Tales of the Rat Fink (2006)

As the legend goes, while he was assigned to a UFO tracking station in the depths of the Sahara desert, one has to wonder, perhaps, if USAF airman Edward Roth might've actually saw something ‘not of this earth’ that permanently blew his brain.

For when he got out of the service in 1955, where he had honed his skills as a painter by stenciling bizarre designs onto his fellow airmen's duffel-bags, Roth became a leading trailblazer in the custom car culture that absolutely exploded in the late 1950s.

"Ed Roth was a giant as an artist as well as a behemoth of a man,” said Tom Wolfe, who wrote The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965), his first collection of essays, originally published in Esquire Magazine, which focused on that very same burgeoning car cult taking root in America, which was seeded by Roth, their "Big-Daddy" gear-head guru.

“Roth and his fellow Kar Kustomizers worked in the only uniquely American art medium: the automobile. He never thought of his creations simply as shells of molded sheet metal or fiberglass. He always wanted you to see the engine, too, because the only American Art Form is not an object. It's a kineticism. Its materials are speed, momentum, excitement, and freedom, which is to say, the American Zeitgeist, except that we don't say Zeitgeist. We say, the Spirit of the American Age."

With his outlandish, outside of the box designs and pioneering use of fiberglass and clear bubbled domes, Roth was soon a legend among the motor-heads with the completion of The Beatnik Bandit (above top), The Mysterian, The Outlaw, and my favorite, The Orbitron (above bottom).

Then, when Revell called, looking to miniaturize his kooky creations into custom molded plastic, Big Daddy Roth soon became a household name. And when Mattel introduced their new Hot Wheels line in 1968, The Beatnik Bandit was among their first 16 die-cast cars to hit the market. But it wasn't just about the models, or toys, or even building or pin-striping these types of hot-rods.

A true Renaissance Man, Roth's silk-screening and T-Shirt designs also caught on, too -- a mash-up of souped-up engines and ghastly critters with a need for speed, going hellbent for the horizon. Personified by his signature character, the Rat Fink -- basically his middle-finger salute at the homogenizing effect of the House of Mouse -- Roth was all about 'flying your freak flag high' and leaving the squares of Squaresville in the dust.

Somewhat fittingly, then, Ron Mann's documentary, Tales of the Rat Fink (2006), like its subject matter, is also slightly off-kilter.

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.

Punctuated by some Roth-fueled animated critter bumpers, each segment tracing Roth's rise to prominence is told from the perspective of a different car, voiced by the likes of Paul LeMat, Ann-Margaret and Jay Leno, while the big man himself is voiced by John Goodman, who links it all together.

It's an amazing and eye-popping journey of one man's influence blitzkrieging its way into permanent pop-culture. And as icing on the cake, we get a stellar soundtrack from The Sadies, whose blend of lo-fi reverb, surf-stomp and honky-tonk fits the subject matter perfectly:

 

Seriously. Check this one out, Fellow Programs. Tales of the Rat Fink is a brain-altering testament to a true and one of a kind American artist and folk hero. Go, Big Daddy, Go, indeed and indubitably and in perpetuity.

Originally posted on November 23, 2009, at Micro-Brewed Reviews.

Tales of the Rat Fink (2006) Sphinx Productions :: Abramorama :: Shout! Factory / EP: Martin Harbury / P: Bill Imperial, Ron Mann / AP: Michael Boyuk / D: Ron Mann / W: Adam Cawley, Solomon Vesta / C: Arthur E. Cooper / E: Terrance Odette / M: The Sadies / S: John Goodman, Ted Rosnick, Alex Xydias, Paul Le Mat, Ann-Margret, Tom Smothers, Dick Smothers, Robert Williams, Brian Wilson