Storyline

Zorro, the masked deliverer of Indians of Spanish-ruled California, is about to be hanged when General Palma is declared governor of Santa Cruz. Palma is to replace the tyrannical commandante, Sebastian Golle, who has been pilfering King Charles' tax money and terrorizing the natives. With the help of the Indians, Zorro escapes and, posing as Don Diego Vega, a gentleman pauper from Mexico, offers his services to Palma and his lovely daughter Isabella. Palma, however, refuses Diego and unwittingly sends him out as bait for Zorro. But as Palma chases the elusive hero, he is killed by a bandit who leaves Zorro's "Z" mark on his dead body. After Isabella is made governor, Golle plans to marry her and receive Santa Cruz as her dowery, and Diego agrees to do his wooing for him. Golle, meanwhile, has been taxing the Indians beyond their means and enslaving the sons of those who cannot pay. When Golle's soldiers herd the slaves into the public square, their mothers cry for Zorro to deliver them. Hoping to expose Golle's barbarism, Diego brings Isabella to the square, where she promises to free the slaves once information on Zorro's whereabouts is brought to her and offers a public bounty of two hundred pieces of gold for the outlaw. Zorro, however, steals the gold and buys the slaves' freedom himself. Then, on Isabella's birthday, Golle stages a burlesque bullfight in which a child is placed in the ring, hoping to lure Zorro out of hiding. When Isabella pleads with the foppish Diego to save the child, he fights the bull bravely and adeptly, revealing his true virility and love for Isabella. Seeing them kiss, Golle accuses Diego of betraying him, and Diego fends off Golle and his soldiers and escapes. When Zorro's mark is found on Golle's wounded body, Isabella finally realizes Diego is Zorro and escapes from Golle's clutches to capture him, still determined to avenge her father's murder. Golle captures them both, however, and fatally whips Isabella's female companion, planning to blame her death on Zorro. When Zorro finds the woman marred with the same backwards "Z" found on Palma, Isabella finally realizes it was Golle who killed her father. Just as Zorro is about to be hanged, the natives stage an uprising and help him defeat Golle. Zorro's loyal priest then blesses Isabella and Zorro, and the couple falls through the gallows box and kisses.

Plot Keywords

number in title, betrayal, bullfight, burlesque, birthday gift, freedom, bounty, scar, uprising, true love, death of father, manipulative woman, gallows, damsel in distress, mass confusion, happy ending, prison, reprisal, vengeance, double identity

Short Review

This is the worst Zorro movie I've seen yet. While it is not unwatchable, it is certainly not riveting, and I wish that it had been one of those films featuring some descendant far removed from the original Zorro, rather than drag Don Diego's good name into this dismal affair. The use of Don Diego behind the mask has, up to this point, always been a guarantee of a good Zorro story. All it takes is one exception to void that guarantee, and sadly, this is it. While this movie, much to my despair, has the distinction of being the first Zorro adventure of the talkie era, Zorro himself, ironically, never speaks. Another big selling point at the initial release must have been that it was a rare color film of the time, featuring the old two-strip color process, though by Magnacolor, not Technicolor. Regardless, it has survived only in black and white form, and so does not even bear that novelty for us. Zorro's disguise here is not so much a mask as a hood, and not so much a hood as a knotted cloth draped sloppily over his head with two eye holes cut out. He looks a black clad cousin of the killer from The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Also despite complaints of Zorro's lack of screen time in the later production starring Tyrone Power, he is seen even less in this version. There are only a couple of sword fights, both featuring Don Diego, first in his own clothing, then at the end in a dress, having traded clothes with an old woman to escape jail and nearly resulting in the woman's being hung. There is only one real villain here, the commandante, and he is an idiot, as well as fat and clumsy, so there is little tension. The story revolves around Zorro having been framed for the murder of the new governor. You, see, Don Diego was going to out the crooked commandante to the governor, making California a nice place to live again, so the commandante strikes down two birds at once. I don't usually like to spoil the endings, but let me do a favor here for all of you wondering how Zorro clears his name. First Don Diego proves that he can be just as stupid as the commandante, by revealing his true identity to the governor's daughter, who he has fallen in love with, even knowing that she has sworn revenge against Zorro for the death of her father. After it's too late, and all looks darkest, he finally points out to her that he, the real Zorro, always marks his Z's properly, whereas the fat idiot who killed her father carved the Z backwards. Of course by this point they're both in jail, so who cares what she thinks. As I said, it's not unwatchable, by my standards, but I have a lot of patience for books and movies, so I can't in good conscience recommend this one to anybody else. View at your own risk, althought it's only slightly over an hour, so at least you're not losing much.

Trailer

Streaming Service

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