Mandrake the Magician

Oresent

I am a personal friend of the The Amazing Kreskin, each year I am invited to his home for Christmas Eve along with many of his other close friends. Kreskin for many years enjoys Mandrake and as a gift I puchased this DVD and when he opened it he was "Amazed".

Good ole serials

Mandrake the Magician is a 12-chapter Columbia serial released in 1939, directed by Norman Deming and Sam Nelson. It is at present the earliest Columbia serial to be commercially issued on DVD, likely of greater interest to fans of serials than those of the newspaper feature by Lee Falk upon which it is based.Update, 27 September 2020: This review is of VCI's DVD. Recently an edition from Starry Night Video appeared. It has all the chapters crammed on a single-layer DVD-R, the menu has only "PART 1" and "PART 2" so the chapters can't be directly accessed, and the action is very rough, with a couple jerks per second. Further, the first chapter has the same Texans dubbing the voices where the original soundtrack was missing. This is clearly a "bootleg" copy and poorly done, though in fairness to Starry Night I have another DVD edition that is from the same source, doubtless an internet download claimed to be "public domain" material. Even the cover picture is wrong, showing Duke Green and the Masked Marvel (Tom Steele) having an argument over a rifle on a rooftop. At least that provides a little humor, but the jerky video is hard to watch; even disregarding the sourcing issue VCI's DVD is worth the slight extra cost. And now, back to my old review.Mandrake (Warren Hull) has been off in Tibet, getting a formula for mixing a rare element, "platinite," with steel to help perfect a Radium Energy Machine, being developed by his friend, Professor Houston (Forbes Murray) for the good of mankind. We are never told just what good is supposed to come from the machine, because it has destructive powers that are of far more interest to the bad guy and producers of the serial. The masked villain, known as "The Wasp" has no trouble in stealing the machine and abducting Professor Houston. Little magic is used by Mandrake in advancing the plot, but he and his assistant Lothar (Al Kikume) do battle in traditional serial-movie style with the many henchmen of The Wasp, occasionally rescuing the Professor's daughter Betty (Doris Weston) and son Tommy (Rex Downing). There are also associate scientists Dr. Andre Bennett, James Webster and Frank Raymond (Edward Earle, Kenneth MacDonald and Don Beddoe) one of whom may be The Wasp, who through most of the serial only appears to his henchmen via a television-like apparatus on a projection screen.Columbia was not known for brilliant writing nor for outstanding special effects, and expectations are not exceeded here. The plot could (and did) serve for many a serial, with little here that would suggest the title character was involved. Mandrake gives a magic show in the first chapter, and another while disguised as a bad-guy magician, but magic doesn't get used when battling The Wasp's henchmen. The Wasp's motives are never clear; mostly, he wants to destroy things with the Radium Machine, though occasionally these acts seem at odds with other parts of his plans. Warren Hull made a fine hero in other serials, and where given the chance he is good enough here. Al Kikume is a little unbelievable as his able-bodied assistant, except when stopping adversaries by bulk alone. The rest of the characters are rather bland, though fortunately none are of the "comic" variety, and they read their lines adequately. Cheapness is evident in the mockup "equipment" in the power plant that gets destroyed, and special effects are less than spectacular, such as the "shaking building" where the walls collapse while loose objects on tables stay neatly in place. Still, the general look of the film is fairly decent. The music, by Morris Stoloff has a lot of churnings and fanfares, but like the plot there is little substance. The strident announcements of what would be seen next week didn't help, with the repeated "Mandrake is attacked by agents of The Wasp!!" being especially annoying, but I became somewhat numb to them after a few chapters, increasing my appreciation for the serial. And there is some great nostalgia, such as Mandrake having the car filled with gasoline for $2.Helping matters greatly in VCI's release, # 8349 on two DVD's, is the decent-quality print used, which if not flawless is clean and reasonably sharp with good contrast. Some of the opening titles are a bit gray on the left third of the screen, and a few chapters have a lesser amount of this, but it is clearly from a fine-grain original. In the first chapter a few spoken lines had to be dubbed-in to cover a deteriorated soundtrack; the voices used are not exact matches but are no more distracting than where the sound starts to drop out in the original. VCI found a good balance between historic "completeness" and keeping it understandable. Otherwise the sound is much better than expected for 1939 with good frequency response and low distortion. The same "extras" are included on both discs: a short "picture gallery" mostly from the film, "bio's" of Warren Hull, Doris Weston, Rex Downing, Al Kikume and the two directors, and original trailers for seven serials, not including Mandrake the Magician, listed as being "Now Available on VHS and DVD from VCI." I don't think they were all on DVD, but the list, from this 2003 release is: Zorro Rides Again (Republic, 1937) Dick Tracy's G-Men (Republic, 1939) Radar Men from the Moon (Republic, 1952) The Royal Mounted Rides Again (Universal, 1945) The Mysterious Mr. M (Universal, 1946) The Hurricane Express (Mascot, 1932) The Shadow of the Eagle (Mascot, 1932)Mandrake the Magician is not one of the great serials, but it is interesting to see what Columbia was doing in 1939, and when watched with a day or so between chapters its faults aren't too apparent. Unlike many serials, the story line holds up fairly well in the later chapters, the repetition kept down by the 12-chapter length. For the price asked VCI's edition is a reasonable value, given the generally good sound and picture quality.

Of all the comic book heroes translated to film in the form of serials, Mandrake is the most disappointing. He is "out of uniform" most of the time, does not wear the pecil thin moustache and any magic, cetainly not "black" as announced on the DVD cover, is not used to overcome the bad guys. Not once did he "gusture hypnotically" nor did he have a villain project his thoughts onto a wall. Worst of all, Lothar had a full head of hair.But, if as I do you like serials as a genre, it is a good example of the fare provided for boys and girls on Saturday afternoons 60 - 70 years ago. Mandrake the Magician

Quite a classic. I love these old serials

arrived on time. product exactly as described. very satisfied.

I admit it. There is a certain area of my brain that is attracted to junk. I guess that's why I love serials. It always gives me a thrill when I hear the announcer say, "DON'T MISS CHAPTER SEVEN OF GENE AUTRY'S TRIP TO MARS, AT THIS THEATER NEXT WEEK!" Oh, wait; Gene Autry went to Murania; Flash Gordon went to Mars. I've seen so many serials that I get the plots confused!But there's nothing confusing about the plot of "Mandrake the Magician!" Mandrake (Warren Hull, who was far more interesting as a 1950's game show host than he ever was as an actor) and his assistant Lothar (Al Kikume) are doing their magic act on a cruise line when they meet Professor Houston (Forbes Murray), a brilliant scientist (naturally). Houston has developed a radium energy machine, which "will benefit all mankind," as the announcer says at the beginning of each chapter. What benefit the machine has is never explained, but we do know it needs something called "platinite" to function. Apparently this mineral is mined in rivers, like gold. A villain called "The Wasp" wants to steal the machine so he can rule the world. He's one of those guys who dresses up in a Halloween costume even in months that are not October.Al Kikume plays Lothar (pronounced "Lo-THAR") and quite possibly is the worst actor who ever lived. (Take a bow, Al). He has two jobs: 1) to drive Mandrake's car, and 2) to join in whenever Mandrake is in a fight with the bad guys. (Hey, it's a serial; there's a fight every two minutes.) But whenever there is a fight, it's clear that it's not Al, but a stunt double, who's doing the work while Al takes a well-needed rest from doing absolutely nothing!Doris Weston, whom I've never seen in any other movie, plays Betty Houston, Mandrake's girlfriend. Her personality is...well, let's just say I'd rather watch paint dry than look at her. She gives bland a new meaning.As I've said before, most serial actors stayed in serials and didn't even make it to B movies. Don Beddoe, however, who plays Frank Raymond, a friend of Mandrake and Professor Houston, did appear in some B pictures. I remember him playing Dagwood Bumstead's neighbor in one of the early "Blondie" movies.As far as I know, the ONLY actor who ever worked his way up from B movies to stardom was John Wayne. He made a ton of B Westerns before becoming a star in "Stagecoach" (1939). But here's something I didn't know. The other day I was watching some old trailers and I found out that Wayne began his acting career in...Mascot serials! Talk about starting at the bottom!