MST3K 603 - The Dead Talk Back

“	You, the ice cream manufacturer. Up against the wall! Spread 'em!	”
	- Crow

603 - The Dead Talk Back
Air/Release 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

The Short

The Selling Wizard

Synopsis

A 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 1957-shot, 1993-released murder puzzler.

The Hook: Los Angeles. Night. An unidentified couple neck in a car, then bid each other goodbye. Someone tries to start an automobile that has a bad muffler, then a pair of disembodied arms fires a crossbow at a target off-screen.

A narrator intones that what ensues is based on a "true event from a psychic research file". We meet "Doctor" Henry Krasker (Aldo Farnese), an amateur inventor and criminologist with a singular hair style and a fascination for the occult. At the outset, Krasker limns the premise of the movie and demonstrates and/or describes devices he has cobbled together in his low-tech basement lab. 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. They will turn out to be critical to plot advancement.

Renee Caldwell is a bored, not-so-young underwear model who resides at the boarding house where Krasker lives ("it's close to my lab", he explains). After the voiceover (identified as one of the investigating detectives) announces that she will perish within thirty minutes, we witness her final Earthly activities - talking to her girlfriend, smoking, lounging on her bed, chatting on the telephone. In an attempt to generate suspense, the narrator periodically quantitifies her diminishing minutes of existence. When she is murdered (on schedule) on the front porch, pierced by a curtain rod fired from a crossbow, the police launch an investigation to determine the identity of the assailant. Henry Krasker has helped solve eight cases for the police before, so once more he becomes involved in police affairs. (Plus, one of the cops knows Krasker's dad.)

Two par-boiled detectives, "good cop" Lieutenant Lewis and "bad cop" Harry cross-examine the diverse occupants of the boarding house. Among them are Christopher Mattling, an emotionally labile, jobless, judgmental Scripture-quoting unsuccessful writer and lecturer; Raymond Millbrun, a suspicious-acting radio DJ with wealthy parents; Fritz "I don't kill nobody!" Krueger, a shifty-eyed German immigrant who served three years for "bothering a girl"; Younger, a twice-divorced music shop clerk whose marriages lasted less than three weeks and who may or may not consort with bongo players; and the comestibles-obsessed proprietor of the boarding house, her daughter and two incorrigible grandsons (the Greek chorus).

We observe several listless interrogations and behind-the-scenes slices of "gritty" police life. At a sandwich counter, one of the cops wearily bemoans how the police are hamstrung by Constitutional restrictions on the assumption of guilt based on the disposal of footwear. The authorities track down Tony Patini, a photographer and source of a shoe heel that was left at the scene. When they accost him at his place of business, he flees the interview.

Under the aegis of the police, Krasker calls a meeting. FIrst he dazzles the residents of the boarding house with some pseudo-scientific nonsense, then they all retreat to his lab for a melodramatic "seance" utilizing his "radio"  in which he pleads with the spirit of the dead girl, whose body is lying in an aquarium in the lab, to name her murderer.

No psychics are involved and Krasker postulates that there is a form of electromagnetic radiation ("foxglow") which will serve as the basis for contacting the other world. So, the movie tries to have it both ways - both science and paranormal.

Features a broad-daylight police foot chase across downtown LA, swimsuit models, cameos by a Liberace-lookalike (Renee's friend since boyhood) and Frances the talking mule, and just the right amount of bongo playing.

The Episode

Host Segments

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

Segment One: Dr. F attempts a pinpoint marketing campaign 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, and doesn't even pay attention to the interruption of Movie Sign until Mike grabs him to haul his skinny butt into the theater.

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

Miscelleneous

• Unusual credits: Crow's guitar solo continues instead of "Mighty Science Theater" starting up.
• The concept of fire drills and emergencies aboard the SOL would be revisited in one of the promos the Brains did for the American Red Cross during season six.
• Winston Churchill turned out to be correct - the Buffalo Bills have not returned to the Super Bowl since 1993, and Jim Kelly never earned a championship ring.

Obscure References

• "EEeeeeeEEEEEEEeeeeeEEeeeeeee..."

Mike and the Bots imitate the haunting choir surrounding 'The Monolith' from '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The silhouette of the ice cream cabinet resembles it.

• "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!"

Arnold Stang (1918-2009) was an American character actor.

• "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Dweeb!"

Allusion 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.

• "Esther Hoffman Howard!"

Esther Hoffman Howard was the name of Barbra Streisand's character in the 1976 version of 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 was a Sudanese-born basketball player known for his 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.

• "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 thriller 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 heater never works in this thing..."

​Due to a combination of spartan design and basic physics, Volkswagen Beetles had notoriously bad heaters.

• "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.

• "Wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean?"

​A reference to a Monty Python sketch called Nudge Nudge .

• "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 sells 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 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 and posters, which often incorporated highly stylized or abstract animation.

• "Don't rot away, Renee!"

A paraphrase 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 is best known for directing the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will.

Video Release

• Commercially released on DVD by Rhino in November 2005 as part of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume 8, a 4-DVD set with Hobgoblins, The Phantom Planet, and Monster A-Go Go.

preceded by: Season 5		MST3K Season 6					followed by: Season 7
		1994 - 1995
601	Girls Town	1994-07-16	609	The Skydivers	1994-08-27	617	The Sword and the Dragon	1994-12-03
602	Invasion USA	1994-07-23	610	The Violent Years	1994-10-08	618	High School Big Shot	1994-12-10
603	The Dead Talk Back	1994-07-30	611	Last of the Wild Horses	1994-10-15	619	Red Zone Cuba	1994-12-17
604	Zombie Nightmare	1994-11-24	612	The Starfighters	1994-10-29	620	Danger!! Death Ray	1995-01-07
605	Colossus and the Headhunters	1994-08-20	613	The Sinister Urge	1994-11-05	621	The Beast of Yucca Flats	1995-01-21
606	The Creeping Terror	1994-09-17	614	San Francisco International	1994-11-19	622	Angels Revenge	1995-03-11
607	Bloodlust	1994-09-03	615	Kitten with a Whip	1994-11-23	623	The Amazing Transparent Man	1995-03-18
608	Code Name: Diamond Head	1994-10-01	616	Racket Girls	1994-11-26	624	Samson vs. the Vampire Women	1995-03-25