The Mark Of Zorro Details

This is based on a story called The Curse of Capistrano about the seemingly effete dandy, Don Diego Vega, a sort of American-Mexican Scarlet Pimpernel who leads a double life as Zorro, a masked avenger and expert swordsman and wages a war on tyranny. Combining adventure with a dash of romance and some comedy touches, the film gave Douglas Fairbanks the first of the swashbuckling roles that revealed his astonishing athleticism and earned him immortality. Directed by Fred Niblo, it co-stars Marguerite De La Motte as the woman who has no time for Don Diego, but is in love with Zorro. The story refused to lie down: Fairbanks had another go with Don Q, Son of Zorro in 1925 and it resurfaced in 1998 as The Mask of Zorro, with Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins. But the 1940 version, The Mark of Zorro with Tyrone Power, is generally considered the best.

Splendid adventure stuff for boys of all ages, an amalgam of The Scarlet Pimpernel and Robin Hood to which in this version the director adds an overwhelming pictorial sense which makes it stand out as the finest of all.