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.
Review of The Mark of Zorro
