Retrospective: Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (1966)

[Jerry Saravia]

RAT PFINK A BOO BOO (1966)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: One star

In what is clearly an even funnier title than Ray Dennis Steckler's
most infamous film, "The Incredible Strange Creatures Who Stopped
Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies," "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo" has got to
be the most ridiculous piece of trash ever recorded on celluloid. It
is so amateurishly and shoddily made that you would swear it was a
parody, but the director has insisted that that was not the case from
the getgo.

The first few scenes have a 50's cheap melodrama vibe where we witness
an anonymous woman being pursued by three thieves out for a thrill.
One of the thieves carries a chain, another carries a hammer, and
another gives a wicked, nonstop laugh. They kill the girl, take her
purse, and that is about it. So far, it is silly but it has some
measure of momentum (though the perky musical score doesn't help
matters). Then we are shown what looks like documentary footage of a
rock singer named Lonnie Lord's (Vin Saxon), who signs autographs and
carries a guitar with him wherever he goes, in the hopes of playing
for anybody, anywhere, at anytime. This includes barbecues where the
chef wears an Oscar Myer apron! And on the beach where a full band
seems to perform when he sings, yet nobody is around for the
instrumentation we hear on the soundtrack (the whole film was post-
dubbed and it shows).

Moving along to the bare minimum of a story, Lonnie's girlfriend CB
Beaumont (Carolyn Brandt) is being harassed on the phone by someone
who calls three times, asks for her name, and then hangs up. Who is
it? It turns out it is one of those hooligans from the opening
sequence who are looking for a thrill and search her name randomly in
a phone book! In the next scene, she is kidnapped by those hooligans!
They hopefully had a stop in between at the Korova Milkbar.

Before things can get any worse, Lonnie and his girlfriend's gardener
partner team up and dress up in costume as Rat Phink and Boo Boo, a
carbon copy of Batman and Robin! I am serious! Apparently, director
Steckler didn't like the first 40 minutes of footage he shot, which
was supposed to be a gritty crime film, so he chose to make it into a
superhero film! Ouch! And we also get a Harold Lloyd lookalike and a
gorilla named Kogar played by Kogar! We also hear songs like "You Is a
Rat Fink" (my favorite) "Runnin' Wild," "I Stand Alone," and "Go Go
Party," which are the the only semi-dazzling highlights.

It isn' t that the film is bad as much as it has nothing to offer. At
least Steckler's first film, "The Incredible Strange Creatures, etc."
had a nervous energy and real style. This film looks to have been made
by eight-year-olds in their own backyard! Maybe that was the point but
there are funnier bad movies than this one.


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