Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 27-April-03
Spoiler Rating: Low

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

They say that heroes appear when the need arises and that some heroes, like Jesus Christ and King Arthur, will return when things get really bad. After watching The Mark of Zorro, I've decided it's time for the return of the legendary masked man of LA, who could infiltrate the coffers of Bill Gates and the honchos of Enron and distribute their ill-gotten gains to the ordinary Joes and Janes of working-class America. Especially if he has a sense of humor, wears sequined pants, and looks like Tyrone Power.

Though he hasn't yet reached his 100th birthday, Zorro feels like a hero born in the good old days, when real men lived for honor, beautiful maidens were chaste but feisty, and a fast horse and faster sword went a long way in the world. Zorro is clearly a hybrid of the medieval Robin Hood and the Scarlet Pimpernel (who was introduced just 14 years earlier, but calls the 18th century his home). Fop by day, do-gooding bandit by night, Zorro is a model of cunning, wit, good breeding, social consciousness, courage, and derring-do, and is therefore a character destined to enter the realm of legend. It's no wonder that he has been immortalized on TV and in numerous movies, beginning with Douglas Fairbanks' 1920 silent film, The Mark of Zorro. The 1940 remake makes good use of its hero's many facets and delivers an enjoyable story filled with nostalgic action, romance, and humor.

Tyrone Power is well cast as Don Diego de Vega, a brilliant but slightly world-weary young man who returns to his native Los Angeles (still under Spanish rule in the early 1800s) to discover a homeland in chaos. His father has been deposed as regional governor by a petty tyrant named Quintero (J. Edward Bromberg), who is milking the peasants dry with the help of the ruthless Captain Esteban (Basil Rathbone). Immediately grasping the situation and what must be done to fix it, Diego pretends to have become a spineless dandy during his years in Madrid, thus providing a shield for his alter ego of Zorro, "the Fox," champion of the people. Diego's plan is to terrorize Quintero into fleeing to Spain and restoring the governor's office to his father. He wages his campaign on two fronts: one in the guise of the effete Diego, who gains access to his enemy's home by flirting with Senora Quintero (Gale Sondergaard) and agreeing to marry Quintero's niece Lolita (Linda Darnell), and the other in the guise of Zorro, who ambushes Quintero both at home and on the road, leaving him in fear of his life and his riches. As the plot thickens, Diego reveals his secret identity to the gravel-voiced Fray Filipe (a veritable Friar Tuck, played by Eugene Pallette) and to Lolita, who has proven her worth by admiring Zorro for his courage and despising Diego for his feckless airs. Some tension arises out of the fact that Diego's father is kept out of the loop, but when the situation comes to a head, father and son fight side-by-side with the peasants whom they have worked to protect, achieving a glorious victory.

The Mark of Zorro doesn't hold any surprises, but it moves along with a confident step and lines up all the elements of genial amusement. Power's costumes deserve particular notice; it's very pleasant to see a film in which the leading man is resplendent in as many frills, tassels, and embroidered pieces of finery as the leading lady. While Power serves up an irresistible mix of humor and bravado, the entire cast is equally enthusiastic, from the lazy and selfish Quintero to his deliciously vain wife to the snidely insecure Esteban. (In addition, Power reveals himself to be a decent magician, and both Rathbone and Power display some nice swordplay in the big swashbuckling scene). This is the kind of movie you watch precisely because you know what will happen: the bad guys will be evil but not too disturbing, the good guys will defeat them with a wink and a smile, and the hero and heroine will (to quote Diego) get married, raise fat children, and watch their vineyards grow. Because it's good to watch movies like this sometimes, Zorro gets high marks from me.

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.