RAT PFINK A BOO BOO
(director/writer: Ray Dennis Steckler; screenwriter: Ron Haydock (Vin Saxon); cinematographer: Ray Dennis Steckler; editors: Ray Dennis Steckler/Keith A. Wester; music: Henry Price; cast: Carolyn Brandt (Cee Bee Beaumont), Vin Saxon (Rat Pfink/Lonnie Lord), Titus Moede (Boo Boo/Titus Twimbly), George Caldwell (Linc), Mike Kannon (Hammer), James Bowie (Benjie), Dean Danger (Cowboy), Mary Jo Curtis (Irma La Streetwalker), Romeo Barrymore (Ape trainer), Bob Burns (Kogar); Runtime: 67; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Ray Dennis Steckler; Guilty Pleasures; 1966)
“The best thing about this film is its title.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Ray Dennis Steckler (“The Thrill Killers”/”Wild Guitar”/”Body Fever”) sure knows how to make lousy films. This one’s a beaut. It’s one of his best. You should see his others, if you doubt that this isn’t top of the line Steckler. This $5,000 budgeted home movie type of film is a sophomoric moronic spoof on Batman and Robin as crime fighters, made by an amateur with just about enough talent to at least make it appear somewhat as a commercial film (the quality of the photography is sound). The best thing about this film is its title, as the title maker left off by accident the nd in and. Rather than fix the problem for a slight charge, Steckler chose to leave it as is and that’s why the title reads Rat Pfink A Boo Boo.
When Hollywood dwelling Elvis-like rock singer Lonnie Lord’s (Vin Saxon) sexy girlfriend Cee Bee Beaumont (Carolyn Brandt, Steckler’s wife) is kidnapped by a thrill seeking gang of three loonies after her name is chosen at random from the phone book, the singer and Cee Bee’s rube gardener, Titus Twimbly (Titus Moede), don silly costumes of capes and masks to become crime fighters called respectively Rat Pfink and Boo Boo. The gang, one carrying a chain, another a hammer and one who can’t stop giggling in a menacing way, have demanded a $50,000 ransom that evening or else they will kill Cee Bee. The dynamic duo follow one of the gang members after leaving the money in a briefcase in the designated dumpster. Around twenty minutes of chasing after the baddies and fighting with them ensues, none of which is funny or pretty to look at. It ends with Cee Bee being rescued by Rat Pfink after she’s been carried off into an open field by Kogar, an escaped gorilla.
There’s no getting around it, this is a celebration in bad filmmaking; it should, I think, be a challenging watch for even those who relish really bad films. It also features Saxon singing some terrible rockabilly tunes like “Big Boss A-Go-Go-Party” and “Running Wild.”
REVIEWED ON 3/11/2008 GRADE: D