in a glass case in the lab, to identify her murderer.

Will the murderer be caught? And will the dead... "talk back"?

Features a daylight police foot chase across downtown LA, swimsuit models, cameos by Francis the talking mule and Liberace and just the right amount of bongo playing.

Information

  • The Dead Talk Back is a crime/mystery film that, while filmed in 1957, was not released until it was picked up by Sinister Media in 1993. [1]

The Episode

Host Segments

Prologue: Gypsy’s fire drill points up the fact that, in space, there’s nowhere to go when there’s a fire.

Segment One: Dr. F tries pinpoint marketing with Nelson cigarettes. Mike is not interested, but disturbingly everyone else is.

Segment Two: The Bots put on a radio talk show, "The Dead Talk Back". They communicate with the dead ("Abe from Illinois" and Winston Churchill). Much to Mike’s chagrin, the dead guys only want to chat about football.

Segment Three: Based on a loose association with the title of the film, Mike and the Bots are "The Dead". Crow starts an hour-long guitar solo a la Jerry Garcia.

Segment Four: Dr. F interrogates Frank, who proceeds to confess to everything, including killing that fat barkeep and eating all the Frusen Glädjé. Crow continues his guitar solo.

Segment Five: Crow is still playing the guitar. Gypsy starts another fire drill. Mike reads a letter midst the noise and chaos, ultimately screaming "Simon, Theodore, Allllllllviiiin!" Dr. F practices his archery skills - on Frank, of course.

Stinger: A woman screams after seeing Renee's dead body.

Other Notes

Miscellenea

Obscure References

  • "And don't forget Ed McMahon's Budweiser-flavored Ice Cream. Hayoooh! (hiccup)"

Ed McMahon was Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The drunkenly spoken style is a reference to the infamous show in which McMahon appeared on the show visibly drunk.

  • "...and then my wife came downstairs, and her face was split!"

An excerpt from Bill Cosby, Himself.

  • "Arnold Stang, fugitive."

A reference to the geeky character actor.

  • "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Dweeb!"

A reference to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

  • "Invisible army?! I don't see anything."

A reference to John F. MacArthur's book God's Invisible Army.

  • "Excuse me, do you know what evil lurks in the heart of men?"

A reference to Orson Welles' famed radio play version of The Shadow.

  • ("What is your real name?") Esther Hoffman Howard!

Esther Hoffman Howard is the name of Barbra Streisand's character in A Star is Born.

  • "Ignatz and Krazy Kat are calling!"

A reference to the early 20th-century comic strip Krazy Kat.

  • "The selling revolution will not be televised!"

Mike is paraphrasing the Black Power-era poet Gil Scott-Heron.

  • "Turn on your flood lights!"

A parody of the Neil Diamond song "Heartlight".

  • "You, Manute Bol!"

Manute Bol is a Sudanese-born basketball player known for his imposing height of 7'7".

  • "Not since 'Moonraker' has there been such an exciting opening sequence!"

Moonraker was a James Bond movie released in 1979.

  • "Oh, he's got a Heathkit!"

Heathkit was the brand name for a line of amateur radio equipment sold in disassembled kit form.

  • "...to be in the Cramps."

The Cramps are a psychobilly band with a mad posh for cross-dressing.

  • "Looks like Maggie the Cat!"

Elizabeth Taylor's character in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was known as Maggie the Cat.

  • "Oh look...'My Father the Hero' is out on video now!"

My Father the Hero was a comedy film starring Gérard Depardieu.

  • "Aw damn, I'm gonna miss 'The Commish'!"

The Commish was a TV series from the early 1990s.

  • "The Eyes of Kenneth Mars!"

A reference to both the 1978 horror film The Eyes of Laura Mars and actor Kenneth Mars

  • "Shoot that poison arrow through my hea-ea-eart!"

A quote from the 1980s pop song "Poison Arrow" by ABC.

  • "It's the Mary Jo Kopechne Memorial Bridge!"

In 1969, Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car accident involving Senator Ted Kennedy.

  • "Thom McAn!"

Thom McAn is a now-defunct chain of shoe stores, which were often found in shopping malls.

  • "The film seems to have taken a decidedly Jarmuschian turn!"

A reference to independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch.

  • "Used to be Ray MOR."

"MOR" is an abbreviation used in the radio industry for "middle of the road" music.

  • "Hey, Helmut Kohl's working the counter!"

Helmut Kohl was the chancellor of Germany (originally West Germany) from 1982 to 1998.

  • "Try to understand." "I'm a magic man!"

A reference to the Heart song "Magic Man".

  • "I'm an octoroon, you know."

"Octoroon" is an outdated term for people with partly black ancestry.

  • "Ah, Swisher Sweets!"

Swisher Sweets is a brand of cigars.

  • "I'd like to thank Edmund Scientific for their generous support for this project."

The Edmund Scientific Corporation sold laboratory supplies through mail-order catalogs.

  • "He caught her in a tryst with Aleister Crowley!"

Aleister Crowley was a famed British occultist of the early 20th century.

  • "Oh, so *there's* Bunny Lake!"

A reference to the 1965 thriller film Bunny Lake Is Missing.

  • "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret!"

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is a novel by Judy Blume.

  • "Yes another great Saul Bass title sequence!"

Graphic designer Saul Bass was famous for designing movie title sequences, which often incorporated highly stylized or abstract animation.

  • "Don't rot away, Renee!"

A parody of the song "Walk Away, Renee" by The Left Banke which made it to number five in 1966.

  • "Leni Riefenstahl's most powerful film."

Leni Riefenstahl directed the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will.

Video Release

Sources

  1. ↑ [1]


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