Tag Archives: minstrel show

Mandrake in Film

So, Mandrake in films … I will leave out the boring details (yes, there’s the serial, the pilot made in 1954 and the TV movie from 1979), to focus on the important stuff, so grab on to your top hats because here we go!!!

  • From Federico Fellini’s Intervista, Mastroianni playing Mandrake:

  • From Vittorio De Sicca’s segment of Le Streghe (with Clint Eastwood!):

mandrake-le-streghe

The daydreaming scene, which takes about 1 minute, includes other characters like The Phantom, Sadik, Batman, Diabolik and Flash Gordon … The inspiration for Defenders of the Earth? Most likely! (Yes, I just mentioned crossovers again, what do you want from me?)

le-streghe

  • And, last but not least, the Turkish Mandrake Killing’e Karşı, which features:

A likable enough Mandrake (Jean DuJardin’s father?):

mandrake

Classic Killing:

killing

Killing in disguise as a chauffeur:

killing-driver

Lothar Abdullah in full minstrel show make-up (let it to the Turks to make it so easy to link Mandrake and Jurgens):

lothar

The best thing is that the movie is fully subtitled (quality is so-so, but if you need more than that, maybe this is not the perfect movie for you) and available (for now, but I guess with lost Turkish movies, this means forever) at youtube, so enjoy without moderation:

Update: Seems I spoke too fast and the movie has been removed … Hope someone else was able to enjoy it, but I am sure there are other ways to find it.

Dubgens

Another week, another Jurgens song that can be uncovered. This time we take a look at another track from The Minstrel Show … This time, the song is called Dyin’ Ain’t All:

dyin aint all

As a bonus, we include the dub version of the same song taken from the 1999 Jurgens dub tribute album: The Minstrel Dub – A Tribute to the Minstrel Show:

dyin aint all (dub)

The Minstrel Show The Minstrel Dub

Jurgens: the dark period

In an effort to bring you the best of the forgotten, we want to bring you another hidden treasure from Germany. Please be aware that the chronology of his career gets really confusing after the late 60’s and that there is close to no literature on this genius.

From what we can gather, this track (obtained after years of begging in the collectors’ circuit) comes from the dark period of Jurgens’s life (if he is really a person and not a collective as it has been suggested in the last few years).

The 70’s were not easy for this influential figure. There are some reports of his brutal encounter with heroin, during which he recorded a few albums as Jürgens. Most of the songs in those albums served the only purpose of attacking himself, Jurgens (as opposed to Jürgens), for selling out to the majors (which, of course, never happened, as he continued to self-publish all of his records).

It seems that after having a hand in the composition of Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music”, he decided to turn his interest to American folklore and recorded the 1977 conceptual album “Minstrel Show”. Lack of taste or genius parody of American society? That’s for all of us to interpret … We give you “Eat ’em candles too”!!!

Eat them candles too, huuuuuuuuuey!