Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: Mandrake battles "The Wasp" who is after a new destructor ray.COMMENT: Very disappointing. Mandrake jettisons his trademark top hat soon after the introductory chapter and never once - never once, mind you - gestures hypnotically. Thus the whole reason for the comic strip's existence is negated in one fell blow. Further indignities are the complete absence of Mandrake's companion, Princess Narda, and the demotion of Lothar from Mandrake's giant Nubian servant to a humdrum, discreetly clothed chauffeur. The aim seems to have been to get rid of the costumes and make Mandrake and his pals as ordinary as possible. True, Mandrake still performs a few magic tricks, but even these are colorless and dull. We could put up with all these waterings-down, if only the serial had the one quality all fans demand, namely thrills. But not only are all the cliffhangers -- well, almost all of them, the miniature work isn't bad and the explosive special effects are startlingly real, but there are not nearly enough of them -- tame, but there's little intermediate action. A car chase in the middle of Chapter 1 in which the pursuing vehicle plunges over an embankment is the best of them, but even this is undermined by clumsy process screen work. Technically, the serial is extremely amateurish. The photography is flat, the sets are dull, the 2nd unit work minimal, the action scenes few and far between. As for the acting, Warren Hull makes a colorless Mandrake, whilst the support players seem to hang around merely to waste our time. True Dick Curtis appears briefly, but most of the heavies, including "The Wasp" himself, are even more tepid than Mr Hull. As for the identity of the poorly-costumed "Wasp", who cares?OTHER VIEWS: Trite, banal, pinch-penny, penny-dreadful serial. Having blown the budget purchasing the rights, Columbia set out to make the picture as cheaply as possible. The players vary from the second-rate Hull to the fifth-rate Weston and Kikume. The directors are Sam Nelson, quite a proficient action specialist, but here forced to work with a minuscule budget; and Norman Deming, a no-talent quickie megaphoner, promoted from the assistant director ranks. Writer Joseph Poland, a specialist in cutting corners, was shortly to join the Republic serial unit. Benjamin Kline, who could light a set faster than you or I could strike a match, was an old Mascot veteran.. As for theater owners, luckless enough to book this serial on the strength of its title, let's hope there are no Mandrake fans in their audiences.

kidboots ...a pity it didn't transfer like that to the big screen. Lee Falk created Mandrake in 1924 but, not trusting his own talent, he sold the strip to King Features in 1934 and bought in commercial artist Phil Davis to draw it. Mandrake always seemed to be in the papers when I was growing up - he usually hypnotized the bad guys into exposing themselves.This serial wasn't quite how I remembered Mandrake - for a start Warren Hull looked nothing like the Mandrake I remembered. Comic strip Mandrake looked very swarthy with a pencil thin moustache, sort of like the stuntman who doubles for Hull in the fights, of which there are many. Gone also is Narda, Mandrake's very, very patient girlfriend (who after a wait of over 50 years finally wed her reluctant suitor in 1997). She is replaced by the far more conventional Betty Houston, daughter of the doctor whose ray gun invention has the crooks on his tail!! She was played by Doris Weston, whose career highlight was as Dick Powell's leading lady in "The Singing Marine" (1937), one of his lesser efforts (I thought she was quite cute in it anyway). Fortunately Lothar, Mandrake's very loyal and constant companion was not given a "make over".Every serial had to have a hidden villain, one who wanted world domination etc and Mandrake's nemesis was "The Wasp", a quietly spoken man hidden in cloaks and the obligatory mask. He seemed to be always two steps ahead of Mandrake and caused some spectacular disasters - a dam exploding, an avalanche, a mountain skylift falling, a plummeting airplane!! Then you start to wonder who "The Wasp" is?? The two candidates are, of course, Mandrake's oldest friends - James Webster (Kenneth MacDonald) and Dr. Andre Bennett (Edward Earle) who dislike each other intensely and who are both always missing when trouble is afoot!! As usual, with these serials, there is always an eager young kid, probably to appeal to the boys in the audience. This time it is Betty's younger brother and he has more get up and go than half the cast. At one stage he hides in the boot of the villain's car, hears just enough info to relay the plans to Mandrake, then jumps from the car - without the crooks even knowing they have had an eavesdropper!! Even though Mandrake doesn't have any super hero tricks - his magicianship is put to good use and all in all it is an enjoyable serial.

BaronBl00d While not made with an over-powering budget by any standards and populated with the dime-store variety of plot devices, mediocre special effects, and bearable, workmanlike performers, the Columbia serial Mandrake the Magician has many fun, entertaining moments and is quite thrilling at times. Isn't that what a serial is suppose to be? Warren Hull plays the dapper Mandrake in top hat and tails and seemingly an expert in every field and every form of fisticuffs. With him is his faithful Lothar, a servant who like Mandrake can fight at will and ease under any circumstances. Of course when Lothar fights - the actor playing him Al Kikume is easily seen not to be fighting as the stunt double looks nothing like him. That is just one of a host of problems with the serial in terms of direction, production, and cinematic achievement. Routinely actors are poorly doubled. Fight scenes are nothing more in some instances than actors playing patty-cake with their fists. The identity of the serial villain - the Wasp - is clearly evident in the final three or four chapters. The leading lady - Doris Weston - is as bland as cottage cheese. When would the parade of henchmen end? And some of the storyline about "a machine invented by Professor Houston to benefit mankind"(you remember those catch phrases once you have heard it 12 different times at the beginning of each chapter)was utterly ridiculous with all that nonsense about shutting off/destroying public works so as to let the Wasp take over the world and the platinite(don't ask) needed to fuel it. But despite all these things, Mandrake the Magician is a lot of fun to watch, and I must confess that for at least the first 9 chapters I had to find out who the Wasp was as three of Mandrake's circle were framed so as to suggest each one. Each episode left with some great calamity, and this serial is definitely worth a peek.

Paulo R. C. Barros "Mandrake, the Magician"(1939 - 214 minutes - 12 episodes), is one of the classics B&W cinema serials of Columbia, directed by Sam Nelson and Norman Deming. Based on the known Comics created by Lee Falk and Phill Davis in 1924 and written by Joseph F. Poland, Basil Dickey and Ned Dandy. Mandrake (the actor Warren Hull) is a sagacious detective who is traveling in a maritime cruise when he knows the professor Hudson (the actor Forbes Murray), the author of a machine that uses the energy of the radio waves. Developed for the good, the powerful device becomes a dangerous weapon when it falls in the hands of an evil genius known as "Wasp". Mandrake and his faithful assistant, Lothar (the actor Al Kikume), will fight Wasp and his gang, living an intensely battle between the good and the evil. The Mandrake's dress style with the black and red layer, ternary and top-hat, had immortalized the figure of the magician. The English word "Mandrake" is the name of a root that was always associated with magical powers and miraculous cures. Lothar was an African prince and one of the first black character treated in a serious way in Comic books, he was always considered as an intelligent and loyal ally. With original special effects for that time, the film deserves reverence to the great performance of Warren Hull, that gave life to one of the biggest icons of the Comic books of all times.