Rat Pfink a Boo Boo

Despite the fact that I missed the first ten minutes of this movie, I was still downright amazed by the sheer absurdity of the plot and the Batman-like fight scenes. I'm not saying this was a bad movie. It was a great movie. It has a certain quality to it that many movies don't... it's an abomination, but you can't tear yourself away from it. The characters are both absurd and captivating at the same time. It's certainly pushing the envelope for the "bad but incredibly amusing" category. And as for the costumes... Boo Boo's hat deserves a review of its own.

I have to say, I popped "Rat Pfink" in the VCR last night after watching "Blade Runner" for the first time, and I found it a lot more entertaining and fun. Ray Dennis Steckler's bottom-drawer ripoff of "Batman" (it even owes a lot to Jerry Warren's "Wild World of Batwoman") is actually entertaining in that exclusive, so-bad-it's-good way, with cheesy homemade costumes (Rat Pfink looks like a burglar in his ski-mask) and an overlong fight sequence that takes place in what is probably the producer's backyard. The presence of the luminous Carolyn Brandt (Steckler's girlfriend) livens things up nicely; like another reviewer stated, she's not much of an actress, but she's certainly easy on the eyes. Unfortunately, like a lot of the director's other films, "Rat Pfink" is padded out to an insufferable degree, to the point where it almost put me to sleep (but maybe that's a compliment in itself).

5/10

If you've seen Ray Dennis Steckler's cult classic 'The Incredibly Strange Creatures...' and thought it was a silly, unbelievably bad mess, you haven't seen anything yet!! 'Rat Phink a Boo Boo' actually surpasses it! It is even sillier, more incoherent, cheaper and basically makes absolutely NO SENSE at all. At least '..Creatures..' had a semblance of a plot, 'Rat Phink..' doesn't even bother trying! The movie begins like a thriller with the kidnapping of a rock singer's girlfriend by some heavies then... well I won't spoil the experience for you! Let's just say things don't turn out QUITE like you might think...

This is one of the strangest low (and I mean LOW!) budget movies of the 1960s. Watching it is like watching a car crash. You know you should stop looking at some point but you just can't tear your eyes away!

Makes Ed Wood look like Sam Fuller.

RAT PFINK A BOO BOO (5 outta 5 stars)

I have been dreaming about seeing this movie ever since I heard it mentioned in an old issue of Castle of Frankenstein Magazine when I was like 10 years old. It never plays on TV, never ever made it to any repertory cinemas in my neck of the woods... and not even the more eclectic video stores around here ever carried it. God bless the amazingly fast growth of DVD technology which allowed me to finally *purchase* the movie for my very own at a ridiculously low price! Even so... after purchasing it, I was scared to watch it at first. After having dreamed about this movie for so long could it possibly live up to my expectations? Or would it be just another in a long list of disappointments? Well, I needn't have worried... this movie... as low-budget and cheesy and downright STRANGE it is... it is absolutely brilliant! Infused with incredible passion from the director and the cast... it transcends its monetary limitations and is wildly infectious in its creativity! Rat Pfink and Boo Boo, our two low-rent superheroes, are obviously inspired by Batman and Robin... but actually created and filmed BEFORE the popular 60s TV show! A bunch of psycho delinquents are terrorizing women... when they begin to pick on the girlfriend of rockabilly musician Lonnie Lord (secret identity of Rat Pfink) they cross the line and incur the wrath of our heroes! Genius filmmaking! Just imagine what director Ray Dennis Steckler could do with a budget!

I don't think I've ever laughed more in a movie theatre than the first time I saw "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies" (1963) at NYC's Thalia some years back, and have wanted to see Ray Dennis Steckler's legendary 1965 follow-up, "Rat Pfink A Boo Boo," ever since. And the good news is that, to my not-so-great surprise, this turns out to be an extremely entertaining short film in the superhero genre. Filmed on the supercheap for only $20 (as Steckler tells us in an excellent interview on this DVD)--although every penny of that is evident on screen--the picture tells a simple story, in which Cee Bee Beaumont, girlfriend of rock star Lonnie Lord, is tormented and kidnapped by a trio of thugs. Good thing that Lonnie is actually costumed crime fighter Rat Pfink, and that Cee Bee's doofus gardener is actually his cohort Boo Boo, who hop aboard their sidecar motorcycle to rescue her from the villains, as well as an escaped gorilla! The picture features remarkably fine photography and editing, and although there is no synchronized dialogue whatsoever, I was able to quickly adapt, especially when being thrilled by some very frenetic dukeouts and no less than four upbeat rock 'n' roll numbers. The varicolored tinting of the film only enhances the already impressive lensing, and, at a mere 65 minutes or so (not the 90 minutes widely stated), the movie never even begins to wear out its welcome. By turns amusing, suspenseful, exciting and ludicrously funny, "Rat Pfink A Boo Boo" is a worthy successor to filmdom's "first monster musical." And Steckler, in his lengthy interview, proves to be just as bright and funny as his films would lead one to believe. The man has a remarkable memory, and his articulate stories round out this DVD very nicely indeed.