MST3K #603: The Dead Talk Back

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #603: The Dead Talk Back (with short, The Selling Wizard).
Originally aired July 30, 1994.
Part of the eighth MST3K collection, still available at Amazon.

The episode starts out with a ten minute Anheiser-Busch film pitching various refrigerated cabinets, with a fairly dull narrator, and a woman presenter who is simply there for eye candy, and the narrator's borderline sexist remarks. Not the best MST3K short, but still a pretty good one.

The Dead Talk Back was filmed in 1957, and then shelved until 1993, when Sinister Cinema discovered it, and released it to video themselves. A scientist (Aldo Farnese, in his only role) is running experiments in talking to the dead while living in a rundown boarding house with an ecclectic group of characters. One gets murdered with a crossbow. The eccentric scientist ends up helping two pretty inept detectives find the killer, but the machines designed to talk to the deceased never do what they're intended to. Instead, they simply rely on the tried-and-true method of gathering everyone in the place in the labratory, and rambling on until the real killer finally confesses, seemingly out of boredom.

The host segments see a fire drill on the Satellite of Love, with everyone walking in circles since there's no way out of the place. The Mads experiment with "pinpoint marketing" by pitching Nelson Cigarettes, but despite the insistance of Crow, Mike Nelson does not immediately become a five pack a day smoker. After the bots host a call-in radio show where the dead do call in to talk, the gang impersonates the Grateful Dead, and Crow plays an endless solo that last through the rest of the host segments. Dr. Forrester later tries to interrogate Mike and company, but TV's Frank confesses instead.

Recommended. It's kind of a dull episode, thanks to the movie, and there are a few mastering errors on the DVD that could prove to be more than a little distracting.