The Dead Talk Back
The Dead Talk Back is a crime/mystery horror film that, while filmed in 1957, was never shown theatrically anywhere until it was unearthed in a warehouse find and distributed on video by Sinister Cinema in 1993. It was featured in a 1994 episode of movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The Dead Talk Back was directed by Merle S. Gould and stars Aldo Farnese.
Synopsis
Scientist Henry Krasker (Farnese) experiments in speaking with the dead from the afterlife. He also is an occasional consultant to the Los Angeles Police Department and has solved numerous cases through extraordinary means. He lives in a rooming house that's convenient to his laboratory and is inhabited by a motley crew of less than reputable people.
After one of his rooming housemates, Renee Coliveil (Laura Brock), is murdered with a crossbow, Los Angeles police detectives Lieutenant Lewis (Scott Douglas) and Harry (Earl Sands) enlist Krasker to aid them in apprehending the suspect, who they believe lives at the same rooming house.
After an extensive investigation of the rooming house residents, Krasker devises a plan to draw out the killer. After calling a meeting of the rooming house residents Krasker brings Renee back from the dead, leading Raymond Millbrun (Myron Natwick), a DJ from San Francisco with wealthy parents, to cry out that he knew he didn't kill her.
However, it turns out to be a ruse: Krasker did not bring Renee back from the dead; he merely staged it in the belief that the actual killer would confess. Raymond had secretly married Renee in Mexico and she had been blackmailing him into silence for fear his parents would cut him out of their will.
With the killer in custody, the narrator (Lieutenant Lewis) muses over whether man will ever actually be able to contact the dead and wishes Krasker well in his experiments.
DVD releases
- The MST3K version of the film was released by Rhino Home Video as part of the Collection, Volume 8 DVD set.