Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Steineded How sad is this?

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Mikel3 Since I was a boy I've been a fan of the swashbucklers; Errol Flynn was in most of my favorites with a few exceptions...like this gem 'The Mark of Zorro'. It just doesn't get any better than this. Tyrone Power was near perfect in the role. He seems to relish playing his character's dual personality, pretending Diego is pompous, ornately dressed, frail and pampered, or as his secret identity, the brave and daring swordsman Zorro. It's the type of tale common to these films yet still intriguing...a man is called back to his home only to find the once happy people there are now cruelly mistreated by a greedy tyrant. As Zorro, he robs the tax money back from the tyrant to give to the poor and punishes the abusers. For some reason, not clear to me, he lets his father and mother think his time away has changed him into the delicate man described above. Other people like the local padre and the woman he falls for do learn his secret rather early on...so I'm curious as to why he kept his parents in the dark. Two alumni from another swashbuckler gem 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' are in this movie...Basil Rathbone and Eugene Palette. Their characters are much the same here. Mr. Palette is basically playing a Hispanic version of Friar Tuck and Mr. Rathbone is a variation of the Sheriff of Nottingham, with the lovely Linda Darnell in the Maid Marian type role. The actors are all perfect in their parts so it's fine that we've seen it before. The rousing music added to the experience; I believe it was partly composed by Alfred Newman. The ending will leave you smiling.I would like to add that I watched this in the colorized version for the first time. I'd seen it in the original B/W many times before. I know the valid arguments against colorizing classics, still I have to say this looked stunning in color. For me it added a new dimension to a favorite. Here the color bought out the beauty of the women and detail of the intricate costumes and scenery. I found myself looking at the detail of the uniforms, even the shining silver of the belt buckle on Mr. Rathbone's guard uniform and such.I rate this film a 10 out of 10 stars.

disinterested_spectator My first introduction to the character Zorro was in an old serial they showed on television in the early 1950s when I just a kid, to wit, "Zorro's Fighting Legion" (1939). Needless to say, I was fascinated by the parts where Zorro was all decked out in his black outfit, complete with cape, sword, and whip. The television station followed up by presenting an earlier serial, "Zorro Rides Again" (1937), and though I didn't care for his mask, I still paid more attention to the parts where he was in costume and not so much to the parts where he is in ordinary dress pretending to be weak and lazy. And I was thrilled when Disney studios produced a television series entitled simply "Zorro" in 1957. As before, it was the parts where I got to see Zorro gallivanting about that I was interested in, not so much the part where he is Don Diego de la Vega.Whether I preferred the parts where Zorro is doing stuff was because I was a child or whether it was because these two serials and the television series were juvenile in nature, I cannot say. But it was quite a surprise for me when, as a college student, I saw "The Mark of Zorro" for the first time. Of course, it had the star quality of such actors as Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone, as well as the production values of a major studio, all of which were bound to make it much better than what I had seen previously. But what really struck me was the fact that the parts of the movie featuring Zorro constituted a relatively small amount of screen time, which was greatly exceeded by the amount of time devoted to Don Diego. The emphasis on Don Diego in this movie even went so far as to have him fight the climactic duel as Diego and not as Zorro. In this, the movie followed the 1920 version with Douglas Fairbanks. But most movies do not do this, choosing instead to have the climactic duel fought by Zorro. For example, the made-for-television version starring Frank Langella has the actor in full Zorro regalia in the final showdown.The amount of screen time given to Zorro versus Diego determines the kind of movie it is. A costumed character is exciting to watch, but he is all action and external appearance. He must be in constant motion, running, riding, fighting, and so forth. If he stands still for too long, he begins to look silly, especially if he is wearing a cape. It is with his secret identity, Diego in the case of Zorro movies, that we get to know the man, to learn what he thinks and feels. Moreover, we get to watch him acting a part in order to keep people from suspecting that he is the one who wears the mask. In this case, the part is that of a fop. It is a pretense also used in "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (1934), starring Leslie Howard as the title character and as Sir Percy Blakeney, but Howard's performance in that role was over the top and irritating. Diego's foppery as performed by Tyrone Power, on the other hand, is so good that we find ourselves impatiently waiting for the Zorro scenes to end so that we can have more Diego.

gizmomogwai According to The Dark Knight Returns, this version of Zorro was the one that partially inspired little Bruce Wayne to become Batman (the character inspired Batman's creators in real life). And seeing The Mark of Zorro (1940), one can see plainly how it could inspire. It looks like a smaller production than 1998's The Mask of Zorro (only a one-letter difference in the title), but The Mark of Zorro has solid production values and plenty of life and action anyway. It thus does as much justice to the character of Zorro as Zorro did for California.Tyrone Power plays Don Diego Vega, a master swordsman who returns to California from Spain, only to find his governor father overthrown and replaced by a tyrant. Power succeeds in portraying a character with a double life, a foppish Don Diego Vega and a heroic Zorro. One thing I thought was a little lacking was why he chose to take the form of a masked bandit or why he chose the name Zorro. And doesn't the fact that Zorro explicitly wants his father back on the throne make Don Diego Vega a little suspicious? On the other hand, the way he acts unmasked would take a little away from any suspicion. The film has plenty of swashbuckling action scenes that offer excitement without gore; with a dash of romance and sex appeal (Zorro falls in love with his enemy's beautiful young niece, kind of like how the new Zorro loves his enemy's adopted daughter in the 1998 film). This is what a Zorro film should be.

TheLittleSongbird Where to begin praising The Mark of Zorro(1940)? An immensely fun film that never fails to put a smile on my face, and while the Douglas Fairbanks version is a classic and one of his best films and the Antonio Banderas film is entertaining it is this that comes across as the definitive version. The period detail has a great deal of charm and authenticity and the film is shot beautifully, serving the action scenes really well rather than cheapening them. The action sequences themselves are simply terrific, edge-of-your-seat quality and so entertaining to watch. The highlights are the chase sequences and especially the sword fight between Diego and Pasquale, the swordplay expertly choreographed and played without ever becoming clumsy. Alfred Newman's score adds a huge amount, very rousing with a main theme that gives off a once heard, never forgotten vibe. The dialogue is appropriately witty and the story is ceaselessly engaging, complete with emotional impact, exciting energy and tension. There is nothing obvious in the direction that comes across as a fault, and the acting is fine. Linda Darnell brings genuine beauty and pathos to the female lead, Eugene Palette is suitably craggy Gale Sondergaard is equally memorable. But the acting honours do go to Tyrone Power, whose dashing, charismatic performance is a career-best and Basil Rathbone on superbly evil form and in a way that is quite distinctive. Summing up, a classic, definitive version and a wonderful film in its own right. 10/10 Bethany Cox