Mandrake the Magician (serial)

Mandrake the Magician
Directed by	Norman Deming Sam Nelson
Produced by	Jack Fier
Written by	Joseph F. Poland Basil Dickey Ned Dandy Screenplay, based on the comic strip by Phil Davis and Lee Falk
Starring	Warren Hull Doris Weston Al Kikume Rex Downing
Music by	Morris Stoloff musical director Sidney Cutner and Floyd Morgan additional music
Cinematography	Benjamin H. Kline
Editing by	Richard Fantl Jerry Thoms
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	7 December 1939
Running time	12 chapters (215 minutes)
Country	United States
Language	English

Mandrake the Magician (1939) was the seventh serial released by Columbia Pictures.

Plot

Mandrake in this serial works with conjuring tricks and sleight of hand instead of all the all-powerful hypnotism in the comics. Lothar is portrayed as an Asian with hair instead of a giant bald African. Unlike the comics where Lothar handles the fighting, Mandrake goes from fight to fight, which is just as well as Lothar is a weak imitation of the comic character. The fights are not too convincing and the music is a little too loud in the action scenes, of which there are plenty. The villain is The Wasp, a man in a cloak, mask and hat who gives orders to his gang from a movie screen.

Thieves learn that Professor Houston has been perfecting a machine which will create radium energy and plot to steal it. Daughter Betty telegraphs Mandrake for help. He is just returning from Shanghai and Tibet on the S.S.Mohawk. A lama in Tibet has told him a formula for mixing the already tough Platinite with steel to make it even tougher. However, Platinite is very rare and only found in one place, in America.

The Wasp uses the sign of a wasp on a wall as well as a buzzing sound to announce his presence to the professor, which Mandrake later reveals was simply a torch shining through an image of a wasp to project a picture. Mandrake survives two death attempts and a car chase before meeting the professor, with friends Bennett and Webster who turn up just after him. The prof reveals that his ray is far more powerful than radium and gives a demonstration of the inevitable death-ray, which at the end of the first episode is inevitably used on Mandrake.

Mandrake has convinced The Wasp's men that he has some platinite which The Wasp needs for his ray machine as it can only run a short while with a steel casing before destroying itself. The villains keep after Mandrake and fights follows kidnappings, follows car chases (all sped up for excitement) follows death traps, follows fights. There is little real storyline and action is used to drag the serial along at a hectic pace. There is also some magic thrown in, notably a very good sleight of hand show in the first episode. You do not see the performer's face but this was not done by Hull since the white cuffs of the magician can be seen throughout whereas with Hull's costume, the cuffs were hidden.

Cast

• Warren Hull as Mandrake the Magician
• Doris Weston as Betty Houston
• Al Kikume as Lothar, Mandrake's Assistant
• Rex Downing as Tommy Houston
• Edward Earle as Doctor Andre Bennett
• Forbes Murray as Professor Houston
• Kenneth MacDonald as James Webster
• Don Beddoe as Frank Raymond
• Dick Curtis as Dorgan, a henchman
• John Tyrrell as Dirk, the "spearpoint heavy" (chief henchman)
•  ?? as The Wasp

Chapter titles

1. Shadow on the Wall
2. Trap of the Wasp
3. 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

_Source:^[1]

See also

• List of film serials by year
• List of film serials by studio

References

1. ^ Cline, William C.. "Filmography". In the Nick of Time. McFarland & Company, Inc.. pp. 224. ISBN 078640471X. 

External links

• Mandrake the Magician at the Internet Movie Database
• Mandrake the Magician at AllRovi
• Cinefania.com

Preceded by Flying G-Men (1939)

Columbia Serial Mandrake the Magician (1939)

Succeeded by Overland with Kit Carson (1939)