CLIP FROM TURKISH MANDRAKE MOVIE

Late this summer, I had posted on this blog about an obscure Turkish movie from the late 1960s featuring Mandrake. Recently, I had been alerted by an old friend, David White from the US, that a short clip of scenes from this movie had been uploaded to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fGNdlixSs0
Enjoy..

TURKISH MANDRAKE MOVIE

The first adaptation of Mandrake the Magician to cinema was in the form of a serial in 1940. The first -and so far, only- Mandrake feature film would come from the low-budget exploitation cinema of Turkey in the late 1960s: Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde (Mandrake the King of the Magicians After Kiling). Made in 1967 or 1968, this very obscure movie pits Mandrake and Lothar against Killing, a photo-comics anti-hero of Italian origin which was very popular in Turkey at the time. The craze for the skeleton-costumed Killing was so high that Turkish filmmakers had made 10 movies featuring Killing (with variant spellings of the name) in 1967-68 and Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde was one of them, so this movie owes its existence as much to Killing as to Mandrake. On the above poster, Killing is depicted in the upper left, over Lothar's shoulders.
Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde was scripted and directed by Oksal Pekmezoğlu (b. 1938), an illustrator by training and by early profession who had picked up a career as movie director after entering the Turkish film industry initially as a credits sequence artist. His prolific post-Mandrake filmography includes movies from a variety of genres from mainstream musical melodramas to adult-oriented sex-comedies. Top-billed Güven Erte, who presumably plays Mandrake, is a little-known actor credited in supporting roles in several Turkish movies from the second half of the the 1960s, the Mandrake vs Killing movie being his only starring role.
Several sources name this movie as "Mandrake Killing'e Karşı [Mandrake vs Killing]", but that may only have been an unofficial promotional reference during the production or pre-production phases; both the official censorship documents and the movie's own release poster give the title as Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde. There is also an uncertainity as to dating the movie. Türk Filmleri Sözlüğü 1914-1973 compiled by Agah Özgüç and published by Turkish Filmmakers Union include this title, listed shortly as "Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde", under the year 1967 and hence all subsequent sources date it from that year. However, the censorship document of the movie, kindly made available to me by my friend Dilek Kaya, is dated August 28th, 1968. Perhaps the project for this production was announced in 1967, but the movie appears to have been made or at least completed in 1968. As for its release, I can not find any listing for it in Istanbul. The movie appeared as part of a double-bill in the Çelik cinema of the south-eastern city of Adana on May 24th, 1969. Of course, the fact that I couldn't find any Istanbul release info does not necessarily rule out the possibility of an unreported release in Istanbul, but I had been told earlier by another researcher friend of mine, Metin Demirhan, that Turkish Z-grade masked/super/anti-hero movies of the late 1960s were said to be especially popular among audiences in Adana and some of these movies were rumoured to have been made primarily or even exclusively for this market; Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde was perhaps one such movie.
The censorship document list the original running time as 75 minutes and the the censorhip commission has ordered the cutting of two "sex scenes" and one flogging scene! The brief synopsis on TFS 1914-1973 refers to the plot as "the adventure of an Indian princess who has come to İzmir on vacation," so the movie appears to be set in the Turkish western coastal city of İzmir, probably also shot there, at least partially. The second-billed name in the cast credits list on the poster is actress Mine Mutlu who might have played the "Indian princess".
Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde has never been shown in Turkish televisions nor had been available during the video boom of the 1980s, so it was believed to have been a lost movie. However, Demirhan had once told me, about ten years ago, that he had heard that a 16 mm copy was present in the private collection of a collector. Indeed, a Turkish blog reported in 2009 that a battered 16 mm copy of Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde was leased from a private collector in Ankara, repaired as best as possible in Istanbul and a transfer was made onto Betacam tape which was then sent to Greece-based Onar Film, a fan-driven label which had been releasing obscure Turkish Z-movies on dvd. Unfortunately, the owner&manager of Onar would become critically ill in 2010 before he could release on dvd the recently-discovered Killing movie he had hinted in his blog. Onar has sadly been inactive since then.
I conclude this post with the below mega-rare photo still from Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake Kiling'in Peşinde:

MANDRAKE'S RETURN TO X

Mandrake the Magician had a few science-fiction adventures in the pre-war era, but, if I am not mistaken, none in the 1940s until 'The Amazing Ray' daily strip adventure, which involves a ray that shrinks people to miniscule size, from 1949 (probably inspired by the movie Dr. Cyclops from 1940). When science-fiction adventures became prolific in the 1950s, Mandrake's first-ever foray into the genre, 'The Chamber into the X Dimension' from 1936-37 (see below post), would serve as a model for more than one Mandrake adventure. 'The Doorway to Z', a Sunday continuity from 1952, is a watered-down remake, with another scientist inventing a doorway to an unknown world where human beings have been enslaved for hard labor by living balloon-like entities. While the gist of the plot is similar, the comical-looking rulers of Z are nowhere as menacing as the metal men and the crystal men of X. 'The Place Called X', a Sunday continuity from 1957, is very loosely related despite the designation X. Here, inhabitants of an American town and investigating Mandrake are sucked into a distant planet where peaceful (and fat and short) inhabitatants are threatened by fire people. However, Mandrake and Lothar would actually revisit the X of metal men and crystal men decades later in a direct sequel to 'The Chamber into the X Dimension' appropriately titled as 'Return to X'. Serialized as a Sunday continuity in 1974, 'Return to X' starts with Fran, who had chosen to remain in X at the end of 'The Chamber into the X Dimension', sending a distress message to Mandrake who then pays a visit to her father who had invented the chamber to travel to X. Mandrake, together with Lothar, use the chamber once again to be transferred to X where they re-encounter practically all the figures from their first visit, the metal men, the tree-men, the fire-bird and the crystal men, except the lake-monster. Actually, one panel in particular involves an exact rendition of a pose of a metal man...

from that of a panel from 1936!:

It turns out that Fran and her mate have been captured by the crystal men and Mandrake leads their rescue. She opts to stay in X once again.
'Return to X' was serialized in Turkey in 1977 in the no.'s 145-146 of the Mandrake weekly published by Tay Yayınları. Later, this story provided the basis of two cover illustrations, no. 222 (dated Sept. 29, 1978) and no. 242 (dated Feb. 16th, 1979)
The illustration on no. 222 is signed by Aslan Şükür, the most prolific cover artist for Tay, and while I can not spot any signature on no. 242, I think it is also by the same illustrator. Note that one of the metal men in no. 222 has actually been redrawn from a panel in 'Return to X':

MANDRAKE'S FIRST SCI-FI ADVENTURE (1936-37)

Mandrake the Magician's first foray into science-fiction was with his 5th Sunday newspaper comics continuity, 'Chamber into the X-Dimension' from 1936-37. This adventure was one of the few Mandrake adventures reprinted in comics book format in the post-war era. Retitled as In the Land of X, it was published as no. 52 of David McKay Co.'s Feature Book series in 1948. I recently bought a copy of this issue from ebay and today read it, my first exposure to this truely marvelous adventure properly in its original form in color and in English.
Mandrake and Lothar meet scientist Prof. Theobold who had, "by means of molecular disintegration and atomic bombardment", invented a chamber through which one can be transferred into the "X Dimension." Professor is very distressed because his daughter Fran had volunteered to discover this new dimension, but hasn't returned from it. So, Mandrake and Lothar volunteer to search for her: "Lothar and I have been everyhere else. The 'X' Dimension sounds interesting. Lead the way, professor." In the X Dimension, our heroes are captured by metal men who use the human population as slaves for hard labor. Fran, who has also been captured, explains to Mandrake (p.9):

Our protagonists manage to flee during an attack of a "fire-bird" on the metal men (p.11):
Outside in the wilderness, they meet peaceful plant men, which provide an opportunity for laughs as Lothar (who, by the way, speaks in pigeon English and refers to Mandrake as "master" in this era of white supremacy) vainly tries to feed himself off the plants. Next, they are captured by crystal men who are even more vicious than the metal men as they skin humans alive!, note how perceptive Mandrake is in the fourth panel below (p.19):
Just when they thought it was safer to jump into the waters of a lake by the city of the crystal men than to face them again, our heroes face one more and an unexpected peril (p.22):
No worries, Mandrake will be saved in the nick of time by Lothar who quicky jumps with a spear in hand. For this, he gets the praise "He thought fast!". So, afterall, Lothar is acknowled as having a brain as well as muscles. The remaining pages are devoted to Mandrake inciting the humans of the X Dimension to rise up against their oppressors, the metal men and the crystal men. In the happy end, Fran, who has fallen in love with the leader of the human population of X, decides to stay in the X Dimension (just like Jane of Tarzan).
I think 'Chamber into the X-Dimension' is a minor classic of early 20th century science-fiction that, as entertainment presents highly imaginative mise-ancences in a fast-paced action-filled narrative, which at the same time embody the nightmare fantasy of a reversal of humanity's domination and exploitation of all non-human, organic as well as non-organic elements of the world.
Mandrake and Lothar would re-visit the X Dimension decades later, but that will be covered in the next post in this blog, so stay tuned in.

MANDRAKE IN AFACAN (1942-43)

While Mandrake the Magician was already being serialized in Türkiye Yayınevi's 1001 Roman during the war-time era, it also appeared simultanously for about a year in another comics weekly from a different publisher. The weekly in question was Afacan published by Ömer Lütfi Tarhan in 1942-43. The fact that two different publishers carried Mandrake simultanously indicates that neither of them had officially licensed it. Mandrake, billed here as "Büyücüler Kralı [King of the Wizards]", a slight variation on 1001 Roman's "Sihirbazlar Kralı [King of the Magicians]" tagline, began to be featured on the cover pages of Afacan from its first issue (dated July 30th, 1942) onwards. The adventures reprinted in color in the covers originated from adventures originally serialized in the color Sunday newspapers in the US: 'Altın Şehirde [In the Golden City]', a Sunday adventure originally from 1939, in no.'s 1-21, 'Fuarda', a Sunday gag-continuity from 1938, in no.'s 22-25, and an untitled (whose origin I couldn't yet identify) gag in no. 26.
Beginning with no. 27, Mandrake was shifted onto the b&w interior pages of Afacan. The first adventure to be serialized there was titled as 'Hırsızlar Peşinde [Following the Thieves]', which was the Turkish edition of Mandrake's fourth daily strip adventure in terms of the sequence of the strip's original run in the US newspapers. Ateş, 1001 Roman's precessor from 1937-38, had curiously skipped this adventure from 1935, where Mandrake meets the soon-to-be-recurrent villain Clay Camel for the first time, when it had serialized the earliest strips. Unfortunately, the Turkish edition in Afacan is incomplete as well as censored. Afacan began to serialize it half way through the original continuity (from strip originally dated 9-16 onwards) and left out the final four daily strips as well, hence actually leaving Narda with Clay Camel disguised as Mandrake! In addition, two kissing sequences are completely deleted from the Turkish edition. See below the second instance from an Italian reprint (from 1991) and its Turkish counterpart from Afacan:
Also note that the scantily-clad Narda's bare belly has been painted over to make her appear dressed more modestly..
After 'Hırsızlar Peşinde' ended rather prematurely, an untitled Mandrake adventure began on no. 33. This was the 'werewolf' adventure, the 5th daily strip continuity which had previously been serialized in Ateş in 1938. By this time, the dire economic situation of the war-time era was apparently taking its toll on Afacan as paper and printing quality began to detoriate. Mandrake would be missing in no. 37 and when it resumed in the next issue, the image quality was at an all-time low. With no. 39, Afacan began to print Mandrake in a traced form. And that would not last long either as the werewolf adventure was left incomplete on no. 40 (*). Afacan, without Mandrake, survived for two more issues only.
(*) Actually, I am not sure if the werewolf adventure had been carried to its conclusion in Ateş either as the last few issues of that publication are missing in my collection.

OBSCURE MANDRAKE PUBLICATIONS FROM TURKEY (1940-51)

In 1939, a fad of publishing "sinema romanları [cinema novels]", novelizations of movies, emerged among low-budget publishers of Turkey. It should be noted that the name 'novel' might be misleading, these were usually 16 pages-long booklets issued often in weekly periods. One of the leading figures of this fad was Güven Basımevi [Güven Printinghouse] which put out close to 50 such titles in a few years. One of the titles in Güven Basımevi's list is Mandrake - Sihirbazlar Kralı (1940), which is probably a novelization of the film serial Mandrake the Magician (1939) which was released in Turkey in 1940. The book reportedly carries the credit "recounted by" Selami Münir Yurdatap, one of the most prolific authors of cheap popular fiction in Turkey. Yurdatap is also the author of the indigenous Sihirbazlar Kralı Mandrake İstanbulda [Mandrake the King of the Magicans in Istanbul] from 1943. Unfortunately, I have never come across any of these two early Mandrake books by Yurdatap myself, but I was lucky to get a fair-condition copy of his bizarre Tarzan ve Mandrake Mücadelesi [The Struggle Between Tarzan and Mandrake] from 1951. This 16 pages long booklet actually features four different stories by different authors, with the top-billed Tarzan vs Mandrake story by Yurdatap being the longest at six pages. Here is the plot summary: Mandrake and Lothar are visiting Africa, Dakar to be more precise. Lothar tells his master about a plant called Katopi which makes those who eat it invincible. This plant is to be found only in the 'jungle of the lions' where Tarzan happens to reside. Off to this jungle, Mandrake uses his powers to have a lion and a snake to attack Tarzan, but the lord of the jungle manages to kill the beasts. Impressed by this display of bravery and strength, Mandrake gives up his intention to fetch the magic plant which Tarzan guards. The two heros befriend and Mandrake leaves the jungle empty-handed, assured that the friendship of Tarzan is more valueable than any magic plant. Tarzan ve Mandrake Mücadelesi is from a series called 'Bizim Hikayeler [Our Stories]', but oddly there is no publisher info printed anywhere, only an adress of a distributor. The cover illustration is by Turkish artist Mehmet Tekdal.
In addition to Yurdatap's Mandrake books, the records of the Turkish National Library in Ankara lists two Mandrake titles from 1001 Macera series of circa 1944: 'İki Mandrake Karşı Karşıya [Two Mandrakes Against Each Other]' and 'Deli Kral [The Crazy King]'. These are probably comics (see this post on a Phantom comics from 1001 Macera), but I can not say whether they are by Turkish comics artists or Turkish editions of American strips.
Finally, I should add that Hakan Alpin's Çizgi Roman Ansiklopedisi (İnkilap Kitabevi, 2006:Istanbul) notes that the weekly comics Baytekin ile Bayçetin published by Mustafa Kızıltan featured (perhaps as secondary, filler material?, it's not clear from Alpin's wording) the strip 'Bay Tekin ve Mandraki Ankaraya Gidiyor [Mr Tekin and Mandraki Goes to Ankara]' by the then-young Turkish comics artist Şahap Ayhan; Baytekin was the name usually given to Flash Gordon in pre-war and war-time Turkish editions. Alpin fails to give a precise date for Baytekin ile Bayçetin, but records of the National Library clearly list it as being from 1944.

MANDRAKE IN 1001 ROMAN SPECIAL ISSUES (1940-46)

Between 1940-46, Türkiye Yayınevi published monthly "special issues" of 1001 Roman alongside the weekly comics magazine of the same title. Unlike the tabloid-format weekly magazine, these issues were smaller in size and each issue headlined a complete adventure of one comics character. Mandrake was featured in eight of these monthly issues, beginning with no. 1 (Jan. 1940). The Mandrake adventure in no. 1 is called 'Hindistanda [In India]' and was originally serialized in American Sunday newspapers in 1935 (it was the 2nd Mandrake adventure ran in the Sunday comics format), but the Turkish edition is slightly abridged.
The first three issues of the "special issue" series included a shorter, second comics story of a different character alonside the main featured character and Mandrake was featured in this way in no. 2 (Feb. 1940), which was a Lone Ranger issue, as well. Titled as 'Haydutlar kralına karşı [Against the King of the Bandits]', this filler comics is the first-ever Mandrake adventure originally ran in the Sunday newspapers, but the mere five-pages long Turkish edition reprints its conclusion only (thanks to Marko Davidovic for leading me to this blog post for comparison).
Below is a list of the remaining Mandrake issues from the 1001 Roman special issues:
#10 (Oct. 1940): 'Tekinsiz Evin Esrarı [The Mystery of the Uncanny House]', originally daily strip continuity #13 (1938); slightly abridged
#16 (Apr. 1941): 'Merihli İnsanlar [Martian People]', originally daily strip continuity #16 (1938); slightly abridged

#23 (Nov. 1941 [on-print date: Nov. "1940", a typo): 'Zehirli Kılıç [The Poisened Sword]', originally daily strip continuity #14 (1938); slightly abridged
#29 (May. 1942): 'Sudan Şahı [The Shah of Sudan]', originally daily strip continuity #7 (1936); starts half-way through the original adventure and the rest still slightly abridged
#69 (Sept. 1945): untitled, originally Sunday continuity #8 (1938); starts half-way through the original adventure

#75 (Mar. 1946*): untitled, originally Sunday continuity #13 (1940)
* last issue of the series

MANDRAKE IN 1001 ROMAN (1939-46)

In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the 2nd World War, Tahsin Demiray's Türkiye Yayınevi, one of the leading pulishers of popular magazines in Turkey, launched the weekly 1001 Roman, Turkey's first comics magazine modeled on the European comics format (see this earlier post on a general coverage of this magazine). Mandrake the Magician soon joined the roster of comic strips serialized in this hugely popular magazine, beginning with no. 18 (dated Nov. 6th, 1939), as 'Mandrake - Sihirbazlar Kralı [Mandrake - The King of the Magicians]', a byline which would stuck with the character so much in Turkey that when, decades later, a weekly Mandrake comics would be launched in 1974, the logo on the first pages would once again utilize it.
The first two Mandrake adventures serialized in 1001 Roman were from American Sunday newspaper serials, reprinted in b&w here, but most of the subsequent adventures originated from daily strips. Between no.'s 87-108, Mandrake was published in the back covers and hence in color. With no. 197, after the end of the adventure where Mandrake faces his arch-nemesis Cobra for the second time (in terms of the strip's original run in US newspapers), 1001 Roman started re-running earlier adventures previously serialized in Ateş, beginning with Mandrake's first-ever adventure where he meets Cobra for the first time. So, the readers of 1001 Roman were presented with Mandrake's first encounter with Cobra after they were presented with the second encounter... It should also be noted that 1001 Roman, in the same manner as Ateş had done six years ago, presented Mandrake's first-ever adventure in an abridged form, omitting several panels, but the panels omitted in 1001 Roman were not same as those in Ateş, so 1001 Roman had not simply reprinted Ateş's edition; in anycase, the Turkish translation and the lettering were also different:
1001 Roman halted serializing Mandrake in 1945 after re-running three of the four adventures previously serialized in Ateş. After about a year of hiatus, one more Mandrake adventure was serialized in 1946, ending with the cessation of the publication of the weekly with no. 350. The final Mandrake adventure serialized in 1001 Roman was a daily strip continuity, originally run in US newspapers in 1938, where Mandrake visits Hollywood, but the Turkish editors began to serialize this continuity half-way through its first sub-plot and ended half-way through its second sub-plot at a convenient point when Mandrake teaches a spoiled child star some manners, before the kid gets kidnapped which was actually the main plot point of the narrative.
Here is a complete list of Mandrake adventures serialized in this Turkish comics weekly with the no.'s in 1001 Roman (and the years these issues were published), Turkish title [and translation], the conventional code referring to the sequence of American Sunday/daily strips (and the years they were originally ran in the US newspapers):
#18-36 (1939-40) Cüceler Ülkesinde [In the Land of the Midgets] s3 (1935-36)
#37-54 (1940) Gelecekte Bir Seyahat [A Voyage in the Future] s5 (1936-37)
#55-75 (1940) untitled d21 (1940)
#76-95 (1940-41) Sirkte Yangın [Fire at the Circus] s4 (1936)
#96-110 (1941) "Atmaca" Yarış Atı ["Hawk" the Race Horse] d10/2nd subplot (1937-38)
#111-132 (1941-1942) untitled d15 (1938)
#133-166 (1942) Meçhul Dünyalarda [In Unknown Worlds] d8 (1936-37)
#167-196 (1942-43) Kobra'ya Karşı [Against the Cobra] d9 (1937)
#197-246 (1943-44) Esrarengiz Adam [The Mysterious Man] d1 (1934)
#247-274 (1944) Dar Geçit [The Narrow Pass] d3 (1935)
#275-296 (1944-45) Gizli Oyun Yeri [The Secret Game Place] d2 (1934-35)
#342-350 (1946) untitled d11/only from 3-22 to 4-20 (1938)
Between 1940-46, Türkiye Yayınevi also published monthly 1001 Roman "special issues", and Mandrake were featured in several of them, but that will be covered in the next post in this blog.

MANDRAKE IN ATEŞ (1937-38)

In an earlier post in this blog, I had covered the debut of Mandrake the Magician strips in Turkey in 1935 in an actuality magazine for grown-ups. This post will cover Mandrake's second appearance in Turkey which marks its first appearance in a Turkish publication designed for children. The publication in question was the weekly Ateş [Fire] published by Türkiye Yayınevi, a leading publisher of popular magazines in Turkey in the pre-war era. Mandrake the Magician began to be serialized as 'Mandrake - Şimşek Adam [Mandrake - The Lighting Man]' in two pages each issue format in Ateş with no. 14 (dated Feb. 2nd, 1937), joining two other comics series:The Mandrake adventure serialized in this first series of Ateş was his first-ever daily strip continuity originally from 1934, where he meets his arch-nemesis Cobra, which had already been serialized in Turkey in Büyük Gazete in 1935. However, while the former publication had began its Mandrake series with a perfect reprint (I don't have all the issues of BG with Mandrake, so I can not confirm if it continued that way to the end), Ateş presented it in an abridged form, omitting several panels, even entire strips.
Mandrake also appeared in the cover of no. 36, the first-ever appearance of the character on the cover of a Turkish publication:
The cover art is by Ercümend Kalmuk (1909-1971), a staff illustrator for Türkiye Yayınları.
Mandrake's first adventure ended in no. 52 which was also the last issue of the first series of Ateş. The magazine enlarged its size and started new enumeration soon afterwards. Mandrake was the only comics in this new series of Ateş and it was serialized on the back covers. The Mandrake adventures serialized in the second series of Ateş are 'Gizli Oyun Yeri [The Secret Game Place]', the 2nd daily strip continuity from its original run, where Mandrake meets his future-lover Narda, 'Kızıl Geçitteki Dev [The Giant At The Red Pass]', the 3rd daily strip continuity, and 'Kurtadam [The Werewolf]', the 5th daily strip continuity. For some reason, Ateş had skipped the 4th daily strip continuity where Mandrake meets the Clay Camel, who would be one of the recurrant villains, and is also temporarily re-united with Narda.
Following Ateş, Mandrake's next appearance in Turkey would be in Türkiye Yayınevi's full-fledged comics weekly 1001 Roman, but that will be covered in the next post in this blog.