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The
Mark of Zorro
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Enjoy the music from the film as you read the review:
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20th Century Fox attempted to duplicate Warner's success with Errol Flynn and The Adventures of Robin Hood by casting their young contract player Tyrone Power in a swashbuckler. Fox even used three of the cast members from Adventures of Robin Hood: Basil Rathbone as the villain, Eugene Pallette as the friar, and Montagu Love as Diego's father. Montagu Love played the Abbott in Adventures of Robin Hood. The Mark of Zorro was Power's first swashbuckler. I grew up watching Guy Williams play Zorro (in the Disney television series) and never thought I could enjoy anyone else in the role, but Tyrone Power succeeds in this swashbuckling role. The Mark of Zorro is a splendid costume adventure. There are actually two villains in the story: the greedy Alcalde (Governor), and Capitan Esteban Pasquale, a tyrant who wrings every centavo out of the peasants hands, and who flirts with the Alcalde's wife Inez. He was a former fencing instructor in Barcelona, who ended up in California because he had the misfortune of killing a man of influence. Wearing thigh-high boots and skin-tight white trousers, Esteban plays with his sword as he talks, swishing it in the air and practicing his lunges. "Some men toy with their canes, monocles or snuff boxes. I toy with my sword." Basil is perfect as the Captain, even with a British accent instead of a Spanish one. He is deliciously wicked. This role was also Rathbone's last classic swashbuckling villain role. |
 Rathbone and Gale Sondergaard |
 J. Edward Bromberg and Rathbone |
Gale Sondergaard (The Spider Woman) is perfectly cast as Inez Quintero, the bored wife of the Alcalde. She is enamored with Don Diego Vega, a new face in Los Angeles, newly arrived from Madrid. Diego has been summoned home to California by his father. There he finds that his father is no longer Alcalde of Los Angeles, having been replaced by Don Luis Quintero. Diego's father had hoped that Diego could lead the caballeros against the despots, but Diego believes they are outnumbered and fears they would lose. Posing as a fop, Diego convinces everyone that he is no threat to the status quo, but disguised as Zorro he steals from the rich and gives to the poor (shades of Robin Hood). Zorro enlists the padre's help to dispense money to the poor.
 Zorro takes the tax money. |
 He was HERE! In this very room! |
Although he doesn't know Zorro's identity, Capt. Esteban Pasquale suspects that Zorro is one of the caballeros. Believing that an alliance with the caballeros will prevent trouble, Esteban schemes with Quintero to arrange a marriage between his beautiful niece Lolita and Don Diego Vega. Lolita, played by ravishing, dark-eyed beauty Linda Darnell, is in love with Zorro, and Don Diego reveals his secret to her.
Later Esteban discovers the stolen money in the padre's possession. He arrests the padre, knowing it will force Zorro to act. Diego pays a visit to Quintero and has just about frightened him into signing his resignation when Esteban interrupts. Diego goads Esteban into a duel and kills him. Quintero figures out that Diego is Zorro and arrests him. Through trickery, Diego escapes and leads the people to overthrow the government.
The climactic fencing scene between Diego and Esteban is parodied in The Court Jester. When Esteban and Diego are about to duel, Esteban slices the top off of a candle with his sword. Tyrone also swipes at a candle with his sword but it appears as though he missed it. Esteban laughs and then Diego lifts the top of the candle off to show that he had sliced it so cleanly that the top hadn't fallen off. The dueling scene between Rathbone and Danny Kaye in The Court Jester was similar except that Danny Kaye sliced through a row of seven candles. When Rathbone laughed at him, Kaye turned his head and blew in the direction of the candles, and the tops fell off!
 Power: "The capitan's blade is not so firm." Rathbone: "Still firm enough to run you through." |
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Superb choreography by Fred Cavens can be enjoyed in the exhilarating dance with Lolita and Diego, and in the spectacular duel between Diego and Esteban. There is no grand staircase or knocking over furniture as in "Adventures of Robin Hood," but the duel is well staged, ending with Esteban run through and revealing the "Z" on the wall as he slides down the wall, dying. Rathbone was very skilled at fencing, having taken lessons since the age of eighteen. Power was extensively doubled in the duel by Albert Cavens, the son of choreographer Fred Cavens. Cavens also choreographed the duels between Rathbone and Errol Flynn in Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood.
See Page Two and Page Three for more pictures from The Mark of Zorro.
Cast |
Credits |
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Rathbone...Capt. Esteban Pasquale Tyrone Power......Zorro/Don Diego Vega Linda Darnell.....................Lolita Quintero Gale Sondergaard................Inez Quintero Eugene Pallette.........................Fray Felipe J. Edward Bromberg....Don Luis Quintero Montagu Love.........Don Alejandro Vega Janet Beecher...........Señora Isabella Vega Robert Lowery...............................Rodrigo Chris-Pin Martin...........................Turnkey George Regas.......................Sgt. Gonzalez Belle Mitchell.....................................Maria John Bleifer........................................Pedro |
Production
Co. ................20th Cent. Fox Producer.......................Raymond Griffith Director....................Rouben Mamoulian Screenplay................John Taintor Foote, .....................Garrett Fort, Bess Meredyth (based on the novel The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley) Cinematographer................Arthur Miller Editor...............................Robert Bischoff Music Composer............Alfred Newman Music Director................Alfred Newman Art Directors.........................Richard Day .......................................Joseph C. Wright Set Decorator......................Thomas Little Costume Design...............Travis Banton Choreographer.....................Fred Cavens |
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