COE NORTON - MANDRAKE

     Coe starred as Mandrake the Magician  in the ill-fated TV show.  Woody Strode played Prince Lothar, and Lisa Howard played Princess Narda.  It should have been a big hit, but not a single episode was broadcast.

Only the pilot episode still exists, and the plot is as follows. 

     Mandrake was performing at the Parakeet Club, assisted by Lothar and Narda. Narda was then  kidnapped by enemy spies. Their leader ordered them to his hideout, where they found Narda and an agent who’d been tortured. Mandrake was forced to use his hypnotic powers on him and he revealed their escape plans by submarine. He and Narda were imprisoned, but Lothar rescued them, and they raced off to stop the spies . 

Lothar battled some henchmen in the surf. Mandrake threw a  knife at a spy. He dropped his gun, and the bad guys were defeated. “How did you escape?” the spy asked. Mandrake replied with the cliche, "A good magician never reveals his secrets.”

Coe in Mandrake the Magician.

     John Tudor's mini-documentary on the 1954 Mandrake the Magician .

Mandrake mini-documentary