El Zorro y los tres mosqueteros

A romantic adventure about royal kidnapping, friendship across the trenches and high treason!

Or, if you prefer: an Italian imitation of a Hollywood adventure film. Nevertheless, director Capuano manages to lift his film above the cinecitta- cardboard sets and plastic acting and turns a dull generic script into a genuinely sympathetic and exciting sword wielding action adventure.

If you like the Hollywood films this one imitates, I see no reason why you shouldn't like this one as well!

Released on video in Finland in the early eighties.

In the mid 1600s, Cardinal Richelieu of France declared war with Spain. One of these skirmishes between the two countries was for ownership of a strategic fortress in the Pyrenees at Vandremond.

King Philip's cousin, Donna Isabella is kidnapped and held within the castle walls of St. Denis in France. The Count of Seville, who aspires for the hand of Isabel, is secretly aligned with the Cardinal; and while pretending to be in Spain's best interest, his real intentions are to hand over battle plans to the enemy in exchange for Isabella and the riches that come with marriage.

Zorro, a mysterious Spanish swordsman intercepts and defeats the Count and his men, burns the plans, and then heads into French territory under the guise of the Count of Seville. Upon his arrival, he is to meet with the Three Musketeers (four including D'Artagnan) as his escort for the alleged mercy mission. At first meeting as friends, the Musketeers later learn the Count is an imposter. Unable to trust a spy, the plan to free Isabella fails; however the Musketeers soon realize Zorro's honorable motives and unite together against Cardinal Richelieu and the traitorous Count of Seville.

Zorro and the three Musketeers sharply captures the spirit of the swashbuckler classics a la Flynn and does so with style - here, you don't just get three musketeers but Zorro, though Zorro only dons his mask twice. He does most of his swashbuckling as a count, a dandy fop. Gordon Scott fits the role really well, playing Zorro and the count energetically. The sword fights are lively, the dialogue is witty - a light comedic tone runs throughout which suits the tone to a T. Quite enjoyable.

This average though acceptable Zorro realized in Spaghetti style is a tolerable adaptation inspired by Johnston McCulley character starred by Gordon Scott as role name in title , the dashing masked avenger along with three Musketeers , these characters taken from Alexandre Dumas novel . This is a passable , decent Swashbuckling outing in the "Zorro" series filled with sword duel . Set in seventeen century when Spain wages war France for the conquest a fortress , Vandrenant . Isabel (José Greci) , niece of King of Spain , Felipe (Gianni Rizzzo) , is kidnapped by the French army and housing in the castle Saint Denis . Then , the Count of Sevilla (Franco Fantasia) is decided to free her . Indeed , the count has agreed a covenant with the tyrant Cardinal Richelieu (Nerio Bernardi) to free Isabel for an essential military information . Later on , the son of Count of Teruel (Gordon Scott) posing as Count of Sevilla attempts to free Isabel and he joins forces with the four Musketeers : D'Artagnan (Nazzareno Zamperla) , Athos (Giacomo Rossi Stuart) , Porthos (Livio Lorenzon) and Aramis (Robert Risso).

This Spaghetti adventure with Zorro and four musketeers as likable protagonists is plenty of action , thrills , court intrigue , spectacular pursuits by Zorro and a lot of sword-play . This Zorro is decently starred by Gordon Scott , he took a chance and jumped from Tarzan movies and Sword and Sandals genre to costumed Italian adventure ; here he steals the show as foppish Zorro relishing his secret identity dressed in black ; executing bounds and leaps , twists and climbs and throughly enjoys himself . Gordon Scott made lots of roman-epic-Italian films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨ or ¨Sword and sandals¨ as well as costumer sword-fight and a few Spaghetti Western . Luck's Gordon Scott changed when Italian director Sergio Corbucci persuaded him to go overseas to star ¨Romulo and Remo¨ along with Steve Reeves and later on , he continued to play several others . Scott played the mythic Maciste in great number of movies was randomly assigned the identity of Hercules , Goliath , Samson or Aron for U.S. viewing . Gordon was an American bouncing who emigrated Europe where starred several Tarzan movies , subsequently was to Italy and created a true star-system based on pumped-up heroes . Scott and specially Steve Reeves paved the way for others actors to seek their fame and fortune in Italy playing stocky adventurers . Other stars by the time on this type of movies are Mark Forest , Gordon Mitchell , Dan Vadis , Kirk Morris , Brad Harris , Ken Wood ; furthermore 'Gordon Scott' made more important competence to Steve Reeves . Nobody , nevertheless, topped Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott in popularity . Gordon Scott played other epic characters : ¨Gladiator of Rome¨ , ¨Hero of Rome¨ , ¨Hercules and Princess of Troy¨ , ¨Conquest of Micene¨ , though also made some Spaghetti as ¨The tramplers¨ and ¨Buffalo Bill ¨, Spy-genre as ¨Secretissimo¨ , ¨Death ray¨ and , of course , his famous Tarzan movies as ¨Tarzan's greatest adventure¨, ¨Tarzan's Fight for Life¨ , ¨Tarzan and the hunters¨ and ¨Tarzan and the trappers ¨ , among others . In the movie appears usual support actors , all of them habitual in Horror/Peplum/Western genres , such as Giacomo Rossi Stuart , Nazzareno Zamperla , Livio Lorenzon , Maria Grazia Spina , Benito Stefanelli , Giuseppe Addobbati , and Franco Fantasia also master of arms , among others .

Regularly photographed by Carlo Bellero , an alright remastering being necessary . Evocative , jolly and lively musical score by Carlo Savina . The motion picture was professionally directed by Luigi Capuano . He was a good craftsman who made all kind of genres , and especially adventure movie . Capuano directed Spaghetti Western such as "Il Magnifico Texano" , Peplum as ¨Revenge of Ursus¨ ,"Revenge of the Gladiators" , "Hercules and the Black Pirates" and of course Adventures such as "Zorro in the Court of Spain" , "Zorro, Rider of Vengeance" , ¨Zorro and three musketeers¨ ,"Tiger of the Seven Seas" , ¨leopard of Sarawak¨ , ¨Vengeance of Sandokan¨ , "Terror of the Red Mask" starred by Lex Barker and "The Lion of St. Mark" set in Venice and also starred by Gordon Scott .

The first Spanish/Italian Zorros were ¨Vengeance of Zorro¨ and ¨L'Ombra di Zorro¨ (1962) by Joaquin Marchent with Frank Latimore , Paul Piaget and Robert Hundar . Other Zorro filmed by that time are ¨Zorro all Corte di Spaña¨ (1963) by Luigi Capuano , ¨Zorro versus Maciste¨ by Umberto Lenzi with Pierre Brice Alan Steel , Moira Orfei ; ¨El Jiuramento Di Zorro¨ by Ricardo Blasco with Guy Stockwell and Mikaela ; ¨Zorro Il Ribelle¨ by Piero Pirotti with Howard Ross ; ¨Il Figlio Di Zorro¨ (1973) by Gianfranco Baldanello and two directed by Jose Luis Merino with Charles Quiney and Maria Pia Conte as ¨Zorro the rider of vendetta¨ and ¨Zorro of Monterrey¨. This was one of the many European action flicks to flood theatres and TV in the early 60's, this one pales in comparison to more the more mainstream Zorro outings produced before and after. As the best Zorro are the followings : The mute classic adaptation ¨Mark of Zorro¨ 1920, Fred Niblo , with Douglas Fairbanks, the classic ¨Mark of Zorro¨, 1940, Robert Mamoulian with Tyrone Power , Basil Rathbone and Linda Darnell , and followed by ¨The legend of Zorro¨ 2005, Martin Campbell again with Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones , Tony Amendola , Pedro Armendariz and Rufus Sewell . Tyrone and Banderas fared much better than Gordon Scott in establishing the legendary status of this famed fictional hero . In addition , European version in similar style as ¨Le Tulipe Noie¨ (1964) with Alain Delon and Virna Lisi and ¨Zorro¨(1975) by Duccio Tessari with Alain Delon , Octavia Piccolo and Stanley Baker .

Officially set in the summer of "sixteen hundred and something or other", this is an unapologetically anachronistic crossover of two proven swashbuckling staples. The Four Musketeers are little more than the backdrop for our dashing protagonist Zorro, but that's totally in character for them, given how the original Three Musketeers are often portrayed in the same relationship to d'Artagnan, their number four.

The setting is the court of King Philipp II of Spain (1527-1598) and the French-Spanish border during one of the numerous wars between these two countries. Lady Isabella, a cousin of the Spanish king, is held for ransom in France by Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), with the reluctant (in fact disgusted) participation of the famous Musketeers. Zorro (usually depicted as a resident of Pueblo de Los Angeles, settled 1781) is incognito at the Spanish court and sets out to France to free her single-handedly, disposing of a treacherous rival on the way. From here the plot unfolds pretty much how you would expect it to, given the characters.

It is doubtful that fighting was really exactly the same in the early 16th century and in the late 18th century, but in films it is almost always depicted in the same way: People usually use their rapiers; guns exist, but they are cumbersome and unreliable muzzle-loaders that almost never hit their targets. This is why Zorro and the Musketeers go so well together. Zorro has a bit more cunning and the Musketeers a bit more fighting prowess, but overall they are quite similar because they all fit the swashbuckling hero stereotype.

I think the same premise could be used for a really great film with deep personalities, where our heroes turn out not to be 100% compatible. Instead, we are getting a rather unsubtle, straightforward pure adventure film. For swashbuckling fans who are intrigued by the crossover, there is no reason not to watch this. But everyone else won't miss much by skipping it.

One of the sure signs of desperation to any genre is when it begins to match up various popular figures to excuse one further trip to the well and, hopefully, double the intake at the box-office; where the "Peplum" was concerned, however, this ran hand in hand with pitting its various heroes in wildly unlikely surroundings (such as ZORRO CONTRO MACISTE from the same year)! To be fair to the film under review, the settings in which the titular characters operated were not that outrageously removed from one another – even if Zorro actually emanated from Los Angeles rather than Spain and he supposedly arrived onto the scene a couple of centuries after The Four {sic} Musketeers! For the record, this was the fifth effort I have watched during the current Epic Easter marathon to feature D'Artagnan et al (with an obscure 1966 British TV series, and perhaps even the 2001 THE MUSKETEER, still to be checked out!) but the only one that will be included with respect to Zorro – though I have at least eight other titles handy related to his exploits!! The main reason for this is that, judging by the contemporaneous 'vehicles' of his under my belt, they constitute among the most indifferent "Euro-Cult" ventures that emerged during the trend's fairly long tenure!

Anyway, what we have here is the Musketeers engaged in the war between the two countries – while Zorro (or, rather, his dandyish alter ego) is accused of being the traitor who sold his side to the enemy… naturally by the rival for the hand of the girl (being held hostage by the French) he loves and who, needless to say, is the true guilty party! Indeed, when we first meet the quartet, they are to meet with the villain towards this end – but it is the Spaniard (played by beefcake Gordon Scott) who turns up under this guise! Cue a number of shifting allegiances, as the Musketeers first antagonize then aid Zorro (who, by the way, only dons his traditional costume twice throughout!), after they discover that he has no sympathy for their old enemy Cardinal Richelieu (who is left strapped to a chair by Scott!). Eventually, they go to Madrid to retrieve the girl Zorro has returned safely home because only then will they be pardoned by the King over the affront done to Richelieu…but, in the meantime, their army has emerged victorious in the conflict and Scott sentenced to death for high treason – so, they decide to (literally) save his neck.

While normally, it is D'Artagnan and Athos who get the lion's share of attention, here they are the most anonymous since both were not even deigned of star presences; on the other hand, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart is Aramis and the ubiquitous Livio Lorenzon Porthos! Given its pedigree, the film does not take itself too seriously – with the best joke involving the Musketeers getting the executioners drunk on the eve of Scott's proposed demise but being themselves overcome by wine and almost missing their appointment in the public square! On the other hand, we get a quartet of comic-relief servants – one of whom is tongue-tied and even allotted a Sicilian accent redolent of lowbrow farces! – for the Musketeers (to go along with Zorro's own bungling sidekick) who turn up out of nowhere at one point but then just keep resurfacing for no very good reason!! Apart from being attractively set against a backdrop of large fountains in a palace garden, the climax reverses the typical formula of having a number of opponents to the lone protagonist by pitting the weak villain against our five heroes all at once! A measure of the carelessness involved, however, sees Aramis romance the female lead's lady-in-waiting throughout and then leave at the end of the picture without so much as a backwards glance! Given the below average results obtained here by director Capuano, I am somewhat wary now of the fact that I have at least four other similar efforts of his in my unwatched collection