Product Details

• Actors: Warren Hull, Doris Weston, Al Kikume, Rex Downing, Edward Earle
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Vci Video
• DVD Release Date: May 13, 2003
• Run Time: 215 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008YLUE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #140,452 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Mandrake the Magician" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ace Columbia cliffhanger; top print but repairs in Chapter 1, February 12, 2004

By 

Scott MacGillivray (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mandrake the Magician (DVD)

Columbia's cliffhangers tend to be campy or silly by serial standards, but this early effort (1939) is a very enjoyable adventure. The personable Warren Hull is excellent in the title role. Movie buffs will recognize many of the cast members from Columbia's "B" pictures and Three Stooges movies. Slick production and good direction by Sam Nelson and Norman Deming (who were usually assistant directors) push this one head and shoulders above the general run of Columbia serials. (Watch for a beautifully staged wrap-up in the last chapter, when the masked villain finally gets his!) A note about this video edition: the soundtrack of Chapter 1 was damaged, so the video producers hired actors and technicians to fake a new synchronized soundtrack. The repair job is rather distracting (the suave, pencil-mustached Kenneth MacDonald suddenly has a twangy Texas tenor), but it only lasts a few minutes; the rest of the serial is fully intact and the source print is in top shape. Picture and sound are excellent. The 2-DVD set also includes a selection of trailers from Mascot, Republic, and Universal serials. Highly typical of Saturday-matinee adventures, and a fine choice for first-time serial viewers or for fans who've never seen this long-unavailable film. (Let's hope VCI or Columbia will release the even better "Spider's Web" serial to home video.)

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Presto-Chango Serial-O Okay-O, November 14, 2004

By 

Laughing Gravy (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mandrake the Magician (DVD)

Okay, I'm going to start this review by admitting that I never liked heroic magicians in fancy suits, top hats, and tails. Even Zatanna, who had great legs, grated on me. So MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN began with a strike against it. On the other hand, it has Warren Hull, who was so excellent in THE SPIDER'S WEB (and pretty good in THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN, too). And of course Mandrake himself was created by Lee "The Phantom" Falk, so that's a third hand. And if you think that's impossible, well, he IS a magician.

A mysterious arch-criminal known as "The Wasp" (he actually wears a rather effeminate silk mask and cape, not a fierce-looking wasp get-up, unfortunately) is after a new invention that can... well, it can do something pretty terrible, I'll bet. Into the fray stumbles Mandrake, who, with his faithful giant African manservant Lothar, foils the various machinations of Mr. Silky Drawers. Only Lothar is, not a muscular ebon giant, but instead a rather doughy guy who looks like a Philippino and dresses like an extra in a Sinbad picture.

I liked the first couple of chapters; Mandrake does a magic trick or two, and occasionally tosses those nifty little smoke capsules and then sprints out of the room, leaving the villains wondering how the heck he did that. It gets tiresome, however, and pretty soon even Mandrake loses interest, tossing the capsules and then just standing there, waiting for the smoke to clear and the fisticuffs to continue. Not long into the serial, the magic angle is completely forgotten, the eveningwear goes in the closet, and for all intents and purposes Mandrake turns into Dick Tracy.

Ultimately, the darn thing is disappointing. A Mandrake serial should have done more with the mystical aspect of the character, even if only having its hero pull bunnies out of his hat to throw at the villains. It runs out of steam midway through, and - although at 12 chapters, it's the shortest of the 57 Columbia chapterplays - becomes rather tedious in the second half. Co-directors Sam Nelson and Norman Deming did one more serial together (OVERLAND WITH KIT CARSON) and then Columbia dumped them and handed over the serial reins to James W. Horne, who directed the next ten Columbia serials all by his lonesome.

VCI's DVD is good, not great. Some of the soundtrack of chapter one has decayed over the years, and voices were overdubbed for the DVD release, but if you cared about stuff like that, you wouldn't have read this far into the review anyway. Bonuses include a poster gallery, biographies, and serial trailers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mandrake The Magician, April 24, 2011

By 

Barry Hodges (Australia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mandrake the Magician (DVD)

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