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| The Mark of Zorro (Special Edition) (Colorized / Black and White) | 
 enlarge | Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Actors: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard, Eugene Pallette
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $5.97
You Save: $9.01 (60%)
New (38) Used (16) from $5.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  80 reviews
Sales Rank: 5711
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 93
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: D2230511D
UPC: 024543205111
EAN: 0024543205111
ASIN: B000A9QK8M
Theatrical Release Date: November 8, 1940
Release Date: October 18, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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Amazon.com
When they say they don't make 'em like they used to, they're talking about 20th Century Fox's exhilarating The Mark of Zorro, starring Tyrone Power as the caped one, Linda Darnell as his love interest, and Basil Rathbone at his scurrilous best as Zorro's nemesis. More textured than the 1920 original with Douglas Fairbanks, this 1940 version has Don Diego/Zorro (Powers) returning from Madrid to defend his father and rally the caballeros (noblemen) against Los Angeles's corrupt new governor (J. Edward Bromberg), intent on taxing the peons to death. If this all sounds like an Old California redo of the classic Adventures of Robin Hood, that's because it is. Powers has a field day as Don Diego, the "fancy clown" betrothed to the governor's niece, Lolita (Darnell). Don Diego the effete snob performs silly parlor tricks, peers through pince-nez, and yawns disdainfully at one and all. Power's cowardly alter ego is so believable, his transformation to masked superhero becomes all the more thrilling. Imagine Captain Pasquale's (Rathbone) shock when, in the film's brilliantly choreographed showdown, this annoying fop turns out to be a world-class swordsman. Director Rouben Mamoulian, known for great period melodramas, does a skillful job of alternating garrison intrigue with big action scenes, including a nighttime ride that climaxes with Zorro on horseback leaping off a bridge. In the romantic highlight, Lolita confides her innermost desires to a suspiciously worldly friar. The first-rate supporting cast includes Gale Sondergaard as the governor's treacherous wife and the frog-voiced Eugene Pallette (Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood) as a padre in cahoots with the masked one. Technically, this retelling rates an unqualified "Wow!" The cinematography, obviously influenced by Goya, makes full use of chiaroscuro shadows, and Alfred Newman's Latin-flavored score is irresistibly rousing and romantic. --Glenn Lovell
Description
This swashbuckling remake of the silent classic stars Tyrone Power as the dashing masked avenger who single-handedly saves Los Angeles from Spanish despots. Don Diego Vega (Power) is summoned home from his elite training corps in Spain to California, where he finds his father deposed and the people living in tyranny. Disguised as Zorro, a sword-wielding mystery man dressed in black, he works to restore his father to power and return the tax money stolen by the villains (J. Edward Bromberg, Basil Rathbone). He even finds time to romance the ruling tyrant's beautiful niece (Linda Darnell).
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| Customer Reviews: Read 75 more reviews...
 Classic! December 22, 2008
This edition has been wonderfully restored, though I refused to watch the colorized verison. The movie itself sets the tone for so many other Zorro movies and Power does a great job switching between the two personnas. Of course, the highlight of the film is the sword fight between Power and Rathbone---Both were highly trained in fencing and it shows in the scene---no stuntmen and no long shots. It will spoil you for such battles in other films, where all they did was speed up the film.
Extras---there was an edition of Biography, on Tyrone Power, but that was about it. Sadly, few DVD manufacturers bother to actually spend any time with interviews or the like.
Otherwise, well worth adding to your library.
 Top of the Line, Classic Zorro! December 1, 2008
If you are a fan of Tyrone Power or Basil Rathbone you will love this movie! It is just fun to watch the classic swordmanship of these two actors.
Well worth buying again November 12, 2008
One of the best swashbuckling films ever made, I bought the b&w dvd when it first came out, then when I saw Fox had released a colorized edition, I decided to give it a chance. I was not disappointed. The colorization is excellent and it is like viewing an entirely new film. I've never really understood the complaints the critics have with colorizing some of these older films. If colorizing meant one could never watch the b&w version again then I'd certainly agree, but all colorizing does is allows you to see some of your favorite movies in a different perspective. And as the new 'Special Edition' includes both versions, what's the problem? Now if they would only release the colorized versions of the great Errol Flynn swashbucklers, and Ronald Colman's 'Prisoner of Zenda', my library would be complete.
The Best! August 25, 2008
I saw this version of Zorro when I was a child and fell in love with it. It is one of my favorites!
What a fun movie! August 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
For anyone who hasn't seen the handsome and talented Tyrone Power in action yet, this film would be a great place to start getting acquainted with his impressive body of work. I think I like this film more than the original Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. version of the Zorro story, even though there aren't as many action sequences here. Although while Diego doesn't spend all that much time dressed as Zorro and battling with the bad guys, and the film probably could have been made a bit longer to include more such scenes, I still found it to be a charming story, really drawing the viewer in in spite of how Diego/Zorro spends more time talking than swashbuckling. Tyrone Power is great in each of the three roles he takes on--his original character back in Spain, Zorro, and then the foppishly funny persona he takes on as a means of throwing off suspicions about being Zorro. All of the supporting players are wonderful as well, such as Basil Rathbone as the sleazy and ambitious Esteban, Eugene Pallette as the rotund froggy-voiced Fra Felipe, Gail Sondergaard as the scheming Inez, and J. Edward Bromberg as the hated Quintero. In spite of how the film probably could have been made a bit longer and not suffered any, and how there aren't as many action sequences as one would expect from a Zorro movie, it still works and gets everything resolved in the given timeframe. Nowadays such a film would never be limited to just an hour and a half, as is pointed out in the great audio commentary, since the egos of everyone involved would probably take over and it would be stretched out to at least two hours.
As great as this film is, and as nice as the bonus features are (an audio commentary plus an episode of Biography), one has to wonder why it was made into a two-sided disc. Everything that was on Side A is also on Side B, only Side B has them in the original glorious black and white. In addition to double-sided discs being more prone to scratching and damaging, it's just unnecessary to have included a colorised version of this great film. While Tyrone Power did make quite a few films in color, this wasn't one of them. It might have looked great in color, but it works just as well being in black and white. There are many scenes that have the mood set by the black and white color spectrum, like when Zorro is snuffing out the candles in Quintero's study. They're no longer as effective in artificial computerised color. Every time it seems like the issue of colorising classic films is dead and buried once and for all, something like this comes along, and then a small minority of people happily declares that it looks even better in this fake color and that they don't even want to watch the original black and white.
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