Greetings Langy - if nostalgia is what you want, the Mallory is a good working period piece no doubt. It requires some knowledge of how to set the dual points - but it sounds to me like you already know that drill. The best, most reliable "sparkerizers" on the market today are undoubably from MSD - just takes some serious coins to get on board.
There are several different electronic ignition "add-on" kits for the Y distributors - particularly if you can grab a housing from a 57 or later. Ignitor, Accel, Crane - jump to mind. Every last one of them will saturate a coil (meaning they will pump out serious sparks) better than the old Mallory at virtually any engine speed - and because the factory style distributor will support vacuum advance - you win. Reliability and parts availability are another issue when it comes to the add-ons. Some have had great luck with them - HoLun hates a particular brand - and some have nothing but praise. A couple of my buddies were stranded by lack of parts for an aftermarket system (but they also could have carried a spare or some emergency points too).
After some research (and going through my wallet) I finally went to a Y distributor with a Ford electronics package. It has common service parts (at least for now) - and the trigger mechanism that goes into the distributor housing is super reliable - and its also exactly the same as the one MSD installs in their distributor. Not only that but MSD, sells a plug in connector for it so that you could just use it to fire an MSD CDI box by direct connection. I would highly recommend this set-up for a hot rod. MSD makes very reliable, virtually OEM quality aftermarket parts and few will argue the point. Takes some coins though.
I had a Ford Duraspark II electronic system go over 160,000 miles on my old 1979 F-150 - so as far as durability goes, it gets my vote. To build the most reliable system - with the best performance, (for the least expense) I'm just running what is a virtual clone of the F-150's ignition, with a nice spark curve and vacuum advance. I've got a spare controller in the trunk (that I bought on ebay for $15) and that ought to do the trick for a cross-country cruise or two. When my T-bird is done, she is going to hit the road.
Steve Metzger Tucson, Arizona