Zorro is so familiar to us now but this was the first version of the book
by Johnston McCulley titled The Curse of Capistrano that had been published
in 1919. McCulley was to go on to write other Zorro (fox) stories. What I
found surprising was that it was picked up by a comic actor to do. Douglas
Fairbanks. Up until The Mark of Zorro, Fairbanks made comedies. Nearly 30
of them. And they were quite successful. I have never come across one so
I can't judge as to his comic abilities and I wonder how many if any survived.
Fairbanks, Mary Pickford (who Fairbanks had just married in a messy situation),
Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith had just formed United Artists to give
them freedom from the studios and this was to be the first film released
by them.
In his comedies Fairbanks was quite athletic and with that skill he decided
to make a swashbuckler film full of swordplay and stunts. Well, in truth
not really as much swashbuckling as I would have preferred. A lot of the
107 minute movie is devoted to his romancing his love, Lolita (Marguerite
De La Motte) in very silent film style that always seems a bit ridiculous
now. The sort of thing that Singing in the Rain mocked so well. There are
a few swordplay scenes but nothing to write home about - just one on one
fights. But the one scene that does stand out is a lovely one - physical
grace and comedy. Zorro challenges a troop of soldiers to catch him though
he is unarmed. He rides into town with them in close pursuit and over the
next ten minutes there is a flurry of him leaping, jumping into windows,
out of windows, over things - it is basically a pioneering course in what
came to be called parkour. Fairbanks is said to have done nearly all his
own stunts so I would have to guess this was him and it is thrilling. Much
of the rest of the film is a bit slow and ponderous. It needed a few more
fights,
It is the story we have all come to know. Don Diego is back from Spain and
as his father says it turned his blood into water. He has become a fop or
a popinjay. Perhaps a foppish popinjay. Always tired and bored with life.
Of course he is actually Zorro and the scene when his father, friends, the
villains and Lolita (who had said of him "He isn't a man, he is a fish")
all realize this is rather good. At least in this version they make an effort
to differentiate Zorro from Don Diego with more than just a mask. As Zorro
he pastes a little moustache on and as Don Diego he pastes on a few large
moles and has the hair on the side curled inwards over his face. He is a
fop of course. He fights injustice and leaves a Z mark wherever he finds
it. Directed by Fred Niblo who would go on to direct The Three Musketeers
and Ben-Hur.
