The Mark of Zorro (1920)

A tavern full of corrupt soldiers complains of a masked vigilante fighting for the poor and the oppressed: Zorro.  Douglas Fairbanks stars as the dashing hero in one of his first swashbuckling roles (in one of the first swashbucklers) in the first cinematic adaptation of the iconic Zorro character: The Mark of Zorro.  Directed by Fred Niblo, one of early cinema's most important innovators, the silent film was released in 1920 and became a huge hit at the box office, turning the athletic Fairbanks from a comic actor into a swashbuckling superstar.

The film is set in a Spanish controlled California, where the government has been increasingly oppressive and corrupt to the natives and the poor.  A few months prior to the beginning of the film, the apparently foppish Don Diego Vega has returned home from being educated in Spain.  Shortly thereafter, reports began circulating about a masked vigilante, Zorro, terrorizing those who abuse their power and oppress the weak.  Don Diego's father, frustrated with his effete and seemingly idle son, informs him that he needs to marry; the lovely Lolita Pulido, of a good family with current financial troubles, is his fiancé-to-be of choice.  Lolita despises (with good reason) Don Diego for his behavior and rudeness, (while courting, it is probably best not to say finding a wife is "such a nuisance") but falls for the charming and dashing Zorro.  As the manhunt for Zorro heats up, Lolita and everyone else will be shocked by Zorro's (timely) revelation of his true identity: Don Diego Vega.

Douglas Fairbanks, though not a great actor in the traditional sense, had the tools that made him a (if not the) ideal swashbuckling hero: he sparkled with ebullience in every scene, he had a charisma and natural screen-presence almost unmatched among the screen-stars of any decade, and he had a prodigious athletic ability that make his stunts (done without the use of special effects) breathtaking both then and now.  The supporting players are game and charismatic, the two qualities required of a supporting actor in a film such as this.  Though every performer does their job well, Fairbanks truly steals the show; it is no mystery why he was asked to portray many of the other great swashbuckling heroes after this film (D'Artagnan, Robin Hood, the son of Zorro).

Though The Mark of Zorro is a silent film, the use of the intertitles does not slow the film's pace or hinder the enjoyment of it.  The film's lack of special effects and its relatively low quality picture could have doomed a film this action heavy, but Niblo's direction and Fairbanks athleticism prevented this high-quality adventure from being a disaster.  The sword-fighting  scenes in the film, though lacking in the (relative) realism and skill demonstrated by those performed by Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn (among other actors) years later, are enjoyable and exhilarating nonetheless.  The score, comprised of organ music, is fitting the film and is essential is creating the correct tone for the film; the fact that it is a silent film necessitates the use of the music in setting the tone for the action.  

As the film in which Douglas Fairbanks proved his merits as a swashbuckling hero, it is fitting that The Mark of Zorro be both gloriously pulpy and entertaining from the first moment to the last: the film delivers on both counts; though the film does not contain much in the way of depth.  All in all, The Mark of Zorro is a thoroughly memorable adaptation of Johnston McCulley's classic pulp novel The Curse of Capistrano, despite the lack of special effects or spoken dialogue.

8/10

Note: This review was previously posted on another blog I wrote.