The Mark of Zorro (1940)

I loved this film. In fact, because I loved this movie so much, I think it spoiled me for later versions of the Zorro story. Guy Madison and Antonio Banderas just CAN'T be Zorro, as I'll forever see him in the form of Tyrone Power. He is just wonderful--playing the role with a lot of gusto but a little less bravura than Errol Flynn would have done in the same role--and it works very well. This, WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION and THE BLACK SWAN are the three absolute best films Power ever made. See them all and then you'll appreciate his work. Apart from Power, the film features a wonderful supporting cast, brisk pacing and a lavish (for Fox) budget.

Fmovies: This is an excellent classic that I pop in and watch often. No matter how many times you watch this one, it's still a great movie. This one is well worth purchasing. And who doesn't like Zoro? It's just a great little romp with horses, swords, and peons. Eugene Palette is one of my favorite supporting actors that just so happens to be the Fiar Fray Felipe, the local church leader. Although a member of the church, the Friar is also capable of using (and teaching?) the use of the sword. After the return of Don Deigo and the mysterious highwayman Zoro, the Friar finds himself the "purveyer of stolen goods!" He also gets in on the action at the end, hitting soldiers on the head left and right and saying "God forgive me!" He also gets to escort the Vega's down to the ship sailing for Spain at the end as well as other pieces here and there. Overall he got a fairly substantial part in the movie in my opinion. Just a great movie for the family or just yourself on a rainy day or any day.

Young Don Diego De La Vega has been sent to Spain from the family estancia in Spanish California to learn fencing and get a little polish, bring some culture and couth to the frontier.

When he returns Diego finds all is not right. His father is out as alcalde of the village of Los Angeles and a new post captain and his willing accomplice, the new alcalde, are conducting wholesale robbery of the people quite legally. What to do?

When Diego De La Vega is played by Tyrone Power quickly give the impression you're a fatuous fop and don't let them see you're the best swordsman around. And by night take the guise of an 18th century bandit hero and call yourself Zorro.

I love this film very much because great romantic heroes like Tyrone Power just aren't found these days. Eventually Power proved he could do more than just look good in a period costume, but the movie going public loved him best in these kind of roles, me included.

He gets great support from lovely Linda Darnell whom he has to simultaneously repel as Don Diego and woo as Zorro to keep the fiction going. Basil Rathbone is a wonderful commandant who keeps the people in line and taxes to himself.

But I particularly liked J. Edward Bromberg and Gale Sondergaard as Senor and Senora Quintero the crooked alcalde and his scheming wife. Oddly enough as fate would have it, both of these people later on had blacklist problems with Bromberg meeting a tragic early death.

Dueling and romance from Tyrone Power, the California Cockerel so dubbed by his fellow students at the fencing academy who saves the day and wins the girl. And when the girl is Linda Darnell, does anyone have to ask what he's fighting for?

The Mark of Zorro fmovies. I like to be an iconoclastic jerk sometimes, so whenever I'm asked to name the best superhero movie, I always say "The Mark of Zorro." Then I have to specify that I mean the Tyrone Power movie, not the Fairbanks one and certainly not the Banderas. Ah, elitism can be amusing sometimes...

Seriously, though, this is one heck of a motion picture. The best part is the pacing; it's deliciously slow, in the most effective way. Characters are developed fully, tensions heighten gradually, and just when you're on the verge of getting bored - BOOM! A fantastic chase scene or swordfight perfectly repays your patience. Well, my patience, anyway. Maybe you were bored the whole way through?

Tyrone Power is simply awesome in this flick. He's hilarious as the fey Don Diego, and he cuts an impressive figure as Zorro. It's easy to see that Batman was patterned on Zorro, as he also pretends to be a stupid playboy, but Bruce Wayne was *never* this cool.

Basil Rathbone makes a great villain, as always, and his close-quarters duel with Zorro is, as I'm sure you've heard, one of cinema's great action scenes (I think the confined setting actually enhances the suspense). Even J. Edward Bromberg, who plays a slightly dated and silly character, somehow manages to come across well - it's interesting to see his character come into his own as the main villain at the end of the movie.

Even the romance isn't a dud. Lots of amusing flirting goes on, and Linda Darnell certainly is easy on the eyes.

Why can't they make action flicks like this anymore? To paraphrase a certain famous political catchphrase, "it's the characters, stupid." Everybody in this movie is colorful and cool, and through them I get wrapped up in the plot. When the biggest complaint I have is a bit of rear-screen projection during a boat ride, you know the movie's almost perfect.

Director Rouben Mamoulian keeps the pace and excitement going in the wonderful 1940 "The Mark of Zorro" starring Tyrone Power, Basil Rathbone, Linda Darnell, Gale Sondergaard, Eugene Palette, and J. Edward Bromberg. All are excellent.

This is one of Power's best performances in one of his best films. He is hilarious in the role of the exhausted, foppish, bored Don Diego, who is always whining, brushing nonexistent dirt from his clothing and fanning himself with his handkerchief. That is, when he isn't sniffing it and remembering the smell of "...Ah! Musk!" The way he drags himself around, performing stupid magic tricks, getting the shakes when he hears about Zorro, which disgusts his father and his betrothed (young, beautiful Linda Darnell) is a riot! When he becomes Zorro, racing through the woods on his horse as his cape fans out in the wind and whipping that sword around to make the sign of a Z (yes, I'm a baby boomer and I remember the song) - he's commanding, dashing, and frightening. This is a bravura performance.

There are so many great action scenes in the film - the alcalde's men chasing Zorro, the jail break, and the greatest of all, for which the film is remembered - the sword fight between Power and Rathbone. I first saw this film as a child, and I never forgot that bit with the candle! Inspired! A brilliant and classic scene.

Power was the 5th highest box office draw in 1940, and The Mark of Zorro set him up for lots more swashbuckling. When you see Zorro, you can understand why.

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")