- feature film (silent)
- released 12/5/1920
- directed by Fred Niblo
- produced by Douglas Fairbanks Pictures
- based on the novella "The Curse of Capistrano" by Johnston McCulley
- the first Zorro adaptation in any medium
- in later versions of Batman's origin story, this is the film that Thomas and Martha Wayne took young Bruce to the night of their tragic murders
CAST (boldface denoted a character lifted directly from comic or source material)
Don Diego Vega / El Zorro (Douglas Fairbanks)
Capitán Juan Ramon (Robert McKim)
Lolita Pulido (Marguerite De La Motte)
Bernardo (Tote Du Crow)
Sgt. Pedro Gonzales (Noah Beery)
Don Alejandro (Sidney De Gray)
Fray Felipe (Walt Whitman)
My impressions:
First, allow me to celebrate with you the first break in the reign of Tarzan. No offense, I love the Lord of the Jungle, but it's about time another heroic archetype was represented. And here he is!
As entrenched in the collective unconscious as he has become, Zorro, the champion of the peons of Old California, might have faded as quickly as he arrived. The creation of a pulp novelist with a very shaky knowledge of the actual history of 19th century California, Don Diego Vega's (sometimes named "De La Vega") debut adventure in All-Story Weekly happened to catch the idle eye of one of Hollywood's biggest stars, the dynamic Douglas Fairbanks who was looking for a new action property to bring to the big screen.
The film, The Mark of Zorro, is one of the most successful silent films of its time and certainly influential. It holds up today with its kinetic pace and amazing stunts as designed and performed by Fairbanks himself. And the character he delineated - both the laughing, masked daredevil "El Zorro" (The Fox) and his public face, the outwardly foppish Don Diego - went on to influence every super hero with a dual identity that would follow.
Highly recommended!
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