''Mandrake'' is a 1979 American

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Harry Falk and starring

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, and

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. Based on the comic strip ''

Mandrake the Magician ''Mandrake the Magician'' is a syndicated newspaper comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloon ...

'', the film follows a magician attempting to help an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

owner who is being blackmailed by a psychopath who is murdering guests.

Premise

The film follows Mandrake, a magician, and his assistant Lothar, who attempt to help an

proprietor being blackmailed by a psychopath who is murdering the park's customers.

Cast

Release

Critical response

Tom Buckley of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' panned the film, writing that "Rick Husky's script for this Universal Television presentation is a compilation of cliches. Harry Falks's direction is plodding. However, viewers can try a magic trick of their own. By turning the dial, they can make ''Mandrake'' disappear".

References

External links

* {{Mandrake the Magician 1979 films 1979 thriller films 1970s English-language films American thriller television films English-language thriller films Films about magic and magicians Films based on American comics Films based on comic strips Films set in amusement parks Films directed by Harry Falk (director) 1970s American films