The Mark of Zorro

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian

Starring: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard, Eugene Pallette

From: 20^th Century Fox

A rousing swashbuckling adventure I was more than happy to view yesterday. Admittedly, while I’ve known of the film for years now, it was an enthusiastic review from a Letterboxd mutual recently which sparked the desire to check out something different from what’s been the norm as of late. Thankfully, it delivered exactly the type of thrills I was hoping for.

Most probably are familiar with the Zorro story by now but in brief: Don Diego Vega is the foppish dandy son of a wealthy rancher; yes, this implies he’s a homosexual which of course is only implied in the early film adaptations such as this. He is called back from Madrid (where he received military education) and discovers that his area of California (then part of Mexico, which then was still a Spanish colony) is ruled by villains, where military man Basil Rathbone is actually the brains of the operation. Vega decides to become a masked avenger to fight against injustice. Why yes, it does sound similar to Batman-in fact, I know the original Bruce Wayne lore was that he and his parents saw this film the night his parents were murdered.

This is a classic adventure story where the heroes (including Vega’s parents and his friar friend Felipe, played by the froggy voiced Eugene Pallette in a role rather reminiscent to his Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood) are easy to root for while it was easy to hiss at the villains. There’s action on horseback, the peasants uprising at the tyranny, sword fights that naturally included former British Military fencing champion Rathbone, a few laughs, and of course romance involving the lovely Linda Darnell… let’s just ignore the fact that the character she portrayed was noted as being just under 18!

This features the expected action on horseback and an incredible sword fight in the final act; Tyrone Power was great as the hero who puts on those foppish airs as a ruse and could also be a badass when needed. The Alfred Newman score is also pretty spectacular. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore; for those that also pine wistfully for motion pictures like this, The Mark of Zorro is well worth at least a streaming rental.