The Mark of Zorro (1940 film)

The Mark of Zorro is a 1940 American black-and-white adventure film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, and starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Basil Rathbone.

The Mark of Zorro was nominated for an Academy Award for Best original score. It was named to the National Film Registry in 2009 by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", and to be preserved for all time.

The film is based on The Curse of Capistrano written by Johnston McCulley, originally published in 1919 in five serialized installments in All-Story Weekly., which introduced the masked hero Zorro; the story is set in Southern California during the early 19th century. After the enormous success of the silent 1920 film adaptation, The Mark of Zorro, the story was republished under that name by Grosset & Dunlap.

Plot

Don Diego Vega (Tyrone Power) is urgently called home by his father. To all outward appearances, he is the foppish son of wealthy ranchero and former Alcade Don Alejandro Vega (Montagu Love), having returned to California after his military education in Spain.

Zorro

Zorro (Spanish for "fox") is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega, a fictional character created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley. He is a Californio nobleman of Spanish and Native Californian descent, living in Los Angeles during the era of Mexican rule (between 1821 and 1846), although some movie adaptations of Zorro's story have placed him during the earlier Spanish rule.

The character has undergone changes through the years, but the typical image of him is a dashing black-clad masked outlaw who defends the commoners and indigenous peoples of the land against tyrannical officials and other villains. Not only is he too cunning and foxlike for the bumbling authorities to catch, but he also delights in publicly humiliating them.

The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media. Juan Nepomuceno Cortina and Joaquin Murrieta are cited as inspirations for Zorro.

Publishing history

Zorro debuted in McCulley's 1919 story The Curse of Capistrano, serialized in five parts in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly. At the denouement, Zorro's true identity is revealed to all.

Zorro (1975 film)

Zorro is a 1975 Italian/French film based on the character created by Johnston McCulley. Directed by Duccio Tessari, it stars French actor Alain Delon as Zorro. Filmed in Spain, this Italian movie has many spaghetti western elements to it.

Plot

On the eve of his return to Spain from the New World, Diego de la Vega (Alain Delon) meets his old friend Miguel de la Serna (Marino Masé), who is about to take up the governorship of Nueva Aragón - after his uncle Don Fernando died of “malaria” in a malaria-free region.

Diego vainly warns the idealistic Miguel that Nueva Aragón is ruled by greed and hatred; later that very evening Miguel is assassinated by Colonel Huerta's hirelings. Diego vows to avenge Miguel by taking his place, but not before a dying Miguel makes Diego swear "the new governor will never kill."

As Colonel Huerta (Stanley Baker) asks the local council to appoint him both military and civil governor of Nueva Aragón, Diego walks in, disguised as de la Serna. While lulling Colonel Huerta's fears by pretending to be a useless fop, Diego learns that Huerta is a cruel despot as well as a dangerous swordsman.

Zorro (video game)

Zorro is a 1985 video game created by Datasoft, Inc.. The game is as a puzzle platformer, where Zorro has to use items to solve puzzles while battling enemies using his sword, all to save the imprisoned senorita.

References

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