Le signe de Zorro

The only ingredient missing here is a Fox budget that would have provided Technicolor photography as a part of the film's lush production values. However, even without three-strip Technicolor, this B&W version of the famous legendary outlaw is acted to perfection by the entire cast.

Tyrone Power goes with great ease from the fop to the swashbuckler Zorro, all the while displaying a great deal of charm and good looks. The romantic role of "the girl" goes to Linda Darnell who is more than adequate in the looks department herself.

In the chapel scene and "The White Sombrero" dance routine they have a chance to show the kind of sparks that made them popular movie stars of the '40s. Linda was just about to break out of her virginal roles and about to play more tempestuous heroines, but she does an excellent job as Power's love interest.

Basil Rathbone is at his finest for the final dueling scene, surely even more robustly performed than the one he shared with Errol Flynn in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD--and that's really saying something. Power seems to be evenly matched with Rathbone in his skilled swordsmanship.

Alfred Newman's fitting pseudo-Spanish background music provides just the right amount of excitement to make this a most entertaining show. And the supporting cast--including Gale Sondergaard, J. Edgar Bromberg, Eugene Palette, Montagu Love, Janet Beecher and others is excellent.

By all means worth watching anytime for sheer entertainment.

One thing this movie has is impressive horse riding chase scenes that make you grin at the ingenuity of the director and the cinematographer. The films pace is so exciting that you know that you just have to dip your hat to how it was captured on celluloid. Basil Rathbone (who is famous for playing Sherlock Holmes in the Rathbone/Bruce series that contained 14 movies between the years of 1939 – 1946) is a famous Hollywood swordsman, and I also read that Tyrone Power was also good with sword, and so I eagerly waited for the duel scene between the two.

When the duel started, the idea that this was actually both the actors willing the swords and not just mere stunt men also added to the fun, as the duel is just wonderful and masterful, the grace and the speed the two masterful swordsmen displayed on screen is one that I will always remember, and one that I ask others to see, because I have not seen better fencing than that as of now.

The movie had scenes that jumped at you, there was another chase scene where Zorro (Tyrone Power) made his horse jump off a bridge into a stream and made the horse ride/swam to shore, it was such a sight I raised my brow in amazement, wondering how many shots the director had to take to get that scene right.

The Mark of Zorro is fun, although you can pick out plot holes and wonder how the hero was planning to achieve anything in the riot like ending, but the movie was fun to see all the way through, the story arc is taken from the story The Curse of Capistrano written by Johnston McCulley in 1919, the book introduced the masked hero Zorro, who was like Robin Hood in most sense. Set in Southern California during the early 19th century, the plot deals with Don Diego Vega/Zorro (Tyrone Power), who returned home to find that his town is being extorted by the Governor and his henchman Captain Esteban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone).

Diego then became the mask vigilante Zorro to be able to able to defend his people from the hand of the corrupt Governor.

The Mark of Zorro is a true oldie; the score is so obvious and doesn't blend with the movie (from my own point of view) although the score did get an Academy Award nomination.

The Mark of Zorro is one you can take the time to see even if it is just to see the duel between Power and Rathbone.

www.lagsreviews.com

In Madrid, the talented aristocratic military swordsman and rider Diego Vega (Tyrone Power) returns to the Mexican California to reunite with his father, the Alcalde Don Alejandro Vega (Montagu Love), and his mother. When he arrives in Los Angeles, he finds that his father has been replaced by the tyrannous Alcalde Don Luis Quintero (J. Edward Bromberg) that oppresses the people with soaring taxes and violent punishment for those that can not afford and supported by the corrupt Captain Esteban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone) and his soldiers. Don Diego does not disclose his abilities with the sword and disguises pretending that he is a sophisticated fashionable gay, for the heartache of his father. However, when he secretly wears a mask and rides a black horse, he becomes the avenger Zorro that carves his mark for the fearfulness of his enemies.

"The Mark of Zorro" is the best Zorro of the cinema history in a time when the studios were concerned with the screenplay and acting and not CGI and sex scenes. The witty delightful story presents Tyrone Power as a fantastic the weak and fragile Don Diego Vega and the powerful Zorro, with totally different personalities. His ability as swordsman and rider is impressive in a perfect choreography of fights, recalling Errol Flynn in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" of two years before. Linda Darnell is so sweet and beautiful that seems to be the inspiration for the title of the novel of Vladimir Nabokov. J. Edward Bromberg and Basil Rathbone are the perfect villains, the first one coward and sleazy and the second arrogant and corrupt. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "A Marca do Zorro" ("The Mark of Zorro")

altho Tyrone Power's no slouch. His looks are perfect for he role and he plays the fop wonderfully well:

"Alcalde, I ask for your niece's hand in marriage. A refusal would crush me."

Basil, aside from playing the villain in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and the famous detective in 14 Sherlock Holmes movies, was a master swordsman, and the final duel is breathtakingly fast and furious. He was so good in the role I hated to see him killed!

The theme music by Alfred Newman is appropriately stirring. And Gale Sondergaard is wonderful as the woman you love to hate. 18-year old Linda Darnell is beautiful but quite stiff in the role.

Note: Eugene Pallette, a Robert Newton look & sound-alike, who played the Padre in this, also played a priest, Friar Tuck, in "Robin Hood," also starring Basil. Also, the 1974 TV version with Frank Langella, Ricardo Montalban & Anne Archer, the first Zorro version I ever saw, uses the same theme soundtrack, and the script and dialogue are very similar to the 1940 version. I recommend this TV version as well.

Great action and at the same time one of the most hilarious roles ever to come out of Hollywood. Tyrone Power is great in the title role, not only when in full swashbuckling action as Zorro, but also as the effeminate dandy Don Diego Vega, fanning his handkerchief, sneezing, and performing ridiculous magic tricks upon stupid prison wardens, when not courting the beautiful Alcalde's daughter Inez Quintero. You gotta love Zorro, the good old-fashioned hero of LA county, always prepared to fight for justice, fight poverty and save damsels in distress, occasionally engraving the mark "Z", preferably on men's chest or cloth.

There's enough innuendo and snappy dialog in here to keep adult audiences entertained as well as enough action for younger audiences to cherish this film (and even enough romance with dashing Power to keep the ladies satisfied). Basil Rathbone, as Captain Esteban Pasquale, makes a superb villain, always prepared to draw his sword, either for serious business or sadistic amusement. "Most men have objects they play with. Churchmen have their beads; I toy with a sword."

Wit Tyrone Power's undisputed comedic talent, he adds so much wit into his character (and to the already hilarious lines), the film is a real hoot. It's a shame Power embarked on more serious roles later in his career. With most of the lines ranging from the outright hilarious to marvelously corny, like Don Diego Vega's courting of the young lady Inez: "You're more lovely, more radiant than a morning in June," it's hard to take it all very serious, but when the fencing starts, playtime is over. Basil Rathbone, one of Hollywood's most skilled swordsmen, knows how to handle a sword like no-one else and Tyrone Power was quick to learn. The climactic swashbuckling scene between the two arch enemies in the small confined room of the Alcalde (brilliantly choreographed) is - till this very day - the best sword fight ever put on film, even surpassing the final fight between Rathbone and Errol Flynn, two years before in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938).

Camera Obscura --- 9/10