Mandrake the Magician (1939)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Directors:

Norman Deming
Sam Nelson

Writers:

Joseph F. Poland (screenplay) &
Basil Dickey (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

6 May 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Tagline:

BLACK MAGIC Conjures Up A Holocaust Of Thrills!

Plot:

Columbia's 7th serial (between Flying G-Men and Overland With Kit Carson)was based on the King Features...

Plot Keywords:

Serial | Part Animated | Electrocution | Based On Comic

Cast

Warren Hull	...	Mandrake the Magician
Doris Weston	...	Betty Houston
Al Kikume	...	Lothar, Mandrake's Assistant
Rex Downing	...	Tommy Houston
Edward Earle	...	Dr. Andre Bennett
Forbes Murray	...	Professor Houston
Kenneth MacDonald	...	James Webster
Don Beddoe	...	Frank Raymond
Dick Curtis	...	Dorgan, thug [Chs. 6-8]
John Tyrrell	...	Dirk, lead thug
Stanley Brown	...	Green, thug [Chs. 1, 2, 4]
Beatrice Curtis	...	Rest Home Nurse [Chs. 3,10]
Robert Sterling	...	Henchman
Sam Ash	...	George Regan, hypnotist [Chs. 3-5]
Lester Dorr	...	Gray, gas station thug [Chs. 8-9]

Runtime:

215 min (12 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Chapter Titles: - 1. Shadow on the Wall - 2. Trap of the Wasp - 3. A City of Terror - 4. The Secret Passage - 5. The Devil's Playmate - 6. The Fatal Crash - 7. Gamble For Life - 8. Across the Deadline - 9. Terror Rides the Rails - 10.The Unseen Monster - 11.At the Stroke of Eight - 12.The Reward of Treachery

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Le streghe (1967)

Not the Mandrake I remember

If you have stumbled upon this title and think you will see the hero of your comic book youth brought to the screen you will be disappointed. Mandrake has been shoehorned into a stock serial plot that could have used any one of a dozen heroes from Batman to Dick Tracy. Once again, a wonder invention cooked up by a solitary recluse in his basement is stolen from a mostly unguarded private residence and now the world is threatened. The police and the FBI are apparently helpless so it falls upon Mandrake to set things right. Alas, this Mandrake is a pale imitation of the comic wizard. The hypnotically gesturing magus of the comics has become a stage magician, doing card tricks on an ocean liner. Instead of confusing his enemies with black magic, he slugs it out with his fists, implausibly whipping two or three thugs at once, all without displacing his top hat.

This is not to say the serial isn't entertaining. But most will likely view it as a 70 year old curiosity rather than the exciting thriller it was meant to be. Whether you want to invest almost 4 hours of your life watching it is the question. Incidentally, the title music would later be reused in the Columbia serial "The Vigilante, Fighting Hero of the West" in a somewhat re-orchestrated form. The story, of course, would be recycled again and again.