The Mark of Zorro (1940) - film review

Some time in the 19th Century, Don Diego de la Vega is at a military school in Spain when he is summoned back to his home in Southern California by his father, Don Alejandro Vega.  Don Diego is surprised when he learns that his father, a well-respected and kindly governor, has been ousted by the wicked Don Luis Quintero.  Supported by his villainous swordmaster Captain Esteban Pasquale, the new governor extorts excessive taxes from the poor people of the province, threatening those who do not pay up with imprisonment or death.  Don Diego cultivates the image of a foppish idler so that no one will suspect him when he begins his one man crusade against Quintero.  Adopting the name Zorro, Don Diego robs the governor and thwarts his attempts to collect his taxes, leaving his mark (a capital letter Z) wherever he goes.   In a bid to quell the growing unrest amongst the peasants, Pasquale  persuades Quintero that his niece Lolita should marry Don Diego.   Lolita is none too keen on the idea until she realises that Don Diego and Zorro are one in the same man.   Before the marriage takes place, however, Quintero uncovers Zorro’s true identity and plans to stage a public execution...

Johnston McCulley’s novella The Curse of Capistrano (first published in serial form in 1919) has given cinema one of its most enduring icons, the masked avenger Zorro.  Since Douglas Fairbanks assumed the role in the 1920 silent classic The Mark of Zorro, McCulley’s enigmatic creation has reappeared in countless other films for cinema and television, played by actors as diverse as Clayton Moore, Alain Delon, Frank Langella and Antonio Banderas.  Arguably the best film adaptation of McCulley’s story is the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro, in which an energetic and deliciously stylish Tyrone Power dons the famous black mask and gives Errol Flynn a good run for his money in the swashbuckling stakes.  

It was Flynn’s success in a series of lavish swashbucklers at Warner Brothers which motivated Twentieth Century-Fox to make this film, admittedly on a fraction of the budget.  The studio couldn’t afford Flynn but they had a promising substitute in the guise of a rapidly rising star, Tyrone Power.   As it turned out, the double-edged role of Don Diego/Zorro was perfect for Power, since it allowed him to combine the fey charm of his matinee idol persona with the dashing vigour of his more macho action man roles.  In one of his career highpoints, Power delivers a performance that bristles with energy, style and good humour, a bravura turn that made him the definitive screen Zorro.

They say you can judge a man by the quality of his enemies, and so it is fitting that Power should be up against an arch villain (and I stress the word arch) of the calibre of Basil Rathbone.  Rathbone may be best remembered today for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in a series of films he made for Fox and then Universal Pictures, but prior to this he was the swashbuckling villain of choice for Hollywood’s elite filmmakers.  The actor’s fencing skills had already been put to good use in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), against the aforementioned Errol Flynn, and in The Mark of Zorro he proves to be perfectly qualified to play the sadistic swordmaster Captain Pasquale.  The duel which he and Power enact at the end of this film is executed with breathtaking verve and ferocity, arguably the finest swordfight seen in any film.

Doubtless, Power and Rathbone could pretty well have carried this film on their own, but, just as a precious stone is enhanced by its setting, so are the contributions of these two great actors enhanced by their supporting cast.  As the shoehorned-in love interest, Linda Darnell provides a touch of the old style Hollywood glamour, allowing Power to shine as a romantic lead in between bouts of nifty swordplay. Darnell is an attractive diversion but she provides far less entertainment value than her supporting artistes, Gale Sondergaard, J. Edward Bromberg and Eugene Pallette.  The latter is particularly memorable, as he gets to reprise (with considerable gusto) his Friar Tuck role from The Adventures of Robin Hood, presumably because he couldn’t kick the habit.

Rouben Mamoulian is perhaps a strange choice to direct a fast-moving action film of this kind, given that his field of expertise was the slow-paced romantic drama, best illustrated by Queen Christina (1933) and Becky Sharp (1935)   Despite his penchant for low-key character-based drama, Mamoulian directs The Mark of Zorro with surprising flair, bringing tension and excitement to the action scenes (most notably the famous duel) whilst making room for quieter, character-led scenes, which are just as compelling.  The only let-down is the crowd fight sequence at the end of the film, which looks more like a bun fight at the Women’s Institute than a full-blown revolution.  With the help of his distinguished cinematographer Arthur C. Miller, Mamoulian does a pretty good job of concealing the film’s budgetary limitations and crafts a supremely enjoyable swashbuckler.  Well paced and lightened by some well-judged humour, this has to be the most perfect rendering of the Zorro legend to date.

© Chris Alderton 2010

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