Zorro

I loved this version of the Zorro story. It was such a shame that the show ended right when it was reaching a climax. Don Diego was about to reveal to his father and Victoria Escelante that he was Zorro. The episode in the last season where his lost brother discovered his identity was awesome. This series, unfortunately, was cancelled without a desperately needed resolution. I really wish they at least would do a reunion movie to tie up he loose ends, but unfortunately, it will never happen.

I found this movie and another at our public SF library and was happy to see them. This movie is entitled "Zorro, The Legend Begins" and offers Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (Stephanie Zimbalist of Remington Steel fame is his daughter) as Zorro's father. The one difference in this telling of Zorro is his younger deaf mute companion.

The film starts off with Don Diego (Zorro) as a young man sent from his father's prosperous ranch in a small Mexican village to a bigger city to broaden his education and to train with a famous swordsman. Diego returns many years later, his little deaf mute playmate has grown up as has the lovely Victoria (Patrice Camhi) who now runs the local tavern. The town is controlled by a vicious "Alcade" (Michael Tylo) who taxes the poor ranchers and tax people and is brutal to them.

Zorro is being chased by the soldiers when he falls over a cliff and his horse goes back to the ranch to fetch Felipe (Juan Botta, the young deaf mute. As he lay there he takes us back through his memories of his life as Zorro.

We learn how and why Don Diego creates his Zorro identity and watch as he saves the townspeople from the cruel Alcade.

This is not a cheesy production. The costumes are well done as are the sets, including a glorious clipper ship that is real and takes Don Diego on his journey to learn how to be an expert swordsman.

I'm hoping there are many more of these productions that I just haven't found yet. The second flim in this series (that I will review also) is entitled: Zorro: A Conspiracy of Blood. Apparently these movies were created for television. They are all in color and about 100 minutes long (1 hour 40 minutes).

I used to watch it every week-end on TV.Regehr was astonishing as Zorro,and Camhi as Victoria very hot.The rest of the cast was also excellent including Zimbalist as Zorro's father.Lasted for four seasons and cut off unexpectadly.If you catch it on TV or youtube don't miss it.

I don't remember much about this show, except that my dad is a Zorro fan, so we used to watch this when I was all of four or five. I remember it featured the hot Mexican lady from Three Amigos. There was a bumbling fat guy who looked sort of like a Latino Oliver Hardy. He was naturally the comic relief. I think there was a deaf kid who was sort of Zorro's sidekick. I think the episodes usually culminated in some impressive fencing. I thought the Zorro costume was pretty cool. I believe the theme song was the generic late-80s theme song they used on every action pack show at this time, that kind of passionate hair-metal-meets-orchestral-score music, except it had sort of a Hispanic flavor to it.

Like I said, I have great memories of sitting on my dad's lap watching this show, along with Rifleman and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Unfortunately, at some point there was a scheduling conflict wherein they started showing ST:TNG at the same time they were showing this, so usually we opted for the latter. Had we known TNG would still be showing in reruns fifteen years later, while Zorro would die a quiet death and never be heard from again, I suppose we would have rethought our decision. But you know what they say about hindsight.

The one and only Zorro in my eyes is Guy Wiliams, he made a far better performance than Regehr or Banderas. But i must say, i enjoyed this series.