The Origins of Zorro, surprising facts Options

[Jim Rainwater]

I see a new Zorro movie has come out this weekend. Lately, my wife Sylvia has been spending her time mostly renting and watching old movies. Recently I watched with her the 1940 Tyrone Power classic, The Mark of Zorro, and began to wonder where that character originated, and did some research on the internet.

Zorro is a fictional character, created surprisingly by an Anglo author. L. A. writer Johnston McCulley created him in a series for a pulp magazine in 1919, originally titled "The Curse of Capistrano" and republished as "The Mark of Zorro". Some other early L. A. writers of the time also created notable fictional heroes. Earl Stanley Gardner created lawyer Perry Mason, and Edgar Rice Burroughs created Tarzan of the Jungle. McCulley was interested in the early history of L. A. as an outpost of the Spanish empire, and his hero fought against Spanish colonial authorities who were portrayed, probably accurately, as corrupt and autocratic.

Zorro was in part inspired by the classic novel "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Baroness D'Orczy. That was the story of a heroic British aristocrat who saved French aristocrats from the guillotine during the French Revolution. The Pimpernel in real life was a somewhat foppish man who was macho and heroic in his other identity. Similarly, Zorro (fox in Spanish) was a bit of a fop in his secret identity, Don Diego. So the idea of a hero with a secret identity came before, but Zorro was the first also to have a special costume in his hero identity, and paved the way for Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and others.

The difference was that while the Pimpernel was on the side of the aristocrats, Zorro, though an aristocrat in real life, fought for the common man. The character became popular first with the classis Douglas Fairbanks silent movie, "The Mark of Zorro", just a year after the story was published. Like Batman and unlike Superman, Zorro had no super powers, but was an excellent horseman and swordsman.

Tyrone Power, an Irish-American actor who looked the part, was excellent in the role two decades later. His swordfight against Basil Rathbone is considered the greatest in movie history. Ironically, Power later died of a heart attack while filming a swordfight with George Sanders in the movie "Soloman and Sheba".

When I was a kid, Walt Disney came up with a very popular TV series on Zorro, and in those days on Haloween there were a lot of boys in a black cape, mask, and a sword slashing Z's everywhere. The actor who played him went by Guy Williams, but his real name was Armando Catalano, which sounds hispanic though one site said his parents were New York Italian immigrants. For me, Catalano was the definitive Zorro, since in the series, unlike Power, he spoke English with what to my ears was a good Spanish accent.
In his old age he moved to, and eventually died in, Buenos Aires.

In the Power movie and I guess in the original novel, Zorro's identity is exposed, but he wins the day and decides in the end to hang up his cape, mask, and sword. So McCulley intended his first novel as just a one-shot, but Zorro became so popular that he went on to write over 60 more Zorro stories before his death.

There have been dozens of Zorro movies made worldwide. What I find remarkable is that he was created by an Anglo writer, and often minority group fictional heroes, like Uncle Tom of the novel, Tonto, or Charlie Chan, though first created by well-meaning authors in a society that used to be much more racist, were viewed as stereotypical and even racist themselves decades later. But nobody ever did that with Zorro, since he was definitively macho and heroic.

This post has been edited by Jim Rainwater: 29th October 2005, 23:46

[nthralled]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the research on Zorro. I remember as a kid reading about the adventures of Zorro and being captivated. I rejoiced every time he outfoxed the 'bad' captain. It is interesting to see Zorro - a character set in the context of Spanish culture - being so popular in the U.S.

Another hero who would make an interesting character for films today could be Captain Blood made famous by Errol Flyn. Rafael Sabatini is the man who created him, and while Captain Blood may be his best known character, he isn't his most interesting (in my humble opinion).

My vote for Sabatini's best character would be Scaramouche, a hero during the French Revolution. Strange that his path never intersected that of the Scarlet Pimpernel. .

I imagine the popularity of Captain Blood with the English and Scaramouche with the French is because of the historical contexts. However I am sure that any filmmaker would make highly entertaining films even when sticking closely to the characters as fleshed out by Sabatini.

Neither the Captain Blood films not the Scaramouche films mesure up to the excellence of the books as originally written, so if you have read to this point , and if you have read any of the original stories on Zorro, do you feel that the present films on Zorro are an improvement on the orinally written stories by McCulley?How do you feel the 2 films with Banderas compare with the classics of the '40's with Powers and Fairbanks?

While I enjoyed the first film with Banderas and Zeta Jones,and have only seen clips of the second, I am sure that films which remained comparatively true to original story lines would have been just as entertaining as regarding plot, while giving the actors more opportunity to exhibit their acting skills.

[nthralled]

Jim

I read your post again and would just like to say that your remark about characters later taking on a meaning completely detached from the original author's intent was right on. It would be difficult to find a more striking example than Uncle Tom of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. Harriet Beecher Stowewrote that book to demontrate the excellencies of Christian virtue manifested under unbelivably harsh circomstances. It's too bad that such a praiseworthy attempt has been so completely misconstrued that today an 'Uncle Tom' is an epithet rather than a compliment.

It is also surprising that a white woman of the 19th century chose to use a black man as her hero. Note to all women: If you ever meet a fair imitation of Uncle Tom get down on your knees and beg him to marry you subito presto. Yer gonna find out what heaven on earth is like. Then show off this paragon to the people around you. It may oblige the rest of we poor mortal males to be more worthy of you all

[Jim Rainwater]

Thanks very much for your two thoughtful posts, nthralled.

These days I am retired, but Sylvia usually needs 24/7 attention, and likes old movies but does not like contemporary ones. I rarely get a chance to sneak off to the movies. The only ones I have been to in the last year or so have been "Wimbledon", "The Dukes of Hazzard" (both discussed in other threads here), and "The Wedding Crashers", which I liked. I hope to sneak out to the new Zorro movie, but don't know if I can.

For many of your examples I have read the book or watched the movie, but not both. I did both with The Scarlet Pimpernel, and thought both the 1934 movie with Leslie Howard and the 1982 version with Anthony Andrews were excellent.

Lately Sylvia watches her rented old movies and I sometimes join her, but more often watch tapes of tennis matches or get on the internet. She said Captain Blood was quite good, though I didn't watch that with her.

I post more about Errol Flynn in Member Area, Obsessive Tennis Fans thread. From the reviews of the current Zorro, it sounds like, as a concession to modern times, they also insert a female Zorro which I doubt Johntson Mc Culley did (I never read his original stories). However, in one of Errol Flynn's later movies, Against All Flags, Maureen O'Hara plays a female pirate, so who knows? By the way, Sylvia also liked the Scaramouche movie with Stewart Granger.

I agree completely about Uncle Tom's Cabin. That novel in its time was credited with winning over sentiment on the Union side to abolition, and Simon Legree was one of literature's great evil villains. I guess there was a later book, Goodbye to Uncle Tom, that totally turned upside down his image. Many thanks to Canada for their help in the Underground Railroad days.

One last thing about old movies. I saw, and would recommend, the Gregory Peck movie "The World in His Arms" set in old Alaska, particularly because Ann Blyth, who plays the heroine, looks exactly like Martina Hingis. The movie ends with him hugging her on the bridge of the ship by the steering wheel, which is probably where they got the idea for that famous scene in Titanic.

This post has been edited by Jim Rainwater: 1st November 2005, 20:34

[Jim Rainwater]

I got to see the Legend of Zorro this afternoon. I liked it.

Antonio Banderas plays a good Zorro, and Catherine Zeta-Jones was excellent as his wife Elena. Adrian Alonso plays their young son, a sort of Zorro Junior, handy with a slingshot. It starts with a vote in California for statehood, around 1850, when a nasty scarface Confederate bigot and his gang steal the ballot box, and Zorro retrieves it, with some scenes of swordfights on suspended log structures, not really convincing.

The movie then drags a bit with Elena, fed up with Zorro neglecting her and his son, filing for divorce and going with a French aristocrat who is setting up a new California winery. The complex plot, in a tradition in western of Civil War factions exploiting the West, involves the clandestine manufacture of nitroglycerine to be shipped to the Confederacy. The last part is quite exciting, as Zorro on horseback catches up to a train that is shipping the nitroglycerine, and fights the bad guys. Zeta-Jones isn't exactly a female Zorro, but has scenes of swordfights herself which she does well. A happy ending, of course.

This post has been edited by Jim Rainwater: 6th November 2005, 00:37

[Markus Doerig]

Thanks for the Information about Zorro, really interesting.

I saw the movie too, however i must say i was a bit dissapointed by the sequel (while i love the first one with Antonio).

Sure ,the Actors were great, but the Story and Action was disapointing for me.

[nthralled]

JIM

I don't know if you will still be coming to this topic given the time lapse as well as the news about Martina's return to the WTA, but if you do you might like the following movie as a suggestion your wife would enjoy.

It is the film Goldwyn, which tells the story of Sam Goldwyn. It was very interesting as a recital of his life but your wife will probably also have you running around finding versions of the moviesthat are mentionned throughout. It's too bad Goldwyn didn't win more OSCARS for some of his material which seems to be a cut above that of the competition for the most part.

Maybe Goldwyn was yesteryears Spielburg. It is unfortunate that Spielburg has not won best film of the year more often with SAVING PRIVATE RYAN being the most glaring omission. Shakespeare in Love isn't in the same category at all yet beat out Saving Private Ryan. Apparently Spielberg was pretty downcast about that loss.

Another series in the Zorro tradition that your wife might enjoy could be the FOUR MUSKETEERS AND its sequel which were done by Richard Lester starring Charlton Heston, Michael York, Raquel Welch and Oliver Reed. I found them a little long but entertaining up to a point. It maybe lacks the slickness of new technology but fight scenes etc are more realistic than what I have seen from trailers of Zorro II. I also heard one of the actors (York) talking about the scenes being real as opposed to the present technique of blue screen which todays actors must cope with.

Oliver Reed was quite a personality and I enjoyed his acting. If you can ever get your hands on a film in the late '60' or early 70's entitled 'MURDER INC' with Reed rent it. I found it very entertaining.

Before ending this 'stream of consciousness' another film your wife might enjoy before the newest King Kong movie comes out is the version with Jessica Lange. I remember enjoying it and will watch it again if it appears on regular TV viewing - as long as it doesn't coincide with Martina playing.

[Jim Rainwater]

Thanks for the replies, nthralled and Markus. Yes, this week has been hectic here, but I try to watch the threads I have started.

Thanks for the tip, nthralled. Is that "Goldwyn" the 2001 made-for-TV movie, with Dustin Hoffman as narrator? I saw the listing on imdb. I'll make it a point to look for that, and Murder Inc. I can never figure out Sylvia's tastes. She did rent the Oliver Reed Musketeer movies and for some reason didn't like them. However, we both liked Richard Chamberlain in two other made-for-TV movies of Alexandre Dumas stories, The Count of Monte Cristo and (especially) The Man In the Iron Mask.

Markus, I hadn't seen the 1998 movie "The Mask of Zorro", but rented it recently. I can see how people who only know of Zorro through that movie might be disappointed in the current one, though I think they are both good. When "Mask" came out, I thought it was a joke to have Anthony Hopkins play Zorro. He is well-known for his grotesquely repulsive character Hannibal Lecter, as well as for playing cultured gentlemen in other movies, but I couldn't imagine him as a convincing man of action.

I now see I was wrong, and that movie actually works well, with Anthony Hopkins as the original Zorro training Antonio Banderas to be his successor. Both movies involve historical scenarios that could have happened, but didn't. In the earlier movie, the bad guy plans to buy California from Mexico with gold he secretly found. Actually, despite the Spaniards' legendary hunger for gold, it was Anglo settlers James Marshall and John Sutter who discovered gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills above Sacramento just days after the peace treaty that ended the Mexican war, and led to the 1849 Gold Rush.

It was clear from the earlier movie, and not from the current one, that the Catherine Zeta-Jones character was the biological daughter of the original Zorro, which explains her skill with a sword. The swordfight between Zorro and the French vineyard owner on the train was good in the current movie, but the 1998 movie had double the excitement in the scene at the gold mine, with the old Zorro fighting the man who killed his wife and stole his daughter, and the young Zorro fighting the man who killed his brother. Really well done there.

This post has been edited by Jim Rainwater: 6th December 2005, 00:50

[nthralled]

I looked up Reed with a search engine - fortunately, as the movie is entitled The Assassination Bureau which spoofs the real Murder Inc.

The plotline is Diana Rigg as the daughter of a man who has been assassinated and who wants to hire someone to eliminate the organization which has killed her father. She winds up hiring the son of the founder of that particular organization to do thew job. Naturally speaking the members of that guilty organization are somewhat recalcitrant by taking their extermination lieing down and their 'determined efforts to get rid of the son of their revered founder. (Or maybe Rigg is a female journalist who is a precursor to todays investigative journalists. I forget but this film would be a great one to remake.

It tickled my sense of humour anyway, and if I could get my hands on it I would willingly watch it again. Here are a few more details that may help you locate it if it still interests you:

The Assassination Bureau (1969)
Directed by
Basil Dearden

Writing credits
Robert L. Fish (novel)
Jack London (unfinished novel)
(more)



Add to MyMovies IMDbPro Professional Details


Genre: Action / Adventure / Comedy / Crime / Sci-Fi (more)

Tagline: Zeppelins. Bombs. Bordellos. Burials. You name it. We have it.

Plot Summary: The Assassination Bureau has existed for decades (perhaps centuries) until Diana Rigg begins to investigate it... (more)

User Comments: Stylish; Beautiful; Colorful Hilarious and Action-Filled; Classic Satire (more)

User Rating: 6.3/10 (364 votes)

Cast overview, first billed only:
Oliver Reed .... Ivan Dragomiloff
Diana Rigg .... Sonya Winter
Telly Savalas .... Lord Bostwick
Curd Jürgens .... General von Pinck
Philippe Noiret .... Monsieur Lucoville

As you can see there were some good actors. There is a remake of "FUN WITH DICK AND JANE" starring Jim Carey which will soon come out. I remember enjoying the original version with Jane Fonda and George Segal quite a lot.

Another old movie with Segal which may even be in black and white is called KING RAT and is set in a POW camp.

You have described the Goldwyn film more accurately than I did. I found the Lester films somewhat laboured, partly because Lester made the characters a little too 'buffoonish', so didn't enjoy as much as I might have, but still think they stand up well to films of the 'cap et d'epée' genre of the '30's and '40's.

[nthralled]

Here is an evaluation someone else made on ASSASSINATION BUREAU which will help you:

User Comments:

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful:-
Stylish; Beautiful; Colorful Hilarious and Action-Filled; Classic Satire, 28 June 2005

Author: silverscreen888 from United States


If the awestruck viewer of this lovely, spacious-looking and delightful satire can get past the multiple locales, the elaborate and often-sumptuous style and the sheer colorfulness of the goings-on, there is a solid and interesting plot line under propping the entire gorgeous edifice. Behind the overwhelming "stylishness" that first greets the eyes, and it is a wonderfully varied and colorful production, Jack London's fascinating story of the "assassination bureau" has been updated by writer Robert L. Fish to be an "ethical" idea gone wrong. The basic premise is that the pragmatic and cynical end of the 19th Century with its pseudo-Christian thug-like monarchs, dynasts and empire-builders was unjust to individual victims. because this situation led some to wish the worst offenders removed from their tyrannies and interferences, Ivan Dragomilov's father created the Assassination Baureau, Ltd. However, an instrument designed to remove the worst offending baddies from an imperfect world has now become a murder-for-hire problem. Enter Diana Rigg, who finds out how to hire the Bureau to take a contract on--Ivan Dragomilov, played intelligently by Oliver reed. He accepts the contract, recognizing what his father's "noble instrument" has been allowed to become. The remainder of the film's scenes then feature a long and fascinatingly funny duel between Rigg and Oliver and the bureau's chiefs, against whom Reed has declared war. These stalwarts include stalwarts such as the great Curt Jurgens in Germany, Cilve Revill in Italy, Telly Savals in London and others in Paris and elsewhere. Sweeping scenes such as the French bordello scenes, the German Restaurant duel, the hilarious Italian caper, the flaming-lighter escape on the train trick and others lead to the climactic race to save London from Savalas's explosive plot. The lovely mounting of the production is highlighted by Basil Dearden's wonderful ability with actors, blocking, and camera-work, Art Director Michael Relph's award-level contributions, magnificent costumes luminous lighting and many other achievements. Many other actors including Beryl Reed, Philippe Noiret and pretty Annabella Incontrera contributed; Ron Grainer's music is a great asset also. But I believe what sets this satirical thriller apart is its realistic ethical dimension; the fact that the Age of Empire was an age of evil governments and unethical pretensions by state tsars has not even now been recognized. This long and intensely-diverting film is a beautiful-polished needle that pricks a much-needed hole in the gasbag of public-interest-tyranny's post modernistic pretensions. It is a film that deserves to be laughed with, applauded and considered carefully for its positive sense-of-life and all-around sparkling wit, dialogue and spirit of adventurous fun.

One of my favorite scenes is in Venice where you hear the gondolier singing soulfuly one moment and...

[nthralled]

'N here's another to twist yer arm and get you to find it for your wife's enjoyment!

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
When Assassination was mere Amusement, 8 August 2005

Author: Bogmeister from United States


To enjoy and even admire this period piece, set just before the industrial revolution of the 20th century, one has to understand what it is. It's certainly not a parody of James Bond or some off cue thriller; it's high comedy, a farce of magnificent proportions, aided & abetted by fine action. You have to get in on the joke with Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas and the rest, all obviously enjoying themselves, but not at our expense. Let them amuse you and bemuse you, and you'll have a grand time. By this point, over 35 years after this was filmed, it may be difficult for younger viewers to follow along with Reed and realize when he is winking at them during one of his outrageous pronouncements. He's the head of the organization of the title - it is what you think it is, no pretensions there - its business is killing people, for money. But that is about the only thing which is up front in this picture. Everyone is not who they seem to be, usually having a decent public face and the secret hidden one - the one catering to the less moral side of all of us.

This is probably my favorite Oliver Reed performance. He grabs the role of the debonair gentleman assassin and turns it into uniquely his own. Some of his dry line delivery, particularly when sparring with Rigg, is priceless; my favorite is when they meet and she informs him who she wants killed; he soon demands her reasons, yelling "Is That it? Is That It!?!" Later in the film, she calls him annoying. "I have been told that," he replies, but never have we heard the line spoken that way. He needs to carry the picture, outsmarting and fooling all the other sneaky assassins out for his blood with disguises, role-playing and careless bravado. This is where the picture really shifts into high gear, turning into a duel among a group of master killers who, luckily, do not yet have the advantages of 20th century weaponry. The supporting cast are all terrific, including Savalas as Reed's main nemesis, Jurgens as a German general and Noiret who, besides being an assassin, also runs a brothel (no limits to the French).

The script and dialog are continually witty throughout, many of the lines classic and too numerous to mention here. Again, some of this may be lost on anyone under 30 years old; in a way, this brand of humor can now be termed sophisticated - no gross bodily function joking. It does revolve around death, so a kind of dark farce results, of course - yet it's not morbid. That's probably because most of the victims deserve their ends as presented here; they made their beds, as it were. The dialog is complemented by inventive turns in the plot; there's actually quite a bit of suspense as the story turns & twists here and there, especially during the sequence in Venice, where the order of characters being killed is not as expected. The finale is also suspenseful - you may wonder how Reed will pull it off, stopping an entire zeppelin and its crew. And please keep in mind the special FX are over 35 years old, as well. Just glorious stuff.

Holds up well over time, 26 June 2003