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.
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.