Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

verbusen Awful film, but oh man what an awesome MST3K episode! This film is kind of in between a Coleman Francis film (Beast Of Yucca Flats the worst ever), and an Ed Wood film (Plan Nine from Outer Space the third worst ever), so it's to me, the second worst film ever made. Now I know, I know, there are worst films out there and yes I am sure they are out there, say a Space Mutiny, man that was bad and it had a load of actors in it. So let me say that in the context of late 50's early 60's films this is a really bad film. But, when you take THIS film and put it on MST3K a show in it's 6th season and really on a roll, this is an AWESOME EPISODE! The riffs in this one are laugh out funny, because there is just so much material to work with here. My only regret is they did not make any Sean Penn jokes because the main character in this junk looks a lot like him and even has his mannerisms! Maybe it was because Penn was still young in the 90's but if you watch this in the year 2014 you must admit, that guy is Sean Penn's earlier incarnation. Besides the riffs being overall great the bits in between are funny too! TV's Frank and Dr Forrester are great and the bit the gang did about the Grateful Dead had me laughing in stitches. Overall I hate when people rate a film like this a 10 straight up because it is pure garbage, but I understand they are entertained by horrible films and want to show their appreciation. But I think fair homage to a really bad unintentionally funny film is to rank it as low as possible so it really stands out to the community who are looking for such bad stuff so I am giving this film a lowest score available, 1. However as far as an MST3K episode goes this is one of their top 10% and I am giving it a 10! Enjoy, and break out the popcorn and dim the lights!

bensonmum2 It's almost impossible to find out anything about The Dead Talk Back. It was made in 1956 or 1957 (depending on which sources you're look at) and immediately shelved. As far as I can tell, it was never shown anywhere. I'm assuming that sometime around 1993, Sinister Cinema found the film and somehow procured the rights to it and released it on video. I assume 1993 because that's the year listed on IMDb for the movies release. Somehow The Dead Talk Back came to the attention of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and was included on their Season 6 schedule. That's about it as far as the story behind The Dead Talk Back. If it weren't for MST3K, I doubt this thing would have more than 5 votes on IMDb.As for the movie, it's mind-numbingly awful. It's dull, uneventful, and a total waste of time. The acting ranges from over-the-top to, well, no acting at all. The special effects look like they came from a 1950s Radio Shack equivalent clearance sale. The plot attempts to include elements of horror, drama, mystery, science fiction, and every other genre you can name and fails miserably at each. There's so little entertainment value in The Dead Talk Back that the MST3K crew seemed to have trouble with it. They just didn't seem as "inspired" and, as a result, this is one of the weaker episodes of MST3K I've seen.

summer1967lovechild I actually was very entertained by this campy late-50s film, as well as the MST3K version.** WARNING--MASSIVE SPOILERS** The plot: After an admittedly confusing (and pointless) opening sequence, we cut to a beatnik-like guy in what is obviously a basement laboratory. Beatnik-like guy gives us an entertainingly bizarre monologue about metaphysics and how he has a psychic ability to talk to the dead using a transistor radio. You can't help but notice a dead (or sleeping) woman laying down in the background.Seems beatnik-like guy (whose name we learn is Henry) lives in some kind of halfway house in Los Angeles with some other odd characters. We have a woman with two small sons (who strangely disappear about a quarter of the way through the movie), a blonde named Renee, a German guy named Krueger who has the hots for Renee, a handsome Bob Dylan-like guy who plays in a band, a shifty guy named Harold who doesn't talk much, a religious psycho who spouts out bible verses, a female friend of Renee, and the old woman caretaker of the halfway house.One night Renee is murdered with a crossbow (how many people were killed with bows and arrows in the '50s?? Then again, this is L.A. after all), and the rest of the film is dedicated to finding her killer. A smarmy cop narrates the film, profiling each character and their guilt-factor. A red-herring involves the possible guilt of a wormy smut photographer; meanwhile, Henry attempts to pinpoint the killer's identity via communicating with dead Renee and asking her. The film's climax involves a staged communication with Renee, and we learn that the killer is actually the cute Bob Dylan-lookalike (who was Renee's ex-husband).**END SPOILERS** I really enjoyed this film for its bizarre, off-the-wall flavor. Who could forget the surreal scene with the bongo players, for example? Who can resist the undeniable charm of our beatnik-like lead character? What about all the talk about metaphysics and transistor radios in what is essentially a detective story? I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys campiness.

lemon_magic How useless is this movie? Think Ed Wood, without the manic silliness and conviction. Think Coleman Francis without the Americana and the airplanes, but with better sound sync. Think 60's exploitation movies and biker films without the tits, wah-wah guitar licks, and goofy clothes and hair. More competently made than any of these examples, but less energetic or entertaining than all of them...to call this movie 'dreary' is an insult to 'dreary'.First of all,no one in this film can really 'act', and very few of the players are even able to "be themselves" on camera. The blond murder victim ("Renee") is especially bad in this respect - her line readings are so stiff and flat that you almost cheer when she gets a crossbow bolt in the neck 10 minutes into the film. And it's hard to say how bad Aldo Farnese really is because he plays such a self-important goof-ball in the film, and is given most of the really stupid lines.Secondly, the people who put this stale jawbreaker of a film together decided to have TWO different narrators - Krassner(Aldo) and the detective - describing the events of the movie, filling in back-story and supplying exposition. So we start out with metaphysical inventor Krassner greeting us and going on at some length about various bizarre concepts, only to have ANOTHER off camera voice-over cut in and start another plot thread (a police procedural/murder mystery) describing the events leading up to the murder of the blond bimbo. After another endless pile of exposition, the 2nd voice-over stops long enough to actually introduce himself as a police detective in charge of the case, but the camera doesn't actually cuts to a closeup of the actor. So structurally and narratively, this movie starts out completely hosed, and pretty much goes downhill from there.I shudder to think what kind of budget this movie had, or what kind of casting call they used to recruit the players. And I really hesitate to think what this poor bunch of saps were thinking while they were making this thing. The movie has the look of one of those projects where the minor actors never actually got paid. It also has the look of one of those homemade movies where the cast got together on weekends and holidays to shoot the group scenes, and the director settled for the first or second take he could get that had no actual goofs or botched lines. Bela Lugosi in the nadir of his life,in the worst throes of formaldehyde addiction, could have acted everyone here under the table.Special mention goes to the soundtrack, which sounds as if someone put a gun to the composer's head and forced him to cough up a turgid, lifeless, badly muffled 5 minute loop of trilling flutes and off kilter violins. I am not kidding when I suggest that the movie would have been better off with dead air in most of the scenes in place of this miasma of a soundtrack - all by itself, the music saps any sense of momentum and forward drive from the plot and the action. It's quite a remarkable accomplishment, really.Background info on this movie says that the producers and editors wisely decided that the original version of the film was better off never being released. This indicates at least SOME good judgment of someone involved with the movie. But one of the cult movie revival outfits got hold of TDTB some years ago, and decided to share it with us. Lucky us.MST3K brought this movie some notoriety when they savaged it during season six, and it was fertile ground for their brand of pop culture mayhem. If you can't get the MST version, don't bother with it unless you are absolutely STARVED for low-quality pulp from this era, or unless you just plain like this sort of thing. 2.5 stars out of 10 - half a star added for the attempt at a clever ending and HItchcock like final shot of 'The End' spelled out in spilled pencils.