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Douglas Fairbanks as the foppish Don Diego listens in mock alarm as Garcia (Noah Beery, extreme right) tells what will happen to Zorro when he catches him.
The Mark of Zorro, 1920
When Douglas Fairbanks made The Mark of Zorro in 1920, he was not at all sure of how the public would react to it. He was attracted to Johnston McCulley's story, "The Curse of Capistrano," because it was a lively yarn that provided ample— and logical— scope for both comedy and action. It was also, in essence, a western— and some of his most successful films to date had been westerns. But it was also a flamboyant costume drama, with a hero who wore a cloak instead of a rangeland shirt, and used a duelling rapier instead of a six-shooter. This represented very much of a change-of-pace from Doug's typical role of the go-getting American playboy; so much so that Doug figured that the film might well please as a novelty, but could not possibly constitute a radical change in the form of
his movies yet to come. In fact, as soon as it was finished, he reverted to type with a peppy comedy called The Nut. But when that one was completed The Mark of Zorro had already gone into release, and its tremendous popularity with both critics and public convinced Doug that from now on he should stick to swashbucklers.
The Mark of Zorro remains one of the best of Doug's cloak-and-sword adventures because it is essentially a product of the old Doug. It has the zip and pace of his early films, is fairly short (only seven reels), and doesn't allow spectacle and decor to swamp the action. It's a fairly small-scale film. It probably cost only a quarter as much as its sequel, Don Q, Son of Zorro, and it's several times as good.
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