THE MARK OF ZORRO

(1920, Fred Niblo) Sword-slashed Z/s keep popping up on the bad guys as the mysterious masked Zorro starts righting wrongs in Olde California. Based on a book read by Pickford on their honeymoon, the first of Fairbanks’ legendary swashbucklers – and prototype for all the alter-egoed superheros of the future. Approx. 80 min. 35mm.

Last year, scenes from The Mark of Zorro were featured in the Oscar-winning The Artist, with close shots of actor Jean Dujardin cut into the action shots featuring the real Doug.

REVIEWS

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“Silent classic with Fairbanks as the masked hero of old California; perhaps Doug's best film--his first swashbuckler. Nonstop fun.”
– Leonard Maltin

“Doug is the personification of youth and high adventure; he is the spirit of all the things you and I, out in the darkened spaces this side of the screen, have ever dreamed of being.”
– Frederick James Smith, Motion Picture Classic (1921)

“Here is romance and into the bargain a commercial film.. Douglas Fairbanks is once more the Doug that crowds love.”
– Variety (1920)

“With this film, Fairbanks defined and popularized the swashbuckler genre.  All the practitioners after him – Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Gene Kelly, Burt Lancaster, and Johnny Depp among them – draw upon the Fairbanks heritage and his contribution to the mosaic of the swashbuckling hero.”
– Jeffrey Vance