User Reviews

It is set in 1825 in the Spanish California , an undercover pirate who has a facial scar called Marcos Zappa (Ricardo Montalban who usually appears bare-chested ) is blackmailed by the crooked Pedro Garcia (Gilbert Roland) to expose a tough rival . He plans to have Marcos seduce and marry Manuela (Cyd Charisse) , the daughter of his contender, Jose De Marquez (Antonio Moreno) . But Manuela is already engaged to be married to Miguel De Gandara (Armando Silvestre) . Meantime , Anita Gonzales (Andrea King) is jealous of the Marco's attentions for her , as she carries out a merciless vendetta . Later on , the cunning Pedro in order to facilitate his own ascension to power intends to expose Marquez in a scandal and implicating to shirtless Marcos in the mess .



Adventure movie plenty of noisy action , thrills , spectacular dancing and moving swordplay . Director Hugo Fregonese does a good job of capturing the sunny environment , including marvelous ccalifornia landscapes , as well as breathtaking duels , go riding and gorgeous scenarios . It is glossy and sleek ; in spite of efforts towards authenticity , the film falls short on a real recreation of the Spanish California . Stars Ricardo Montalban who plays a rugged pirate forced to a dangerous asignment and his nemesis , Gilbert Roland , as a traitor with extreme ambition whose schemes result to be emperor of California . Here Ricardo attempts to win the heroine's ,-gorgeous Cyd Charisse- , hand in marriage from her betrothed engagement . Cyd plays spendidly as Manuela who is attracted to Marcos/Montalban but not sure if she should trust him . Both of them perform an impressive and overwhelming dancing that turns out to be the highlight of the movie . The main star Ricardo was hired by MGM where he routinely ignited "Latin Lover" sparks opposite such prime female stars as Cyd Charisse, Shelley Winters, Anne Bancroft, Pier Angeli, Laraine Day and Esther Williams . Montalban starred a lot of films of all kinds of genres , Noir , Musical , Western , Wartime , thriller , such as : Mystery Street , Neptuno's daughter , Beyond the wide Missouri , Battleground . And adventures as : Semiramis, The Saracen blade , The Son of the Sheik, El Zorro , The Black pirate , among others . His most famous role was as Khan in ¨Star Trek 2 , the wrath of Khan¨ . Fine acting all around, especially from the support cast that included some of the best secondaries of the period as J. Carrol Naish , George Tobias , Antonio Moreno, Backus , Andrea King , Robert Warwick , Robert Cornthwaite , Armando Silvestre . It packs a colorful and shimmering cineenmatography in Technicolor by Charles P. Boyle . Thrilling and atmospheric musical score by Frank Skinner .

The motion picture ¨The mark of the renegade¨ was professionally directed by Hugo Fregonese , though ha some flaws and gaps . Direction by Fregonese maintains a steady pace and is partially as good in interiors as in outdoor action scenes . Hugo Fregonese is familiar remember the Argentine director for his Hollywood work , that began with One Way Street in 1950 and included some biggies such as Blowing Wild (1953), his biggest hit . Fregonese started in Argentina, and Pampa Bárbara , first version , is the first first film he directed he is listed as co- director with Lucas Demare . He had done his apprenticeship with Demare as assistant director in two previous films. Hugo was an Argentina director who emigrated to Hollywood, then became technical adviser on latino themes at Columbia Studios in Hollywood, and subsequently under contract at Universal from 1950 to 1952 filming ¨Man in the attic¨ with Jack Palance , ¨Blowing wild¨with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck , ¨Decameron Nights¨with Joan Fontaine , ¨Harry Black and the tiger¨with Stewart Granger . Spent the rest of the decade in Europe directing Euro-westerns as ¨Apache's last battle¨ , this ¨Savage Pampas¨ and potboilers as "The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse" , Terror as "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" before finishing his career back in the country of his birth . Rating : 6.5/10 , acceptable and passable . Worthwhile seeing for luxurious scenarios and breathtaking outdoors along with the wonderful dance between Montalban and Charisse .

This proved to be another film I was only vaguely familiar with that, however, resulted in a solid adventure effort: it is a mix of Western and Zorro-like swashbuckler (based, in fact, on a novel by the man who invented that popular avenging figure i.e. Johnston McCulley!) – though the hero's features are only partially hidden here and they are so in order to conceal the branding of the letter 'r' for 'renegade' on his forehead!

The film is immeasurably aided by a splendid gallery of actors: Ricardo Montalban (showing off his virility by frequently baring his chest and, early on, eating perhaps the longest meal this side of Asterix!), Cyd Charisse (the star teaming thus necessitating a gratuitous but vigorous flamenco number!), J. Carroll Naish (playing an ambiguous part), Gilbert Roland (the dashing villain), Andrea King (from THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS {1946}, also with Naish), George Tobias (cast against type as a scowling buccaneer) and Antonio Moreno (as Charisse's eminent father).

The plot deals with Montalban being blackmailed by Roland (who knows of his facial scar) to win the heroine's hand in marriage from her betrothed ostensibly because he bears Moreno a grudge, but really in order to facilitate his own ascension to power (since he fully intends to expose the protagonist soon after and thus implicating Moreno in a scandal)! The narrative is quite complex, with Naish (by turns brutish and helpful towards Montalban and sometimes downright comical), King (Roland's girl but nevertheless jealous of the hero's attentions for Charisse!) and Tobias (who plagues the star, his old nemesis, intermittently throughout and, especially, when the latter comes into money, wants a piece of the action too!) also figuring heavily. Typically, Roland shrouds his true nature behind a veneer of respectability – his cover eventually blown off by a meek priest during the highly satisfying climax, which also comes with a revelation as to Montalban's (redemptive) role in all of this!

The film offers color, action and romance in spades throughout its briskly-paced 77 minutes but, unfortunately, the viewing was hampered by the battered state the print was in and the muffled quality of the soundtrack…so much so that I had to rewatch the ending (despite the late hour in which I screened this) in order to get all the twists offered the denouement! For the record, I had already admired Hugo Fregonese's work on BLOWING WILD (1953) and THE RAID (1954) and, after yet another satisfactory viewing of his, I am looking forward to sampling the other 8 movies currently lying in my unwatched pile!

Gilbert Roland wants to break California off from Mexico and rule as emperor, so he blackmails branded renegade Ricardo Montalban to make love to Cyd Charisse, kill her fiance, and take off his shirt a lot in this potboiler from Universal.

Miss Charisse gets one big dance number as the high-born senorita, and it would have gotten a Kansas City burlesque house shut down. It's carefully edited, because she nominally dances it with Montalban, so large sections of it have to be reduced to clips of one second, which is all he can manage; in the words of a better remembered movie, she dances around him, and he bows. In the same way, the big sword fight between Roland and Montalban is shot with Roland facing the camera, the sword master's back to the camera, two clashes, and then switch so Montalban is facing the camera and the sword master.

All of which emphasizes the -- ahem! -- economical manner in which Hugo Fregonese shot this feature. It's pure pulp from a Johnston McCulley story, and amusing enough, and Charles Boyle's Technicolor camerawork is pleasant.

The Universal international Pictures is kind of affiliate of Universal Studios mostly focused in B-pictures in low budges, this swashbuckler project "The Mark of Renegade" driven to Latin audience about the wealthy and coveted territory over an alleged powerful Spanish landowner who intents becomes a Imperator of the newly annexed California under the independent Mexico, then the producers allowed several actors/actress of Mexican and Spanish background as Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, Gilbert Roland among others.

The story took place on California in 19th century shortly afterwards Mexico got its independence from Spain and all landlords from California agreed to be added the independent Mexico, suddenly appears from pirate galleon landind covertly on shore the renegade Marcos Zappa (Ricardo Montalban) a branded traitor from Mexican's cause, he has to meet with a powerful landowner Don Pedro Garcia (Gilbert Roland) that works on the shadows to put in dire straits the California's farmers leader Don José de Vazquez (Antonio Moreno) in a possible marriage of his daughter Manuella (Cyd Charisse) with the Latin lover renegade the now entitled Don Marcos Zappa aiming for discredit Don José as headship, tarnish and also overthrow, thus a shortcut to settle a chaos perpetrated at his behest lead by the pirate Capt. Bardoso (George Tobias) to later he appears as savior and new ruler hereinafter, however Marcos Zappa got an ace at his sleeve.

Strong humor oriented as the illiterate Captain Bardoso often kick out of all places, also the "Butler" Luis (J. Carrol Naish) always putting Zappa in jeopardy due Don Pedro's orderings, letting the good gourmet Zappa grumpy and without appetite, in the early sequence Montalban eaten around dozen type of foods stacking dishes in contrived but funny scene, the gorgeous Cyd Charisse is a chapter apart due her unbeaten beauty, also in sexy flamenco dancing displaying her beautiful legs, Ricardo Montalban a Latin sex symbol in flamboyant Spanish outifts, usually exposing bare chest for the female audience, a cheap picture with fine screenplay, fine sword duel directed by the Argentinian Hugo Fregonese.

Resume:

First watch: 1978 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.

As a swashbuckler, this is fairly lame. The whole thing is never believable, with an air of lightness that just about always says "can you believe this????" The script makes absolutely no sense. But Montalban is charming in the lead and I'm always grateful to see Gilbert Roland and J. Carrol Naish at work. But what's really odd about this movie are the homo-erotic undertones. Montalban frequently has his shirt off -- more often around men than women. There's more sexual tension between Montalban and Gilbert Roland than there is between him and Cyd Charisse. The men are always trying to top one another -- and they seem more hurt by betrayal than the women. Add in all the pointy objects they keep poking at one another... well, I don't want to make too big a deal about it, but it is odd.

"The Mark of the Renegade" is a film starring Ricardo Montalban which is set in California, circa 1825. This is just after Mexico won its independence from Spain and this meant not only independence for Mexico but its territories in what is now the United States (roughly the Southwestern part of the USA).

As far as the plot goes, it's very confusing and WHY much of the action is occurring is not very clear through much of the movie. In fact, it's not until the final scene when it's all explained...which isn't exactly great writing. Montalban plays Marcos Zappa, a man who carries a brand on his forehead because he was seen as a traitor to this recent revolution....though you strongly suspect that he was not a traitor at all. Regardless, because he's seen as a traitor he's fallen in with bandits (oddly, led by George Tobias of all people). However, soon Don Pedro (Gilbert Roland) arrives and blackmails him into performing an odd mission for him....to seduce Manuela de Vasquez (Cyd Charisse)...though why, you have no idiea. The problem is that Manuela is already engaged....and to a man who seems very nice. What's really going on here?!

Let's cut to the chase. The actors and polish are very good here...the story itself is a bit of a confusing mess. Not a bad film but it certainly could have been so much better.

It's 1825. California is a territory of the new Republic of Mexico. It is under constant threat from pirates and bandits. Marcos Zappa (Ricardo Montalban) escapes from pirates. He is captured and taken to meet Don Pedro Garcia who wants to be emperor of California. He is given a proposition.

There's swashbuckling. There's banditry. It's a Latino soap melodrama. It's color but of a poorer quality. I can do without the soap which is a lot of boring standing around and talking. I can do with better swashbuckling. It needs better action. This tries to be Zorro at times but it doesn't have the flair. It's a B-movie.

Unlike decole's comment I was fascinated by this movie. The highlights of the movie is the dance of Ricardo with Cyd CH. I find this dance to be the MOST SENSUAL dance I have ever seen on the screen, and this is even more impressing and exciting then ANTHONY DEXTER's dance " LA COMPERSITA" in VALENTINO. RICARDO MONTALBAN does use several ( not enough as far as I am concerned) opportunities to showoff his AMAZING awesome sexy body , but when he dances with Cyd the sensual dance, after being " seduced" by her, he is well dressed as a distinguished Spanish Gentelman. THe posters and L.Cs of the movie showed RICARDO fighting, and dancing , shirtless in some very irritating poses but actually these scenes are rare and therefor I was some disappointed, because my expectations were higher. BUt, remembering that it was filmed in the beginning of the 50th, even those shirtless pix were a venture. I highly recommend MARK of the RENEGADE, mainly for the dance and for the magnificent appearance of RICARDO MONTALBAN who is an Excellent Latin LOVER ( and hunk ) mosh

Cyd Charisse was first of all a dancer, she danced with them all, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Roland Petit, and her dancing always endowed her films with class. Here she dances with Ricardo Montalban, and that flamenco pas-de-deux is the treat and highlight of the film. The intrigue is not muddled but terribly multiple which must seem confusing to any less intelligent audience. Besides Montalban, the other dashing figure is Gilbert Roland, the most superior of all in the intrigue, and every scene with him is highly enjoyable, especially when fighting with exquisite elegance. There is also a great scene at the great inn of the garden of pleasure, where one of several additional intrigues takes place, ending as usual with a great fight, one of many in this cramped but very fluent swashbuckling rogue adventure, where there is no action taking place without immediately being interrupted and followed by another. This film will keep you delightfully busy.