The Mark of Zorro (1940 film)

The Mark of Zorro is a 1940 American adventure film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox. The action movie stars Tyrone Power as Don Diego Vega (Zorro), Linda Darnell as his love interest, and Basil Rathbone as the villain. The cast also includes Gale Sondergaard as the scheming wife of the corrupt local governor, Eugene Pallette as Zorro's local friar, and J. Edward Bromberg as the governor, along with Montagu Love, Janet Beecher, Robert Lowery, and Chris-Pin Martin.

The film was Nominated for Academy Award for the Best original score in the 1941 Academy Awards. In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and will be preserved for all time.

Plot

Based on the story The Curse of Capistrano written by Johnston McCulley, originally published in 1919, which introduced the masked hero Zorro, the movie's story is set in Southern California during the early 19th century. The plot deals with the apparently foppish son of a wealthy ranchero, Don Alejandro Vega (Montagu Love) who returns to California after a sojourn at school in Spain, only to be horrified at the way the common people are being mistreated by alcalde Luis Quintero (J. Edward Bromberg). Don Diego Vega (Tyrone Power) adopts the guise of El Zorro ("Fox"), a Robin Hood-like outlaw who becomes a defender of the people. In the meanwhile,...
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