Rat Pfink and Boo Boo (1966) User Reviews

sheer stupidity (and I mean that as a compliment)

[Jonny_Numb · 5/10 · 22 October 2003]

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

Fight crime!

[JohnSeal · 5/10 · 29 March 2008]

Ray Dennis Steckler usually gets lumped together with Ed Wood in the pantheon of legendary 'bad directors'. That's unfortunate and unfair, because at his best Steckler is a talented and unique stylist. His best film, The Thrill Killers, is a taut melodrama set in the remote canyons of Los Angeles County, but for pure, unadulterated cinema nuttiness, Rat Pfink A Boo Boo is the one to see. It's a film of two parts: the first half is a heady blend of elements lifted from New York-lensed roughies such as The Defilers, Godard's Breathless, and every rock n roll movie of the late 50s, whilst the second half is a slapstick comedy influenced in equal measure by Batman and Beach Party. The film looks great: Steckler knows how to frame and light a shot, though he's less adept with action sequences, and the hyper-reality of the Los Angeles locations are effectively contrasted with the sur-reality of the comic sequences. It's also a well-paced 67 minutes, and Steckler effectively keeps your interest by constantly stirring new and unexpected ingredients into the pot. The cast are terrific: Carolyn Brandt is gorgeous as lady in distress Cee Bee Beaumont (who keeps a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X by her telephone!), Titus Moede does the best Royal Dano imitation you'll ever see as Titus/Boo Boo, and real-life rocker Ron Haydock makes for a convincing Lonnie Lord/Rat Pfink, who, we are told, has sold an astounding ten million records to his adoring fans. It's no one's idea of Great Cinema, but Rat Pfink A Boo Boo is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of outsider art.

Friends of the friendless! Defenders of the defenseless! And Enemies of the lawless!

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 10 March 2008]

(Mild Spoilers) Underground crime fighting dynamic duel Rat Pfink and his sidekick Boo Boo were obviously styled after Batman & Robin but came across as two bumbling buffoons who you would wish were on the outer side of the law.

As rock & Roll singer Lonnie Lord and slow witted gardener Titus Twimby the two crime fighters had the perfect front in keeping their secret identifies from the public. It's when they went into action that they showed just how ridicules and off-the-wall that they really were. Dressed in these modified and souped up, with electric light blinking on and off, long-Jhons you have to look long and hard to find any other comical movie crime fighters to even come close to them in having you laugh your head off.

The two crime fighters adversaries in the movie is this trio of nut-cases whom we've seen earlier in the film attack and rob poor and helpless Irma La Streetwalker. The infamous trio is made up of the psycho-looking Link and his his hammer swinging partner Hammer with Benjie making up the trifecta. Benjie who's always giggling, even when he's getting clobbered by Rat Pfink & Bo Boo, seems to have trouble keeping a straight face and being serious throughout the film. It shows that Benjie at least, unlike everyone else in the cast, realized just how off-the-wall the film "Rat Pfink & Boo Boo" really was. It may have been that Benjie was also the only member of the cast that wasn't either drunk or on mind altering drugs like LSD.

Rat Pfink and Boo Boo get their chance to go into action when Link Hammer & Benjie kidnap Rat Pfink's girlfriend Cee Bee. Desperately needing quick cash to have a night of hot action the evil trio want $50,000.00 from Cee Bee's boyfriend Lonnie, who's secretly Rat Pfink, or else he'll never see her again. Cee Bee, or Carolyn Brandt who plays her, for her part is so unconcerned to what's happening to her you wonder why the three even bothered to kidnap Cee Bee in the first place?

As an added treat we also get both Konga the ape and his trainer Romeo involved in the, what turns out to be the best part in the film, chase that has both Rat Pfink and Boo Boo catch and bring the three villains, Link Hammer & Benjie, to justice. Cee Bee who having escaped from her kidnappers has to then contend with the hot blooded ape Konga who's got the hot's for her. It's Konga's friend and trainer Romeo who saves Cee bee from a fate worst then death by getting, which both Rat Pfink & Boo Boo couldn't, Konga to desist from his wild animal jungle instincts by throwing him, off camera, a stack of ripe bananas.

P.S Actor Ron Haydock, who played Rat Pfink/Lonnie Lord, was also a rock and roll song writer and singer who in real life was tragically killed on August 14, 1977 when he was hit by a truck while he was hitch-hiking. Haydock died just two days before his long time idol the "King of Rock and Roll" 43 year-old Elvis Presley suddenly died of a massive heart-attack at his Graceland Estate in Memphis Tenn.

It blew my mind...

[macb3th · 24 December 1999]

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.

"Fight Crime, Boo-Boo!!" :

[MooCowMo · 1/10 · 30 September 1999]

Proof positive that terrible "B" moovies are sometimes moore fun than mainstream Hollywood films! : Shot on less than a shoe-string budget, and padded out with stock footage from Steckler's own bottomless home-movie vaults, Rat Pfink A(nd) Boo Boo is a horrible little gem of a moovie, and a great parody of the original Batman tv series. Sexy Carolyn Brandt (Steckler's wife) is terrorized by 3 sadistic creeps who walk around with bits from a hardware store. Titus, her Okie gardener, is too dumb to help, and her famous rock-n-roll boyfriend, Lonnie Lord, can only sing rock-a-billy tunes. Enter Rat Pfink(Lord) and Boo Boo (Titus), two poorly costumed chaps who have no super abilities whatsoever. Boo Boo's costume includes a couple of red Christmas tree lights. Rat Pfink wears a dark ski mask. They chase the bad guys, spouting such lines as "Fight Crime!" and "Crime's A-foot!", from a motorcycle & sidecar. The image of these two cheaply bedecked idiots rolling thru the suburbs will make your sides split. The film features lots of fisticuffs, rockin' rock-a-billy tunes, the snuggly charms of the lovely Ms. Carolyn Brandt, and a "special appearance" by Kogar the Gorilla! What moore cud you want??

:

As everyone knows, the guy at the film lab blew the title, which was supposed to be Rat Pfink And Boo Boo, and Steckler didn't have the moolah, nor the desire, to get it fixed. This frisky little gobbler is a million times moore fun than the latest Jerry Bruckheimer multi-million dollar schlock-fest, so the MooCow says buy it, rent it, beg, borrow, or steal it, but add this moovie to yer cowlection now!! :=8)

Grown up adults made this?

[rosscinema · 5/10 · 30 December 2002]

What can you say about this infamous mess? Steckler had a strange sense of humor but he was smart enough to keep putting Carolyn Brandt in his films. Brandt couldn't act much but she was a hot piece of ass and was always sexy in her roles. The dubbing is especially bad as there was no microphone during filming so all dialogue and sound effects were put in later like the sound of a toilet flushing when they tried to start the motorcycle! Rat Pfink's voice sounds like a drunk Bullwinkle or Yogi Bear. You know your in for a cheap movie when it has a narrator for no reason at all. The fight scenes are phony and what was up with having a gorilla in the film? The gorilla handler was a real strange guy, he sounded real gay and had a big round butt. Why was Rat Pfink always pointing his finger when they rode in the motorcycle? And Boo-Boo cannot fight to save his life. And when the thugs wanted to get money all they did was make crank calls to Brandt before they kidnapped her. Why? Movies that are this low budget and inept are interesting to watch and I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I wasn't entertained by this nonsense. Good shots of Hollywood in the mid sixties. If you love really bad films than you have to see this one!

"We only have one weakness, Boo Boo" "What's that?" "Bullets!"

[djskein · 5/10 · 27 June 2011]

Rat Pfink A Boo Boo is a hard title to review properly. It's a film I give one star in terms of actual filmmaking, whether it be acting, writing, editing or even making any coherent sense. But I give it a very wholesome five stars for effort and enthusiasm. It's a bomb and a turkey and it clearly knows it and never takes itself seriously so despite being a terribly made film, it's also a hell of a lot of fun.

What I consider to be THE definition of a real cult movie, Rat Pfink A Boo Boo was originally meant to be a straight-faced suspense/thriller involving a gang of thugs stalking voluptuous women in dark alleys. However, the movie's creator, Ray Dennis Steckler, one of my favorite role models in directing, got quickly bored with that idea and, after viewing the incomplete footage, saw how campy and B-grade the idea was and decided to do something completely different instead.

The film starts off for the first 30 minutes as a poorly made and unconvincing suspense movie intercut with scenes of a famous surf rock singer, Lonnie Lane, singing generic go-go dancing songs that bear no relevance to what's going on. For now. There's also a brief cameo by a gardener who does the best MST3K stinger line never riffed in a very badly acted scene with the thugs. Anyway, turns out the gal these thugs are stalking to rob is none other than Lonnie Lane's girlfriend and after the thugs beat up Lonnie and the gardener and hold Lonnie's gal, Cee Bee Beaumont, for ransom, it's from this point the film starts to get a little strange.

Lonnie is furious and he wants revenge for these no-good punks so he and the gardener go inside a room and emerge as Rat Pfink and Boo Boo in what has to be the most cheaply made and pathetic ideas for superhero costumes ever conceived. It's from this point forwards that the film ceases to take itself seriously anymore and turns into a nonsensical riot that involves a fight scene that looks like it was shot on a $2 video camera in a random stranger's backyard, a gorilla escaping from the City zoo and wreaking havoc on Rat Pfink and Boo Boo and a street parade held in Rat Pfink's honor for "saving the day".

It really is an astonishingly bizarre film and a true absurdity in filmmaking but I admire the reckless spirit the film has throughout. A brief intro on the official DVD by Ray Dennis Steckler shows his indomitable spirit and enthusiasm in making this film, knowing although the film itself was terrible, was only in it purely for loving the art of making films. It's a bad excuse in actual talent in filmmaking, with incredibly corny lines delivered wooden with flat emotion and extreme glare reflecting of the camera lens in some very poorly lit cinematography during driving scenes but it truly needs to be seen to be believed. An essential oddity in cult cinema and a virtually unheard of camp classic.

A must-see

[Torgo_Approves · 1/10 · 30 July 2007]

Not because it's good or entertaining or thought-provoking (although it did make me think of several better ways to spend an hour, like staring at the ceiling, eating cat food, donating my lower intestines to starving children, shaving my feet), but because it truly has to be seen to be believed. No, I'm not talking about my "little friend", you sicko, I'm talking about Ray Dennis Steckler's amazing parody-of-a-satire-of-a-real-movie from 1966, "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo". Being the film in which the first 40 minutes consist of a bad guy with more teeth than Julia Roberts stalking a woman for what seems like hours before just ditching her at the supermarket, and a dance number (you gotta dig those rhythm-y blues, momma! Or whatever). Then the film inexplicably (and quite amusingly) decides to transform best-selling rock singer (his fans in town reaching the impressive number of three) and nondescript leading man Lonnie Lord into the stiff-armed superhero Rat Pfink. Improvisational (and it shows!) action scenes, a man in a gorilla suit and his ambiguously gay owner (who keeps him in a leash and wears his pants too high), and a car chase that looks like a more action-packed, prolonged version of the opening scene of 'Manos' ensue.

It's the kind of film where everything ends in a big dance number. It's the kind of film where the hero's sidekick has little blinking lamps on sticks on his head. It's the kind of film where the director waits until there's a real parade in town and just has his actors ride a bike in front of the parade, pretending to be the subjects of celebration, so the director won't have to hire extras. It's the kind of film that never really ends, because it never really begins. It's the kind of film that was so important to its creator that two missing letters in the title weren't such a big deal. See Rat Pfink ride a motorcycle with his arm stretched out for what seems like two hours. See what drugs and laziness can do to a director's mind. See a gorilla that sounds like a pig. See the best effects a movie with the production values of "El Mariachi" from the sixties has to offer. See the bad guy recite one of the most impressive "we gotta do something" monologues ever written.

Or better yet, don't. I should've trusted my gut and spent an hour watching TV shop instead.

When off off Hollywood came out of the closet on a sub-shoestring

[Macholic · 9/10 · 8 April 2004]

It is difficult to prepare people exactly for what they are going to see, this movie is a class act of its own: Made by the sixties maestro of improvisation, Ray Dennis Steckler, and this is his true masterpiece. It is jawdroppingly hilarious at every turn and totally inept at the same time, but it is FUN. Much better than most self-confessed comedies. Director Steckler, who always worked without a script, started this little monochrome movie as a dark, sinister thriller about 3 thugs harassing and stalking his gorgeous real-life wife, Carolyn Brandt. For reasons unknown he becomes pretty quickly fed up with the thriller, so our two protagonists are rushed in to a closet and stumbles out in Batman and Robin-like attires as the crimefighting duo, Rat Pfink and his assistant Boo Boo. At this point Rat Pfink feels that needs to remind Boo Boo that they have one weakness: Bullets! And then they are ready to rock. Highspeed chases at 20mph follows, speeded up by the oldest movietrick in the world: Fast motion. An incredibly inept fistfight in a backyard ensues, where poor Boo Boo stumbles and falls all over the place and in between all this our hero just whips out a guitar to sing a song for no reason whatsoever and everyone starts dancing. Steckler hijacked a local town parade for his movie, as his sub-shoestring otherwise wouldn't allow for such extravaganza. Time to round up your buddies for a good laugh, the more, the marrier. Like the crows sing in Disney's Dumbo: "I have seen everything, when I see an elephant fly" 9/10

The Kookiness and Skewed Direction are What Makes This Film Work !!! At Least on A Goofy Level !!!

[cshep · 6/10 · 8 March 2008]

Rat Pfink A Boo Boo, or Rat Pfink and Boo Boo, just reading that , what would you think the film could be about ? I had no idea, but I am less confused now.

Back in the 1960's there were Independent film makers, who could put out low budget movies, that would make a few bucks to carry them over until their next venture. That is where Ray Dennis Steckler comes in. Director, Story Writer, and sometimes Actor, under many various names, i.e., Cash Flagg,. His story is one of partial success, he learned from what didn't work in his films, and improved his movie making , I suppose you could call him the Poor Man's "Woody Allen." Except, he hit the wall and never got over it , to achieve the same success.

But, this film, does have some merit, what starts out as a dark thriller about 3 young men who terrorize women for profit, and it works in a strange way, turns into improbable situations and actions ,and quickly puts doubt and credibility into the viewers mind , and that is when the story turns into farce.Steckler realizes this, and enter Rat Pfink and Boo Boo, 2 sort of regular people, who fight crime in cotton outfits that neither stretch or flatter this dynamic duo.

Lonnie Lord/Rat Pfink(Ray Haydock),and his mentally challenged gardener Titus Twimbly/Boo Boo(Tutus Moede) are called into action when girl friend /fan Cee Bee Beaumont (Carolyn Brandt) is attacked and kidnapped for ransom in BROAD daylight, in a heavily populated neighbor hood by the 3 antagonists, you''ll love these names, Linc(George Caldwell), he carries a weapon, a partial chain, wow , great plot device, Hammer(Mike Kannon) guess what his weapon is ?,and Benjie(James Bowie), whose cunning and canny ability to pop out of sealed trash cans in dead end alleys makes him the most formidable,what a HOOT !

After Cee Bee is kidnapped , they call Lonnie Lord for a ransom demand, but they aren't aware that Rat Pfink is on the case. This is where the film totally skews, but in a fun and goofy way.

So, if you want to see how one man's visions, could have put him in the upper crust, then, see a Woody Allen film, if not , try this fare for your viewing pleasure. Runs 72 minutes. It is a Classic,at least historically. 6 out of 10 as a partial template for film students.

Horrible but with a certain sense of humor to make it bearable

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 13 September 2008]

It's amazing that Ray Dennis Steckler has somehow avoided the distinction of being named the worst film maker in history. Heck, compared to his super-cheap looking films, even some of Ed Wood's films films look not all that wretched. I was fortunate enough to have seen two of Steckler's great films in the same evening, this and THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED UP ZOMBIES and can, without a doubt, say that Steckler might just be worse than Wood. If not worse, then at least in the same league as Wood.

The first half of the film is a drama about three pals who take delight in tormenting women by robbing and beating them. This portion of the film is handled rather seriously aside from some irrelevant footage of Ron Haydock and his girlfriend romping about as he sang rock 'n roll songs. His singing wasn't all that bad, but the whole thing had a real cheap homemade look to it.

Then, midway through the film, the money apparently ran out and the film got a lot cheaper----light-years cheaper!! Now, instead of a drama, from out of nowhere, Haydock and his pal jump into a closet and come out as crime fighters named "Rat Pfink" and "Boo Boo"! The costumes looked exactly like you'd expect 7 year-olds to look if they are pretending to be super-heroes and no attempt was made to maintain the serious tone of the film. It was like two entirely different films combined. Oddly, however, the second half managed to be somewhat entertaining on a camp level--mostly because the film never attempted to be serious from here on and was all done in fun. While dumb, it did make me laugh a few times as I was marveling at the awfulness of the production values. The fighting, in particular, looked like it was choreographed by Ray Charles.

So is this a film for the average viewer? Certainly not! However, for fans of bad films, this is a great party film--one to watch with your friends in order to laugh at just how bad a film can be.

Words Cannot Express the Wonder and Splendor of This Film!!!

[hokeybutt · 10/10 · 29 July 2004]

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!

A Worthy Follow-Up To A Legendary Monster Musical

[ferbs54 · 6/10 · 24 August 2007]

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.

Prescient 'Defendor' / 'Kick Ass' like genre, inept, yet movie buff curio

[Bofsensai · 3/10 · 18 January 2022]

Well now, why put up a review to recommend this notorious / classic clunker?

Because, despite being amateurishly stupid, actually, if you're a cinema aficionado, there's several aspects to note, even - (almost!) - ah, 'appreciate' in this:

First is that if you are able to come at this without knowing the plot / any advance 'review' knowledge - as I innocently did - what starts out as a seemingly cinematic useless, routine, even quite misogynistic reprehensible guys stalk innocent female, has an, er, significant shift in focus half way through that is quite completely unexpectedly, unpredictably (on first viewing) jarring.

To be fair / honest, it's delayed, 'jump' timing is quite effective to be equivalent to a sort of 'oh, I didn't see that coming' twist (which I didn't, had not read up on it beforehand - you should try not, to, to 'enjoy'..): Of course, those that want to find out, now know that this was not quite intentional, but an in hindsight quite serendipitous, rather brilliant left field desperation / inspired move to give this film quite some chutzpah.

Since, after which, it becomes remarkable how prescient it was to all those recent, but thus oh so much later, faux, human, useless superhero type genre entries that frequently came out just a few years back, as like 'Kick Ass'*, 'Scott Pilgrim', 'The Defendor' and the like.

* Just merely coincidentally lead player, indy director, writer, editor, no doubt, tea maker, Ray Dennis Steckler, even has Nick Cage look about him, too.

Thereafter, e.g. If you're a US fifties / early sixties car fan, you'll get plenty of shots of such genuine sidewalk parked cars as the 'heroes' careen about the Hollywood hills of those days in a sorta guerilla, dogme, filmmaking way that would be all but impossibly illegal today.

Then, on that way, film buffs can have fun with the surely deliberate to be amusing, if not stupidly careless ineptness on display again, chase vehicle continuity. (I saw as deliberate amusingly.)

Plus in the incongruously linked first half you'll also get another seemingly misogynist trope: or is that actually mere admiration of the feminine form with a long - long - menacing stalk of the main female star - (Carolyn Brandt as a Cee cee Beaumont) - in such behind-quarters lasciviousness, that if it wasn't that it is of the director's own then wife, would come across as creepy voyeurism, but here, is rather - presumably - in sort of adolescent like admiration of. Well - (plot spoiler alert ...!) - at least the menacing stalker eventually merely hangs about, sorta harmlessly - despite still 'menacingly' constantly testing his switchblade. Then he goes off. (Guess, director hubby once again ran out of inspiration...)

There's also another set of weirdness occurring (directed?) in an apparently in reality just stumbled across deserted half built / abandoned house that is also reminiscent of that which would not be out of place as location of some of those latterly, recently seen in the kidnapped gal / zombie genres. [á la, try 'All the girls love Alice'; 'Wasteland', etc.]

Then finally, those that know the end, know that director Steckler finally takes it into surely deliberate utter absurdity: but, if you don't know, then stay patient 'til it to see presented another sort of prescient aspect, in a sort of 'inclusive' lifestyles presentation (homosexuality and bestiality anyone ... or, is it ... something else / 'weird' entirely?)

Superb fun to be had in relishing its heartfelt oddities, yet still sheer ineptitude dressed up as filmmaking.

Worth 67 minutes of your life

[tomgillespie2002 · 18 October 2011]

A strange hybrid of contemporary movies styles, Rat Pfink a Boo Boo begins as a seemingly straight, very low budget and amateurish crime drama. Cee Dee Beaumont (Carolyn Brandt), girlfriend to rock 'n' roll star, Lonnie Lord (Ron Haydock), is being harassed on the telephone by a gang of bored hoodlums. The first half of the film plays like a pulp melodrama, but this is also mixed with some beach party scenes. The whole film is a post-modern concoction of ideas, taken from the popular youth movements of the time. A year previous to the production of the film, an incredibly saccharine and asinine movie was released, that actually began a bizarre - if short-lived - series. Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), has been pilfered for the lame beach party scenes that interject throughout the first half of the film.

After Lonnie's girlfriend is kidnapped by the previously mentioned gang, he receives a phone call giving the demands for her release. This is where the film changes. It is not a revelatory change. It simply seems that the film maker just didn't know what to do with the ending. So, as per the previous action of pilfering, I can only assume he simply switched the TV on and was introduced to two popular shows that were being aired at the time. Lonnie, along with a character we hardly noticed in the previous half, Titus Twimbly (Titus Moede), step into a cupboard. After a kerfuffle they exit wearing ludicrous outfits, and proclaiming their super-hero pseudonyms as Rat Pfink and Boo Boo. (As a note, this was the full original title. However, in post production, the titles were messed up leaving the a instead of the and.)

What proceeds is a farcical parade of the eponymous super heroes gliding through the streets on a motorcycle and side car around the streets of Hollywood. This last part plays out like the camp Batman series that clearly influenced it, and the title being adapted from another cartoon TV character, Batfink. With it's cheap credentials in place, the film still has some amateurish charm. I believe that much of the humour is intentional, and the super hero section has it's tongue placed firmly in it's cheek - much like the Batman series that it is riffing on.

The film does deserve it's 2.9 IMDb rating, but because it is so low budget, I believe it has more to offer that let's say, for example, Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), which has less to offer as it takes itself so seriously, and was made on a budget that could probably alter the third world. Also, with a running time of only 67 minutes, does not waste 3 hours of your life, and is worth it for it's outrageous acting, preposterous settings, and the more obvious limitations of it's director, a man who clearly lost his way 40 minutes into the film, resulting in the super hero ending, shoehorned into place.

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A dynamic duo with only one weakness...bullets

[moonspinner55 · 2/10 · 8 March 2008]

Masked Los Angeles crime-fighters Rat Pfink a(nd) Boo Boo come to the rescue after Rat Pfink's alter-ego, rock 'n roll singer Lonnie Lord, finds out his sweetheart has been kidnapped by hammer-and-chain link wielding street thugs. Director Ray Dennis Steckler wastes a lot of camera film (and probably a bundle of cash) filming rear-ends bouncing and cars driving...driving...driving. He shows unexpected talent with the rock music montages (especially the first, "You're Running Wild", where Lonnie and his gal-pal scamper, twist, and play basketball). Unfortunately, his sense of humor doesn't match the chilly black-and-white photography (also by Steckler), nor the violent original plot about teenage delinquents. The opening scene of a bar-broad mugged and left for dead on the deserted, early-a.m. streets of L.A. actually has some edge to it (apart from one of the goons jumping--surprise!--out of a trashcan); but Steckler didn't trust his instincts, and turned the low-budget project into a "Batman" satire. He lacks the verisimilitude to cover his own callow tracks, and the acting, sound effects, over-dubbing, pacing and narrative are each atrocious. * from ****

This is one of the most boring movies ever

[lfdewolfe · 1/10 · 26 August 2020]

This movie is just horrible. I would give examples but I could just show you the movie and it would be self explanatory. Apparently this was supposed to be a crime drama but at the last second they changed it and made it into a Batman and Robin Rip off. Because of this most of the movie is about a woman being stalked by some guy. There are these really long shots of people just walking to places as well. At one point the woman being stalked goes to a store and then when she walks back they show the entire walk! Then in the very last half of the movie it turns into a Batman and Robin rip off where Rat Pfink and Boo Boo have to save the girl. The next ten or five minutes is just a mess, for some reason there's a guy with a gorilla walking around and the gorilla gets loose and attacks the woman. Like, what does this have to do with the movie? Oh yeah, that's right. Nothing! The only good thing about this movie is the music. But that's the only good thing. Everything else sucks!

fairly lame but has some funny moments

[PaulyC · 5/10 · 27 November 2007]

Although this super hero spoof is kind of a mess it does have some amusing moments. It starts off as a serious film then changes gears very suddenly. I don't know if this method of film-making worked for me but a lot of people seem to find this movie a pretty good one. As with a lot of Steckler movies, it is well photographed and looks like a bigger budget movie then what it is. The characters Rat Phink and Boo Boo kind of come out of nowhere but they do have some funny moments. One thing I thought was funny was that even though they are chasing kidnappers in their motorcycle to save a girls life, they stop at every stop sign and look both ways because they are the "good guys". An uneven film with some funny moments.

Uh- Oh

[mikelcat · 1/10 · 13 March 2008]

Let me start by saying I like Steckler ,but the best films he was involved in were those made by Arch Hall Sr. His best role in my opinion was that of Steak in the ''Wild Guitar '' . Most of his directorial efforts were nonsensical fun and thats cool , he got to put his girlfriend / wife and his friends in his films and have some fun too ! He was also good in the film were he plays the escaped killer and seems to have had a knack for playing the heavy . As far as ''Rat Pfink a Boo-Boo'' , well what can you say ? It was clearly meant to read ''Rat Pfink AND Boo-Boo '' although I'm told Steckler denies this now , the line is used in the film to introduce them !!! Its harmless fun , but strictly grade z .

A brilliant piece of improvisation

[smarty-11 · 10/10 · 30 April 1999]

When one considers all that went into the making of this film, it truly takes one's breath away. It started out as a "serious" film about two college age chaps whose girlfriends are abducted; it is up to these fellows to come to the rescue. Steckler, like most of us do during "serious" films, grew bored and decided to spice things up a little: his heroes stepped into a closet and came out as Rat Pfink and Boo Boo, caped crusaders. Steckler even coopted a real parade by marching his heroes in front of it. Improvisation, found art, fun trash: call it what you will, it's a great way to spend an afternoon that might otherwise be wasted frolicking wholesomely in the great outdoors.

Any laughs are entirely coincidental.

[dfranzen70 · 3/10 · 25 June 2019]

This is supposedly one of the worst films of all time. I've seen plenty of arguments to the contrary, but my impression is that those reviewers are being ironic. I mean, you kind of have to be, in my opinion, because this movie was really terrible. It's amateurish in every way, from the acting to the writing to (certainly) the cinematography. I realize it came out more than 50 years ago, but even then one would expect a better-looking picture. It looks like the lab bill wasn't paid (which I believe is true). It looks like someone dipped it in watermelon. It's a trashy movie that's useful now as a movie to make fun of, not enjoyed on its own merits. It's as if an eighth grade drama class decided to make a movie using only what they found inside a broom closet. This film starts out pretty serious, as some no-good guys stalk and attack unsuspecting young women in order to rob them. Then they pick on the girlfriend of a super big rock star and prank call her a few times before abducting her (and knocking out her gardener). Then they decide to ransom her - big mistake, fellas! That's because the super big rock star is really Rat Pfink, superhero. And the gardener is his faithful sidekick Boo Boo! They have dopey costumes and race about in a motorcycle and sidecar. "Fight crime, Boo Boo!" Indeed! They spend a goof 15 minutes of movie time fighting the baddies at their lair and then another 5 minutes chasing them via mountain roads. And then another 20 minutes fighting them again. Oh, and there's a gorilla, for some reason. Preposterous in the extreme, Rat Pfink and Boo Boo is a case study on how not to make a movie. It doesn't help that director/writer Ray Dennis Steckler gave up making a crime drama after about one reel and just coasted on chases, fights, and a severe lack of dialog.

Kubrick's Favorite Film

[scatman-2 · 10/10 · 2 September 1999]

OK, but it made you look. He would have had a good laugh though...because it's so much GODdamned fun...& because he was Kubrick...contemporary of ed wood, steckler shot a take & moved on...but he took this guerrilla filmmaking just one wee step further...he didn't actually use a script or have much of a story...they'd just find themselves shooting a beach blanket scene & he'd think, "cool. a beach. what if a gang of hoods in dune buggies & capes ripped over the field just as the hurricane swept in? that'd be dynamite!"...& so a second & third plot would develop...ignore the namby-pambies who prattle on about pedestrian crap such as, well, you know, Plot, Theme, Vision, and uhm, Coherence...rigid t**ts, who needs 'em...check it out...if you're reading this, you're interested anyway...the movie was given it's title because steckler sent in the credit specifics to the fellow who was shooting them & it was still then titled "Rat Pfink AND Boo-Boo"...his boy goofed & when ray got them back & heart-droppingly saw "Rat Pfink A Boo-Boo," did he curse? did he welp? hell no... he shouted out in ecstasy, "That's the new name of my damned film!"...well, he probably didn't...& he only kept the title because he couldn't afford to reshoot the credits...& the world's a better place for it...& your world will be amusingly broader for having rented it...and so will stanley's, when he thinks to watch it again, smiling on the beaches of jupiter with sun-ra...cheers, Snr. Steckler.

How can you not love this movie?

[The_Movie_Cat · 7/10 · 27 September 2015]

Objectively the current IMDb overall rating of 3.3 is probably accurate... but there's such love put into the frames of this quirky picture that it's subjectively worth so much more.

I was first introduced to the film in an episode of 1988's "The Incredibly Strange Film Show", where the director explained that the entire genre of the picture changes halfway through as "I got bored with the movie".

Beginning as a low budget, badly-dubbed thriller with catchy surf music, it gets around the halfway point and changes into an amateurish but enthusiastic superhero tale. Just as the pace starts to flag around the hour mark, a man in a gorilla suit comes on, and the whole thing's wrapped up in less than 70 minutes.

Ray Dennis Steckler estimated that the budget was around $4000- $5000, and it shows. With tinted colour effects that change throughout the duration, it's a love letter to film, from the age of silent cinema to the then-present day. Steckler wasn't a man who let technical shortcomings restrict his ambition, and there is some talent that can be glimpsed between the restrictions.

It all ends with a rock out beach party, as well it should.

Might put the viewer into a "Pfunk"...but it's way more enjoyable than"Creatures"

[lemon_magic · 5/10 · 13 April 2016]

I watched MST3K riff on another Steckler film "The Incredibly Strange Creatures"; it was a bizarre, gormless mess. So when I heard he'd done another one, which had an even bigger reputation as a goofy trash classic, I was sure it would be mind-blowingly stupid. I could hardly wait to discover how stupid it actually was.

Well, I finally found it on YouTube, and found it was...actually way better than "Creatures". The parts that were supposed to funny were actually funny, in a Goon Show/Benny Hill chase kind of way. And the big "party" scenes were disjointed but had a groovy swinging/pretty girls dancing/rockabilly hep cat feel. I sort of wished I could be there, in fact.

Incredibly cheaply made of course, and the stalker/kidnapping scenes were creepy, misogynistic, and overlong. Steckler should have tossed the "straight" crime scenes and inserted Rat Pfink into the movie about 20 minutes earlier. Reading about the background to the movie, I can now see why he didn't. But he should have.

But watching Rat Pfink charge into battle cheerfully shouting (via unconvincing dubbing) "FIGHT...CRIIIIIME!" appealed to my inner 8 year old. That's about what I would have done when I was a little boy (if I had access to a motorcycle/side car combination).

Pointless, goofy fun.