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Old 08-29-2006, 08:07 PM   #51
sabotai
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: The Satellite of Love


The Mark Of Zorro (1920)
Directed By: Fred Niblo
Starring: Douglas Fairbanks,
Marguerite De La Motte, Noah Beery
Length: 90 min

Honors
Nominated AFI's "100 Years...100 Thrills"


It didn't take long for Zorro to be made for film. Based on the 1919 story, "The Curse of Capistrano", The Mark of Zorro is the tale of corruption in Mexico-owned California in the early 19th century and a masked hero who shows up to save the people.

Fairbanks plays Don Diego, the son of a wealthy land owner, but in a mask, he goes by the name of Zorro. The film starts off with, what I consider, the best scene. In a tavern, Captain Juan Ramon speaks of wanting to meet Zorro when Don Diego shows up. Ramon continues grandstanding while Diego just sits backs. He leaves, and a minute later, Zorro shows up and makes a fool of Ramon. As they fight, Zorro is just playing with him and I even laughed at some of the stunts Zorro pulls on Ramon.

Back to civilian life, Don Diego's parents try to set him up with a woman (Lolita) but he's clumsy, doesn't know what to say and makes me seem like Don Juan. But, when he shows up as Zorro, he completely wins her over with his confidence and romantic talk. Uh oh, Captain Juan Ramon has his eyes set on Lolita as well.

Zorro wins over some of the soldiers, and when Lolita's family is jailed, they resque them. Zorro takes a different route (heads back to his home) to throw off the pursuit. Ramon shows up at Diego's house, but they find Lolita there. Knowing the ruse is up, Diego pulls out his sword and fights. Everyone knows he is Zorro by the way he fights. He wins, of course, and all is right with the world. Well, California at least.

Fairbanks does a good job as the flashy swashbuckler, and he started the swashbuckler adventure genre of movies. However, by todays standards...well, he kind of looks like Bob Newhart. Can you imagine Bob Newhart playing the role of Zorro? I can, now. Other than Fairbanks not looking the part (by today's standards), it was a pretty entertaining adventure movie. Very high historic marks for being the movie that launches Fairbanks career as one of the film stars in history that would become synomonous with swashbuckler adventures, and for launching, in general, a genre that was almost completely dead in American entertainment. But, a few marks against it as it doesn't seem to be remembered as well as some of Fairbank's other swashbuckler movies.

For entertainment, it hurts because the fighting scenes almost look chaotic. Fairbanks was an accomplished fencer, and the fights probably were choreographed, but they looked neither choreographed, or worse, real. It reminded me of when I was a kid and me and my friends would pretend to swordfight. The action sequences really just don't hold up. Unfortunately, not much from this era really does hold up after almost a century, but action sequences seem to be the worse. But there is one thing that does hold up, though. Comedy is comedy, and as I said before, some of the comedic stunts that Zorro pulls on his opponents did get a few laughs out of me.

Historical Rating: 7/10
Entertainment Rating: 6/10

Hollywood Historical Notes:

Douglas Fairbanks met Mary Pickford in 1916 and began an affair with her (they were both married). Mary Pickford was a famous actress who we have not seen on my journey, unfortunately, due to The Poor Little Rich Girl not being on DVD. In 1919, Fairbanks was divorced by his wife. But his career was taking off and he, Pickford and Charlie Chaplin formed United Artist so that they could control their work instead of the studios. In March 1920, Pickford divorced her first husband and quickly married Fairbanks. They were nervous about the public's reation, but it was positive. The public loved that the hero married the sweethart and they were the first "Hollywood Marriage" (and like the modern Hollywood marriage, it didn't last, although it did last a bit longer than the normal modern Hollywood couple). Later that year, The Mark Of Zorro was one of United Artist's first releases.


Last edited by sabotai : 12-16-2007 at 10:52 PM.
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