User Reviews

Tyrone Power - the swashbuckling answer to Errol Flynn - is cast as the agile masked avenger who decides to take up the people's cause in disguise leaving his 'mark' "Z" everywhere, on walls, coach, wooden barrels and human chest...

Power - in a double leading role - is at his best as Zorro, climbing, jumping, riding and fencing, determined to finish with tyranny and oppression by terrorizing, and retrieving taxation funds and by challenging a cunning officer, proving in public his indifference, his ostentation and irony as a perfect pacifist fop in 19th-Century Spanish California, confusing and deceiving his aristocratic father Don Alejandro Vega (Montagu Love), the deposed Alcalde...

The inspired casting (in supporting roles) recalls "The Adventures of Robin Hood."

Linda Darnell is the pretty Lolita, Quintero's charming niece, who loves the mysterious hero and can't tolerate the fop until she is told that they are the image of the same person...

Basil Rathbone, one of the most durable of screen villains who has mastered stage fencing but never won a Swordfight, plays the cruel captain Esteban Pasquale, the Alcalde's military adviser... He is a second-rate soldier of fortune who leads the campaign of frustrating taxation, who considered Diego "a fancy clown" but who suggests a practical plan, an alliance for the good of the state...

J. Edward Bromberg is the cowardly Alcalde, Don Luis Quintero, a corrupted thief, enemy of the people, whose tyranny and avarice are always enforced by the treachery of his iron hand, the rigorous captain Esteban...

Eugene Palette plays the mission 'fat' priest (Father Felipe) who ignores that Diego is the opposing force...

The high point of the picture is the fantastic duel between Power and Rathbone, a masterpiece of screen Swordplay...

Rouben Mamoulian succeeds in making two great stars dance to an unheard music... With a touch of a great filmmaker, Mamoulian mixes harmoniously movement and action, decor and lightning with rage and turmoil, heroism and romance...

Under Alfred Newman's Oscar-Nominated score and despite the unusual absence of Technicolor, the film (the first of the great Tyrone Power swashbucklers ) is great fun, full of vitality and suspense, an exciting, deliciously ironic swashbuckler...

This movie was directed by Rouben Mamoulian and this was basically the only action movie he directed and probably his best film, he made one more movie with Tyrone Power a year later called Blood And Sand and that was pretty bad. This is also one of Power's best movies and much better than Jesse James the year before. Their isn't much to the plot that you need to know like Power coming back from Spain and finding his father thrown out of power by a dictator and the people are starving. His father can't or won't do anything so Power decides to become Zorro. Basil Rathbone is the dictator's top bodyguard and a top swordsman. Linda Darnell is the dictator's daughter who winds up getting married to Power through an arranged marriage. This is much better then the remake in 98 called The Mask Of Zorro and a great movie.

What fun! This film has not aged a day in 63 years.....it is still a great tale of old California and the masked caballero, Zorro. Tyrone Power plays it to the hilt, and is especially good in his alter ego of the effeminate fop, Don Diego. He may not be quite as acrobatic as Fairbanks was in the original silent version but it doesn't detract from the performance. And Power was a fencer, so his sword fighting scenes certainly rang true. Put him with that elegant gentleman, Basil Rathbone, also an excellent swordsman, and you get one of the best sword fights in film history. Rathbone is the other shining star of this film. He oozes evil and was the master of the condescending sneer. The supporting cast is impeccable.....Palette, Sondergaard, Bromberg, Love, and the young, extremely beautiful Linda Darnell. It is curious to note that both Gale Sondergaard and J. Edward Bromberg were caught up in the Red Scare in Hollywood in the late 40'3, early 50's and their careers were basically destroyed by it.

This is a rousing, fun film with great dialogue and should be on everyone's "must see" list. One curious thing.......how did those very revealing tight pants worn by Power and Rathbone get by the Hays Office? These were the days when you could not even show a married couple sharing the same bed and those pants didn't leave much to the imagination!

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")

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.

This is what I can't help but like about the old high seas adventures and swashbuckling romances of the 1930s and '40s. You know, the ones where you can always hear Alfred Newman's bombastic score. The Mask of Zorro opens with a title card saying, "Madrid - when the Spanish Empire encompassed the globe, and young blades were taught the fine and fashionable art of killing…" So what's that, like 18...30? 1840? I guess we'll figure it out. And so we do, of course. But there was an unabashed syrupy-ness about the melodramatic urgency given to these movies.

When Zorro's not prancing around in his little cape eye-mask, he's playing the part of the utterly timid, and more than a touch effeminate, Don Diego Vega. The likelihood that Vega could be the remarkably expert swashbuckler never once dawns on the baddies, largely because Vega is such a stern little prude.

The first big-budget talkie starring the swashbuckling samaritan, Rouben Mamoulian's old-fashioned jaunt was a blockbuster in 1940, and it remains recalled quite warmheartedly by the Silent Generation's moviegoers, and equally the small screen's fascinated beginners among the Baby Boom, as one of the period's very best adventure pictures. One grows accustomed to the movie's qualitative foothold in that time of matinée idols and sword-fighting silver-screen hero worship, and we can concede for that reason. But tolerant filmgoers will stay open for a movie that's considerably chock-a-block with romance, action, duplicity, and courageous bravado, all in an overstated manner that could've only been taken seriously in 1940, and perhaps not one year later.

The nuts and bolts are all here: Don Diego is invited to come home from Madrid to his family in Los Angeles, but upon his reappearance he learns that his father's standing as "alcalde" has been seized by the shameless Don Luis Quintero, a nasty piece of work who's nothing more than a minion to the man enjoying the real supremacy: Captain Esteban Pasquale. As expected, Diego/Zorro means to linger in Los Angeles just long enough to depose the scoundrels, entice a pretty slice of illicit fruit, and bring integrity to his family's native soil. Nothing ground-breaking here, but there's nothing amiss in a straightforward adventure yarn told in the traditional way.

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.

The only ingredient missing here is a Fox budget that would have provided Technicolor photography as a part of the film's lush production values. However, even without three-strip Technicolor, this B&W version of the famous legendary outlaw is acted to perfection by the entire cast.

Tyrone Power goes with great ease from the fop to the swashbuckler Zorro, all the while displaying a great deal of charm and good looks. The romantic role of "the girl" goes to Linda Darnell who is more than adequate in the looks department herself.

In the chapel scene and "The White Sombrero" dance routine they have a chance to show the kind of sparks that made them popular movie stars of the '40s. Linda was just about to break out of her virginal roles and about to play more tempestuous heroines, but she does an excellent job as Power's love interest.

Basil Rathbone is at his finest for the final dueling scene, surely even more robustly performed than the one he shared with Errol Flynn in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD--and that's really saying something. Power seems to be evenly matched with Rathbone in his skilled swordsmanship.

Alfred Newman's fitting pseudo-Spanish background music provides just the right amount of excitement to make this a most entertaining show. And the supporting cast--including Gale Sondergaard, J. Edgar Bromberg, Eugene Palette, Montagu Love, Janet Beecher and others is excellent.

By all means worth watching anytime for sheer entertainment.

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.

One thing this movie has is impressive horse riding chase scenes that make you grin at the ingenuity of the director and the cinematographer. The films pace is so exciting that you know that you just have to dip your hat to how it was captured on celluloid. Basil Rathbone (who is famous for playing Sherlock Holmes in the Rathbone/Bruce series that contained 14 movies between the years of 1939 – 1946) is a famous Hollywood swordsman, and I also read that Tyrone Power was also good with sword, and so I eagerly waited for the duel scene between the two.

When the duel started, the idea that this was actually both the actors willing the swords and not just mere stunt men also added to the fun, as the duel is just wonderful and masterful, the grace and the speed the two masterful swordsmen displayed on screen is one that I will always remember, and one that I ask others to see, because I have not seen better fencing than that as of now.

The movie had scenes that jumped at you, there was another chase scene where Zorro (Tyrone Power) made his horse jump off a bridge into a stream and made the horse ride/swam to shore, it was such a sight I raised my brow in amazement, wondering how many shots the director had to take to get that scene right.

The Mark of Zorro is fun, although you can pick out plot holes and wonder how the hero was planning to achieve anything in the riot like ending, but the movie was fun to see all the way through, the story arc is taken from the story The Curse of Capistrano written by Johnston McCulley in 1919, the book introduced the masked hero Zorro, who was like Robin Hood in most sense. Set in Southern California during the early 19th century, the plot deals with Don Diego Vega/Zorro (Tyrone Power), who returned home to find that his town is being extorted by the Governor and his henchman Captain Esteban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone).

Diego then became the mask vigilante Zorro to be able to able to defend his people from the hand of the corrupt Governor.

The Mark of Zorro is a true oldie; the score is so obvious and doesn't blend with the movie (from my own point of view) although the score did get an Academy Award nomination.

The Mark of Zorro is one you can take the time to see even if it is just to see the duel between Power and Rathbone.

www.lagsreviews.com

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?

This version is too political and stagey to be a children's movie, but it's too simpleminded and obvious for grown-ups. (I suppose this makes it a Family Movie.) It's very conventionally scripted, staged, shot, scored, and edited, and a lot of the opportunities just seem to go to waste. (At the beginning there's a beautifully shot scene where the hero, concealed as a friar, urges the love interest to stay away from the convent, but the dialogue is so trite the scene is just dull.) Power is good with a rapier and he does a decent job with the lines he's given, but he's just not a swashbuckling Spanish nobleman, not even with a moustache on. There ain't no way. (He's too melancholy; he lacks the bounding vitality of Flynn and Fairbanks.) Darnell is a worthwhile inclusion as eye candy, and the swordplay is well staged and very exciting. Unfortunately, there isn't much of either Darnell or the swordplay. This is a pretty routine, talky action flick.

There is a curious parallel between Tyrone Power's life and career, and that of WB swashbuckler, Errol Flynn. Both of Irish descent, the two actors exploded into superstar status in their twenties, due to a single starring role in films made within a year of each other (for Flynn, barely 26, it was in 1935's CAPTAIN BLOOD; Power's breakthrough, at 22, came in 1936's LLOYDS OF LONDON). Both actors were extraordinarily handsome, were great practical jokers both on and off-screen, fought continuously with their respective studios for better roles, married three times (Flynn fathered three daughters and a son; Power, two daughters and a son), lived wildly adventurous lives, becoming infamous for their sexual indiscretions, and would die, less than a year apart, within two years of making their only film together (1957's THE SUN ALSO RISES). However, while Flynn had a reputation as a charismatic hell raiser which would make him as many enemies as friends during his tempestuous life, Tyrone Power was, by all accounts, even more charming and likable in person than he was on screen, and was universally loved, even by his ex-wives.

Both stars were considered premier swashbucklers of their time, and 1940's THE MARK OF ZORRO introduced Power to the genre dominated by Flynn. Just as Flynn's greatest triumph was a remake of an earlier Douglas Fairbanks classic (1922's ROBIN HOOD), Power's best-loved swashbuckler had first been a Fairbanks favorite, as well (1920's THE MARK OF ZORRO). As Don Diego de Vega, a cadet at 'the Academy' in Madrid who puts his gift with the sword to good use in an oppressed California, when recalled home by his father, he quickly adopts an effeminate persona (a la THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL), to mask his true ability and plans. While the charade infuriates his father ("My son has become a PUPPY!" he laments, at a time when the word 'homosexual' was not used), the guise helps the younger Vega worm his way into the confidence of the corrupt yet cowardly current Alcalde (the venerable J. Edward Bromberg) and his socially-conscious wife (Gale Sondergaard). Less 'taken in' is the true villain of the film, military commander Captain Esteban Pasquale (superbly portrayed by frequent Flynn nemesis Basil Rathbone), who sneers at the Alcalde's plan to marry Vega off to his niece, Lolita (the ravishing Linda Darnell), to quell local unrest; when Vega claims tardiness for the engagement dinner because of his bath water becoming 'tepid', Pasquale comments, "Just as I fear poor Lolita's future married life shall be."

The on-screen chemistry between Power and Darnell is terrific (a key scene, with Vega/Zorro disguised as a priest, as Lolita confesses her secret desires, would be 'spiced up' and recreated in the Banderas/Zeta-Jones 1998 update, THE MASK OF ZORRO). As the only other person who knows Zorro's real identity, Fray Felipe (Eugene Pallette, playing a role very similar to his 'Friar Tuck' in Flynn's ROBIN HOOD) has some of the film's wittiest dialog, and gets to show his swordsmanship in a brief duel with Pasquale ("You should have been a soldier", the captain comments, after disarming him).

If the film has a fault, it is that the Power/Rathbone climactic duel occurs too early. Staged by Errol Flynn's fencing master, Fred Cavens, the action is spectacular, confined to a single room, yet with Pasquale's death, the film loses it's most potent villain, and the final large-scale fight between the Alcalde's forces and the peons and gentry lacks the focus of the climax of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD.

Directed with tongue-in-cheek by veteran film maker Rouben Mamoulian, and with an Oscar-nominated score by Fox's musical mainstay, Alfred Newman, THE MARK OF ZORRO was a major studio hit (plans for a sequel were begun, but dropped when it was discovered that Fox only had the rights to the title, THE MARK OF ZORRO; the name 'Zorro' belonged to another studio, ending any possibility of a follow-up).

Tyrone Power had joined Errol Flynn as the reigning 'kings' of swashbucklers, a title both would find amusing, if limiting, but which would be how both actors are best remembered, today!

THE MARK OF ZORRO is certainly a lively and entertaining film for its era, a movie that manages to surpass THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD in terms of spectacle and excitement. And it absolutely destroys the modern-day adaptations of the story starring Antonio Banderas that seem positively dreadful by comparison.

The simple storyline sees Hollywood star Tyrone Power playing a double role: he's a mild-mannered aristocrat by day, and a vengeful, Robin Hood-style outlaw by night. Of course, this kind of narrative is entirely predictable, but the film's format is kept strong thanks to decent black and white cinematography and some good characterisations that feel reminiscent of a spaghetti western.

Power proves himself a likable and athletic hero - it was the first time I'd seen him in action - and he's more than matched by the excellent Basil Rathbone as a villain. THE MARK OF ZORRO also contains the best bit of fencing ever put on film, an extended duel that easily becomes one of the best fight scenes ever put on film, a real highlight of a good-natured and thoroughly enjoyable movie.

This is my all time favourite Zorro film.Tyrone Power is a great and dashing Don Diego/Zorro.The scenes with him playing a foppish dandy to hide his true persona are both hilarious and wonderfully enjoyable.THE MARK OF ZORRO starts off at a fast pace and never lets up for a moment. The villains are played by J.Edward Bromberg

as the corrupt and cowardly Don Quintero who bleeds the californian people dry with over taxation and Captain Pasquale,the superb Basil Rathbone,adding further menace.Linda Darnell is once again cast as Power's love interest,the lovely Lolita Quintero. Eugene Pallette reprises his role in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD by playing yet another lovable friar and Montagu Love plays Diego's deposed father.Solid and stylish direction from Rouben Mamoulian with a brilliant score by Alfred Newman. This film also contains one of the greatest duels ever captured on screen from two of hollywood's most agile swordsmen,TYRONE POWER AND BASIL RATHBONE. A great swashbuckling adventure!!!!!!

P.S.Also worth noting is the nice performance by Gale Sondergaard as Lolita's obviously jealous Aunt Inez!

10/10

Rollicking action movie.

Not quite the original Zorro - there were a few Zorro movies before this - but probably the best.

Decent, simple plot. Writer and director don't try to make things too complicated. It's pretty much Robin Hood set in early-1800s California. Consistent with this, doesn't overstay its welcome.

Good action scenes. Some of the fencing contests are among the best you'll see in a movie.

Good performances. Tyrone Power gives a solid, suitably dashing, performance as Zorro, while also having to act the dandy for his unmasked other life.

Nothing more than an action-drama though - don't expect anything too profound.

I have this movie on DVD and it's one of my favourites. It's similar in plot and style to "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938), and even features most of that film's actors (Basil Rathbone, Eugene Palette and Montague Love). Tyrone Power is great in the lead role. He plays the hero/ fop in much the same way as Leslie Howard did in "the Scarlet Pimpernel"- although, I have to admit, I think Power's is far superior to Howard's. There are some wonderful witty lines, most of which the fans have already pointed out, including Captain Paquale's: "oh dear, his bath water was tepid. It looks like poor Lolita's married life will turn out to be the same." Another one of my favourite scenes is the one where Rathbone's villain , after winning Eugene Palette in a sword fence, remarks, "you should have become a soldier rather than a man of the church". He then opens a chest containing the taxes that Zorro has reclaimed, exclaiming, "Santa Maria! No wonder you chose the church!" Rathbone's Captain Pasquale is a great character, brilliantly written and acted (it's amazing to think that he was 21 years older than Tyrone Power, but still made a brilliant fencing opponent). Gale Sondergaard, who plays Inez Qunitero, was to appear opposite Rathbone again in "Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman". All of the characters are wonderfully cast in this brilliant example of a good, old fashioned swashbuckler, the kind they can't seem to make any more. I really enjoyed "The Mask of Zorro" (1998) with Antonio Banderas, but it still isn't a patch on the original.

I think The Mark of Zorro (1940) is the best Zorro film ever made. For one thing it is very a simple adventure movie. There's the hero with a hidden identity fighting for a good cause, the ruthless villain and the final duel between them, along with the romantic touch and even some humor reliefs.

Tyrone Power plays very good both his parts and shows the presence for the role. Basil Rathbone plays one of his usual great villains with a sword (others where Sir Guy in "Adventures of Robin Hood" and pirate Levasseur in "Captain Blood", both perfect too). Linda Darnell is correct in the female lead and the rest of the cast has no flaws. The final sword meeting between Power and Rathbone is one of the best ever made in movies.

But Rouben Mamoulian's picture is not just a Zorro movie; in fact it is one of the best swashbucklers in the history of cinema far simpler and better than others which had up to 60 years of advantage on technology and other resources.

The Mark of Zorro is simple and perfect. A 10 out of 10 rate in its genre.

Certainly everyone's familiar with the plot of Zorro, so no need to go into that here.

While not a Tyrone Power fan, I do love Basil Rathbone (one of the most versatile and underrated actors ever, in my opinion), and I thought I'd give the swashbuckler a try.

Throughout the picture I kept having this sense of deja vu. I finally realized it was that so many scenes were almost direct replica's of the Flynn/de Havilland masterpiece "Adventures of Robin Hood." Alas, "The Mark of Zorro" lacks Robin Hood's ideals, charming/witty/inspiring dialogue, pacing, depth of acting ability, terrific score, and just about everything else.

Tyrone Power has never struck me as a believable actor in any of his roles. He always seems to be on the surface of the lines rather than being immersed in a character or urged from within. His comic flares work fine in this movie but we never really get a sense of the outrage or the intensity that would fuel an outlaw. Flynn, on the other hand, has numerous scenes written specifically to show both his compassion for the underclass and his contempt for corrupt rulers.

The two pictures have eerie similarities, down to the day-for-night shooting of chases on horseback. And Friar Tuck -- or is it Pah-dray Somebody? -- confuses the issue more. Linda Darnell is niece of the al-cal-day, mirroring de Havilland's being the ward of Richard I. Of course, de Havilland wipes the floor with Darnell, partly because she's given fantastic scenes with wide scope for character development and partly because she's by far the better actress.

The two memorable aspects of this picture for me are the duel between Power & Rathbone and -- oddly enough -- the performance of the Zorro stunt double riding his black horse through the town. The swordplay is everything everyone says it is -- a wonderful example of the art. Power was a trained fencer and it shows! (He clearly wasn't a trained dancer, which also shows.) The intensity and speed of the swordplay is beautiful to watch.

As for the stuntee, I found myself mesmerized by the ease with which (presumably) he handled the horse, making quick, light turns and looking for all the world like a centaur. Wonderful horsemanship (I suppose the horse should get some kudos, too!). Some of the best I've seen on film.

I really wanted this picture to be better than it was. It had lovely costumes and some nice photography but is no match for the stirring epic that it so clearly seems to be imitating.