The best swashbuckler ever made is how many regard 20th Century Fox's THE MARK OF ZORRO. Produced in 1940 for the studio by the uncredited Raymond Griffith and Darryl Zanuck the picture was Fox's answer to Warner Bros. who up to that time had, more or less, cornered the market with their finest array of swashbuckling adventures. With the perfect hero in Errol Flynn, who swept across our screens in such classics as "Captain Blood", "The Adventures Of Robin Hood" and "The Sea Hawk" and all to the brilliant music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, other studios found it difficult to equal Warner's expertise in creating such flagship adventures. But Fox's THE MARK OF ZORRO was one that did and in its star Tyrone Power they even had a comparable hero to Flynn. From a story "The Curse Of Capistrano" by Johnston McCully it was splendidly adapted for the screen by John Taintor Foote, crisply photographed in black and white by the great Arthur Miller and the whole thing was adroitly handled by Russian director Rouben Mamoulian.
It is 1820 and a nobleman's son Don Diago Vega (Tyrone Power) returns home to California after spending some years at a military school in Spain. But he finds the province has greatly changed and has fallen under the dictatorship of an autocratic governor Don Luis Quintero (J.Edward Bromberg) and his ruthless sword wielding army Captain Estaban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone). The people are heavily taxed and oppressed. Don Diago covertly takes up their cause and dons the guise of a masked avenger while maintaining a foppish and carefree persona to his family and friends. He raids the army coffers, returns to the peasants their meagre funds and avenges any harm that they incur. The picture ends with the people rising up against their oppressors, regaining their freedom from tyranny and Don Diago and Pasquale locked in an outstandingly staged sword fight to the death.
Performances are superb from the entire cast. The swashbuckling Don Diago Vega is one of Ty Power's most likable and best remembered roles. It also revealed his fine flair for comedy. As the fop he could be quite amusing (on being informed that the villainous Captain Pasquale was once a fencing instructor in Madrid Don Diago looks through his monocle at Pasquale, sighs wearily and quips "How exhausting"). It's a shame he didn't do more movies like this. Two years later he was a pirate on the high seas in the enjoyable "The Black Swan" and in 1947 he appeared in Fox's colourful epic on the Conquistadores "Captain From Castile" but that was all. Historical roles in "Prince of Foxes", "The Black Rose" and "Son Of Fury" were also enjoyable but none of these films ever gained any swashbuckling status. Excellent too was Basil Rathbone. His villain almost as sly and as cunning as his Guy of Gisbourne in "Robin Hood" two years earlier. And supplying the love interest was the lovely Linda Darnell who the following year would again star with Power in the Fox classic "Blood And Sand" again directed by Mamoulian. Also of interest is the casting of Eugene Palette as the church friar almost exactly the same role he played in "The Adventures of Robin Hood".
Of some note also is the brilliant score put together and conducted by Alfred Newman. The exciting main Zorro theme was written, not by Newman, but by the uncredited Hugo Friedhofer. It is an exhilarating heroic motif that the great Korngold himself would be proud to have written for Flynn. Great music is but one element that makes THE MARK OF ZORRO an unforgettable movie. Its popularity has endured since it was made almost 75 years ago and no doubt it will continue thrilling audiences for a long time to come.
It is 1820 and a nobleman's son Don Diago Vega (Tyrone Power) returns home to California after spending some years at a military school in Spain. But he finds the province has greatly changed and has fallen under the dictatorship of an autocratic governor Don Luis Quintero (J.Edward Bromberg) and his ruthless sword wielding army Captain Estaban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone). The people are heavily taxed and oppressed. Don Diago covertly takes up their cause and dons the guise of a masked avenger while maintaining a foppish and carefree persona to his family and friends. He raids the army coffers, returns to the peasants their meagre funds and avenges any harm that they incur. The picture ends with the people rising up against their oppressors, regaining their freedom from tyranny and Don Diago and Pasquale locked in an outstandingly staged sword fight to the death.
Performances are superb from the entire cast. The swashbuckling Don Diago Vega is one of Ty Power's most likable and best remembered roles. It also revealed his fine flair for comedy. As the fop he could be quite amusing (on being informed that the villainous Captain Pasquale was once a fencing instructor in Madrid Don Diago looks through his monocle at Pasquale, sighs wearily and quips "How exhausting"). It's a shame he didn't do more movies like this. Two years later he was a pirate on the high seas in the enjoyable "The Black Swan" and in 1947 he appeared in Fox's colourful epic on the Conquistadores "Captain From Castile" but that was all. Historical roles in "Prince of Foxes", "The Black Rose" and "Son Of Fury" were also enjoyable but none of these films ever gained any swashbuckling status. Excellent too was Basil Rathbone. His villain almost as sly and as cunning as his Guy of Gisbourne in "Robin Hood" two years earlier. And supplying the love interest was the lovely Linda Darnell who the following year would again star with Power in the Fox classic "Blood And Sand" again directed by Mamoulian. Also of interest is the casting of Eugene Palette as the church friar almost exactly the same role he played in "The Adventures of Robin Hood".
Of some note also is the brilliant score put together and conducted by Alfred Newman. The exciting main Zorro theme was written, not by Newman, but by the uncredited Hugo Friedhofer. It is an exhilarating heroic motif that the great Korngold himself would be proud to have written for Flynn. Great music is but one element that makes THE MARK OF ZORRO an unforgettable movie. Its popularity has endured since it was made almost 75 years ago and no doubt it will continue thrilling audiences for a long time to come.