THE RETURN OF RAT PFINK AND BOO BOO! by Dave Goode

It's time for another voyage into the alternate universe in my head as we revisit a favorite of mine. I  just finished my annual viewing of the psychotronic cult flick RAT PFINK A BOO BOO (1966). Released in September of 1966 , 9 months after the premiere of the BATMAN television series starring Adam West. Produced and directed by Ray Dennis Steckler it had a screenplay by Ron Haydock from a story by Steckler. Haydock , a Gene Vincent lookalike , also starred in the flick as singing star Lonnie Lord alias caped crime - fighter Rat Pfink under the name Vin Saxon. Also along for the ride was Carolyn Brandt , the producer's wife , as Lonnie Lord's girl friend Cee Bee Beumont. Titus Moede plays Titus Twimble alias Boo Boo , Rat Pfink's partner in peril. Ape - Suit actor Bob Burns plays Kogar , the Swinging Ape.

The first 40 minutes of this 72 minute film plays like a crime drama / jd movie ala' Elvis. The next 32 minutes are a parody of the Batman television show. I always got the impression they were writing the movie as they were filming and came up with the ending just as they were running out of film. In any case they manage to slip in four songs sung by Haydock / Saxon into the slightly over an hour running time. Running Wild , You Is A Rat Pfink , I Stand Alone and Go -Go Party. Colonel Tom Parker would have been proud.

Now I never thought there should have been a sequel to this psychotronic masterpiece of guerilla film - making. But in the alternate universe that runs through my mind there was a Rat Phink comic book that ran for 3 years. Through the length of the Batmania craze.

WILLIAM SMITH...VAMPIRE-SLAYER by Dave Goode

 

For years I've imagined some American movie producer back in the 1960s making masked wrestler flicks. The heroes portrayed most likely by the stars of the European sinew & sandal movies.The American bodybuilders who traveled from Muscle Beach to Italy to play Hercules, Maciste, and Ursus. Actors like Steve Reeves, Rock Stevens (Peter Lupus), and Mark Forest. But especially Gordon Scott, Dan Vadis, and Brad Harris.

 

 

Recently I was watching GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972) again and thought the perfect name taking, butt kicking answer to Mexico's Blue Demon could have been "Big" Bill Smith, King of the Biker Flicks, who would play a professional wrestler in the 1978 sports drama BLOOD AND GUTS. But without a mask.

 

 

 

 

GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE directed by John Hayes from a screenplay by Hayes and David Chase (Kolchak) has gained a cult following over the years. The story has actor Michael Pataki playing Caleb Croft a rapist/murderer who rises from his grave a vampire after being electrocuted 30 years earlier. He brutally attacks a young couple who are making out in a parked car in a grave yard. And maybe it's just me. But can you think of a less romantic place to make love than in a grave yard? Killing the man the vampire rapes the woman in an open grave.

 

 

The woman gives birth to a strange gray hued baby. It of course is the child of her undead attacker. But she is a bit unhinged after her attack. And believes the baby to be the child of her murdered boy friend. This is the reason she continues to carry the child after she is told the baby is a parasite draining her of blood from within. After giving birth she continues to feed him with her own blood. Sending her to an early grave. There is one very eerie seen that shows the child watching from the shadows as other children play in the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

The grown son James Eastman played by William Smith tracks down his vampiric father who is now teaching night courses in the occult under the name Professor Lockwood. The climax of the movie has father and son throwing down against each other in a battle of good vs. evil. Not quite as good as the fight Smith had in the movie DARKER THAN AMBER (1970). But then what is? And it does make you think of Smith opening a can of whup @#$$ on other supernatural menaces. 

 

 

 

 

Art by Vance Capley

 

 

 

A VERY GUILTY PLEASURE! by Dave Goode

A VERY GUILTY PLEASURE! by Dave Goode

One of my favorite Grade Z "guilty pleasures" is SHE DEMONS (1958). Starring Irish Mc Calla, Todd Griffin, Victor Sen Yung, Rudolph Anders, Gene Roth, and the Diane Nellis Dancers this is a fun little time killer that I first caught on television during a rain-out theater.

Produced by Arthur A. Jacobs and Marc Frederic ,the flick was directed by Richard Cunha who co-wrote the story with H. E. Barrie. The 77 minute movie made for an estimated 65,000 dollars was the stuff of men's sweat magazines. Or with the story's sci-fi/horror slant it could have come from a 40s pulp magazine.

During a hurricane a pleasure yacht is shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island populated by beautiful women (the Diane Nellis Dancers) who periodically change into deformed monsters.

The results of experiments conducted by mad scientist and Nazi war criminal Col. Karl Osler (Rudolph Anders). The stock survivors of the shipwreck beautiful spoiled rich girl  Jerrie Turner (Irish Mc Calla), wooden hero Fred Maklin (Tod Griffin), and ethnic comic relief sidekick Sammy Ching (Victor Sen Yung) struggle against Col. Osler, his Nazi minions and the "She Demons".

The movie is a lot of fun. especially for a preteen who was a reader of comics and Famous Monsters of Filmland. Over the years this flick has gained a cult status. But over the years I've also started to think how this low-budget movie production would have made a great vehicle for Steve Holland and Eva Lynd who posed as the hero and heroine on numerous men's sweat mag covers.

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

NOW...DIM THE LIGHTS.....IT'S SHOWTIME!!

 1950s TV sci-fi hero returns in a brand new 92 page graphic novel by Vance Capley...read more here: https://captainzro.blogspot.com/

Masks, Muscles, and Myth by Dave Goode

Just the other day I was marveling on the overall coolness of posters from the sinew & sandal and masked wrestler movie genres. Illustrations from either would make great comic book covers. Flicks from both genres can rightfully be considered superhero movies. And then I got to thinking once again why there was never a team - up between say el Santo and Maciste. After all if you can have a movie starring el Zorro and el Maciste you can have one between Maciste and Santo or one of the " Man in the Silver Mask's " ancestors. What I really wonder about is why Mexico never had many entries in the peplum film genre.

The most notable exception was THE RAPE OF THE SABINES ( 1962 ). The movie is a retelling of the story of the Sabine women and stars Wulf Ruvinskis as Romulos , the same character that Steve Reeves portrayed in the sinew & sandal flick DUEL OF THE TITANS ( 1961 ). Ruvinskis , the wrestler turned actor , is probably better known to some of you as the star of the Neutron movie series where he played the black - masked crime-fighter.

I was thinking about a mash - up movie featuring Mil Mascaras. Heck! Mascaras had the physique to star in a Mexican - made Hercules movie himself. But here he would have played himself. With say Alan Steel as the immortal Maciste. The plot would involve Maciste in the 20th century taking a job as a pro wrestler , like Arnold did in HERCULES IN NEW YORK ( 1970 ). In between bouts the two musclemen would have several comic book adventures. To give you some idea how that might look my buddy Vance Capley has provided a faux comic book cover featuring the Man of a Dozen Masks, Mr. Incognito and Brad King the Golden Adonis.

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Oh What Could Have Been by Dave Goode

K. Gordon Murray presents...

Being a fan of masked wrestler movies I sometimes imagine the genre taking off here in America during the 1960s. I imagine some Hollywood producer seeing the success K. Gordon Murray had at American matinées with his re-dubbed Santo flicks and decided to make a series of homegrown movies. The results would probably resembled the Superargo series from Europe that starred Giovanni Cianfriglia under the Americanized name Ken Woods.

 

Samson Burke in action

 The logical choices to star in these movies would have been the expatriate North American bodybuilders who went to Europe to star in sinew & sandal epics. Some of the more athletic stars like Dan Vadis, Brad Harris, and Gordon Mitchell could have nailed it. Samson Burke had been a pro wrestler under his real name Sammy Berg. Frankly I'll never understand how he didn't take the name "Samson Burke" when he began his career as a wrestler. It was a natural.

 

Gordon "Tarzan" Scott

Gordon Scott who starred as Tarzan and appeared in a number of peplum pictures would have been a good choice too. A former member of the U.S. Military Police and an expert in hand-to hand combat Scott would have been great playing a pro wrestler. The problem with Scott or Steve Reeves or Mark Forest playing a masked wrestler would be that they would spend 60% of the movie mask-less. And one of the things that makes the masked wrestler genre is that the heroes wear masks. But they had no secret identities. Something that the writers of the Superargo series understood.

Sundown Cinema has a great video about Superargo. Click HERE to see it. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

 Did you dig that comic? If you click>>>>HERE<<<<you can get a comic book full of great fun featuring Dr. Judo, Mr. Incognito, the Golden Adonis, and the Phantom Gorilla! Plus fantastic articles and much more fun!