The Mark of Zorro (1974) (TV)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Don McDougall

Writers:

Brian Taggert (teleplay)
John Taintor Foote (1940 screenplay)

Release Date:

29 October 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Western | Action | Adventure

Plot:

The swishing fop Don Diego de la Vega becomes the swashbuckling masked hero Zorro when tyranny threatens his people in nineteenth-century California.

Plot Keywords:

Hero | California | Spanish | ABC Movie Of The Week | Unsold TV Series Pilot

Cast

Frank Langella	...	Don Diego / Zorro
Ricardo Montalban	...	Captain Esteban
Gilbert Roland	...	Don Alejandro Vega
Louise Sorel	...	Inez Quintero
Robert Middleton	...	Don Luis Quintero
Anne Archer	...	Teresa
Yvonne De Carlo	...	Isabella Vega (as Yvonne DeCarlo)
Tom Lacy	...	Fray Felipe
Jorge Cervera Jr.	...	Sgt. Gonzales
Jay Hammer	...	Antonio
John Rose	...	Rodrigo
Robert Carricart	...	Dockworker
Alfonso Tafoya	...	Don Miguel
Inez Perez	...	Maria
Frank Soto	...	Proprietor

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (RCA Photophone Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Reuses Alfred Newman's musical score for The Mark of Zorro (1940).

Quotes:

Theresa: [shuts door as uncle leaves, turns and sees Diego there] You?
Don Diego/Zorro: Yes.
Theresa: How... how did you get here?
Don Diego/Zorro: Well, a man can do many things if he must.
Theresa: [gasps and smiles] I must be dreaming, you are Zorro!
Don Diego/Zorro: [puts finger to lips] I'm sorry I had to decieve you tonight but to accomplish what I must I had to decieve many people.
Theresa: And I suppose you came to tell me that asking for my hand was merely part of the game?
Don Diego/Zorro: Oh no. It is the one real thing in the whole masquerade.
[they kiss]

Movie Connections:

Version of The Mark of Zorro (1920)

Delightful, very sensual take on the Zorro legend...Frank Langella is unforgettable.

I haven't seen this TV film for years and would really like to see it again. I think I fell in love with Frank Langella because of it - OK, OK, so I was much younger and more impressionable at the time but, well, he was beguiling. As suggested in one or two other commentaries on this, I felt it was as effective a version, if not even a tad better than the 1940 one - perhaps because of both the eponymous hero's sexual magnetism and the charming, intelligent and spirited Anne Archer's Teresa. From what I remember, the film was to a large extent faithful to Tyrone Power's vehicle, and added a J-ne-sais-quoi to it.

Dashing as Power undoubtedly was, to my taste Langella's rich chocolatey voice, commanding height and seductive gaze made this viewer long to be the object of his affections. I admit it, I'm shamefacedly still a bit in love with the character!