With The Dark Knight making its debut this Friday, I thought the time was right to take a look back at this jaw-dropping Batman parody from 1966. Rat Pfink A Boo Boo was the brainchild of Ray Dennis Steckler, the B-movie auteur behind The Thrill Killers, The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (the latter of which would have me muttering "cha-ching" right about now if I was paid by the word). Released in 1966, the same year the Batman TV series debuted, the film actually doesn't focus on costumed hero buffoonery until nearly the half-way mark. Apparently Steckler decided that the earnest but incompetent crime thriller he had been making wasn't working out, so he decided to do his own take on Batman, a character he had long admired. The resulting film is a disjointed mess unlike anything you've ever seen before, making this the Plan 9 From Outer Space of super hero films, and if you're the type who can find enjoyment in amazingly bad cinema then you just have to see this.
Three hoodlums, one wielding a claw hammer, one with a chain and third cackling like an imbecile, assault and rob a woman one night on a lonely Hollywood street. The next day they're looking for more illicit kicks and randomly pull the name Cee Bee Beaumont (Steckler's wife Carolyn Brandt) out of the phone book. Cee Bee, it turns out, is the girlfriend of rock and roll sensation Lonnie Lord (Ron Haydock, billed here as Vin Saxon). His fans are legion, the narrator tells us -- though Steckler can only afford to show three of them -- and he always carries his guitar with him in case he should be called upon to perform his Elvis-inspired brand of music. And be warned, he does play and it isn't pretty. Lonnie apparently refused to surrender to the British Invasion, and I have to think this kind of music was already outdated by the time Rat Pfink came out.

The three thugs set out to terrorize Cee Bee. In one of the films most memorable scenes the guy with the chain named Linc (such subtle nomenclature) stalks our heroine for ten minutes of film time, attempting to build tension the whole time until ultimately ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS. Cee Bee is eventually kidnapped and her gardener Titus Twimbley takes a hammer to the head in her defense. As Lonnie and Titus wait to hear from the kidnappers, we're treated to a wondrously idiotic bit in which Lonnie croons a sad song for his abducted girl while we watch Titus refill the ice pack for his head three times. Steckler may not be a great film maker, but he's the master of filler.

When the call comes in demanding $50,000 for Cee Bee's return, money which Lonnie can't possibly pull together before the deadline, the film suddenly takes a sharp left turn into bad movie history. Lonnie and Titus walk into the hall closet and emerge dressed like a pair of brain damaged Justice League wannabes, sporting long underwear, capes, a ski mask, and I don't know what the hell you would call that thing on Boo Boo's head. At this point we also get the film's single best slice of dialog:

Rat Pfink: "Remember, Boo Boo, we only have one weakness."
Boo Boo: "What's that, Rat Fink?"
Rat Pfink: "Bullets."

Genius. The second half of the film is a good natured if inept free for all that still manages to please four decades later. From here on we have chase scenes, fight scenes, and general tomfoolery until Cee Bee is kidnapped by Kogar the Gorilla and, well you really need to see it yourself. The humor never rises above grade school level (the Rat Cycle makes the sound of a toilet flushing when it starts) but the whole thing is oddly fascinating.

The title Rat Pfink A Boo Boo has long been accredited to a typo on the title card with the "nd" being left out, but Steckler refutes this in his audio commentary claiming he just liked the sound of "A Boo Boo." The disk from Media Blasters' Guilty Pleasures label allows for watching the film either in black and white or with scenes tinted in various colors, though I don't see what value this feature adds. The disk also features a lengthy interview with Steckler, though it's really just him talking directly to the camera, recounting at length what a great time he had making the film. The presence of an interviewer and some judicious editing would have made this bit more watchable. Steckler's commentary is a bit disappointing as well, since more often than not he seems to be describing the onscreen action rather than offering behind the scenes info.